Economic and Social Council

2007 Organizational Session

1^st Meeting (PM)

Economic and Social Council has crucial role in advancing development agenda,

Secretary-General says at meeting to hand over council presidency

Other Speakers Include Incoming, Outgoing Council

Presidents; European Union Group of 77 Representatives

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed today his hope that the Economic and Social Council would take a leading role in promoting the coordination of global efforts to deliver on the United Nations development agenda.

In his remarks at this afternoon’s ceremony to hand over the Council Presidency, the Secretary-General noted that the United Nations had, through a landmark series of global conferences and summits, helped establish an ambitious development agenda emphasizing concrete goals and deliverable results.  While the primary responsibility for achieving those results lay with national Governments, the Economic and Social Council had a crucial role to play, particularly in facilitating effective implementation by Member States.  The New Year presented a “tremendous opportunity” for the Council to advance that role.

Emphasizing the need for a broad-based dialogue on the policy issues affecting multilateral, North-South or South-South development cooperation, he pointed out that the development cooperation landscape had expanded dramatically in recent years to include many new actors, many of which were already engaged with the United Nations at the country level.  The Organization needed to involve all of them at the policy level as well, and the Council’s new Development Cooperation Forum provided a unique global platform to achieve that goal by bringing the discussion on aid and aid effectiveness to a truly multilateral arena, drawing in a range of other stakeholders, from the Bretton Woods institutions and other international organizations to representatives of civil society and the private sector.

In conclusion, he stressed that peace and security remained inseparable from the United Nations development agenda.  The Economic and Social Council already played a significant role in promoting long-term sustainable development in post-conflict societies, and it was now necessary to ensure that its experience and institutional knowledge benefited the work of the new Peacebuilding Commission, with which the Council should have continuous and meaningful engagement.  Together with security and respect for human rights, development for all represented core United Nations aspirations for a peaceful and better world.

Incoming Council President Dalius Čekuolis ( Lithuania), said the progress in poverty reduction owed much to achievements made in East and South-East Asia, while progress in other regions lagged far behind.  Although some countries were succeeding in reducing HIV infection rates, overall rates continued to increase, and the number of people living with the AIDS-causing virus was on the rise.  The epidemic remained centred in sub-Saharan Africa, where many other challenges required urgent attention.

While each country had primary responsibility for its development, those national efforts should be complemented by relevant global policies and programmes, he said.  The Economic and Social Council had an instrumental role to play in making that partnership work on the basis of the various functions it performed.  The Council was a natural platform for connecting the normative and operational work of the United Nations, as well as engaging a broad range of actors that had emerged on the international development cooperation scene.  The Development Cooperation Forum offered, for the first time, a platform for all relevant actors to engage in a dialogue on key policy issues affecting the quality and impact of development aid.  The Forum would bring together developed and developing country partners, as well as bilateral development agencies.

The Council remained the hub of system-wide coordination, a role that was also important for ensuring that Council decisions were implemented throughout the system, he said.  Its coordination segment provided a platform for guiding the United Nations system on those issues.  In 2007 the Council would build on the success of last year’s high-level segment by addressing the theme “Role of the UN system in promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all” at the coordination segment.  The Council provided a venue for connecting with people and promoting open discussion, with broad participation for all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, private sector representatives and academia.  Yet there was still much that it could and should do to engage those actors in its work.

Outgoing President, Ali Hachani (Tunisia) noted that 2006 had been a particularly intense and productive year for the Council as it geared up to perform the new mandates assigned to it by the 2005 World Summit and assessed its work towards advancing the United Nations development agenda.  The Council had striven to further develop and build upon its partnership with the key international development, finance and trade institutions, as a basis for broader and more inclusive global economic decision-making.  The special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had confirmed the Council’s value as a key forum for policymakers.

The Council had also increased coordination with its regional and functional commissions, particularly in the context of the role assigned to them in implementing the Millennium Development Goals, he said.  In addition, the agreement to extend the Council’s Ad Hoc Advisory Groups on Guinea-Bissau and Haiti was a clear recognition of its useful contribution to post-conflict peacebuilding, and interaction with the Peacebuilding Commission would be crucial in that regard.  The Council had also achieved a major breakthrough last year in crystallizing its role and that of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development.

He said the 2005 World Summit had also given the Council new mandates towards becoming the vehicle for building political momentum towards realizing development goals.  Shortly after the General Assembly’s adoption, on 20 November 2006, of resolution 61/16, further defining those mandates, the Council had started preparing for their implementation.  In order to make the Council’s old and new functions operational, it was important to support them with sufficient care and funding, and to give the Bureau the means to carry out its duties.

Pakistan’s representative, speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, said that advancing the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus through the successful convening of the Economic and Social Council Special High-Level Meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization and UNCTAD; the adoption of the Ministerial Declaration on employment generation and decent work for all; the Council’s review of funding for development cooperation and clarifying its role in the follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society were among the Council’s salient achievements in 2006.  Most important, the Council had been at the forefront of efforts to advance the global development agenda.

Germany’s representative, speaking on behalf of the European Union, pledged to work with the new President to advance the strengthening of the Council in implementing the United Nations development agenda and the challenging task of making the new and strengthened Council work.  He reaffirmed the European Union’s traditional commitment to the Council’s work and assured members that it would play a constructive role in forthcoming discussions on how to structure the annual ministerial review and development cooperation forum.

The Council also heard statements by the representatives of Iraq, Mexico and Thailand.

Also today, the Economic and Social Council elected Youcef Yousfi ( Algeria), Lauro L. Baja, Jr. ( Philippines), Leo Merores ( Haiti) and Hjalmar Hannesson ( Iceland) as Vice-Presidents on its Bureau.

Statements concerning the provisional agenda for the 2007 Organizational Session were made by the delegations of Germany, on behalf of the European Union, and Pakistan, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.  Following a brief discussion, the Council decided to defer consideration of the provisional agenda until its next meeting, to be held on Monday, 22 January.

Before concluding the meeting, the President drew lots to determine seating arrangements for the 54 Council Members for the 2007 session.  As a result, the seating arrangements of the Council for 2007 would be in alphabetical order, beginning with South Africa.

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For information media • not an official record