Economic and Social Council Concludes Coordination, Management Segment, Adopting Texts on Gender Mainstreaming, Situation of Palestinian Women
Concluding a three-day coordination and management segment, the Economic and Social Council today adopted six texts, including one resolution on mainstreaming a gender perspective across the United Nations system.
Acting without a vote, the Council adopted a draft resolution titled “Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system”, as orally revised. By the text, the Council urged, among other things, intensifying and continuing efforts to mainstream a gender perspective, including increasing resource allocations commensurate with gender equality goals, into all policies and programmes of the United Nations.
Turning to a report on the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held 21 March 2014 and from 9 to 20 March 2015, the Council adopted, by a recorded vote of 16 in favour to 2 against (Australia, United States), with 20 abstentions, a draft resolution titled “Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women”. It also adopted a draft decision taking note of the report of the Commission and approved the provisional agenda for its sixtieth session
In other action, the Council adopted, without a vote, texts on the report of the Committee for Development Policy, 2020 World Population and Housing Census Programme, and a decision on the report of the Statistical Commission on its forty-sixth session and the provisional agenda and dates for the forty-seventh session.
The Council also heard presentations from heads of committees and commissions.
John Pullinger, Chair of the Statistics Commission, made a presentation via videoconference from the United Kingdom on its work, highlighting the main decisions taken by the Commission. José Antonio Ocampo, Chair of the Committee for Development Policy, introduced the body’s report on its seventeenth session from 23 to 27 March.
Thomas Gass, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Interagency Affairs, presented a report of the Secretary-General on mainstreaming of the three dimensions of sustainable development throughout the United Nations system and highlighted key findings.
The Council also held a dialogue with Simona Petrova, Acting Secretary of the United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination, who introduced the annual overview report of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination for 2014.
Lastly, the Council approved a list of non-governmental organizations recommended by the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations
Also delivering statements today were the representatives of Japan and the United Kingdom (on behalf of the European Union).
The Council will hold the next coordination and management segment on Monday, 20 July to Wednesday, 22 July 2015 to consider all outstanding items on its agenda.
Statistics
Considering the report of the Statistics Commission’s forty-sixth session from 3 to 6 March (document E/2015/24), the Council took action on the recommendations contained therein.
JOHN PULLINGER, Chair of the Statistics Commission, made a presentation via videoconference from the United Kingdom on its work, highlighting the main decisions taken by the Commission. Among them were endorsing a road map for a global indicator framework and an expert group, which had already met in New York and would meet again in October. The Commission also discussed big data and the data revolution and had produced a draft resolution on the 2020 world population and housing census, he said, inviting the body to adopt that text.
Other areas under the Commission’s consideration during its latest session included governance, peace and security statistics alongside recurring issues, such as trade, globalization and rural statistics, he said. On 3 June, the General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/69/282 that recognized the celebration of the second World Statistics Day. That resolution also decided to recognize the observance of the day on 20 October under the general theme “Better data, better lives”.
The Council then adopted, without a vote, the draft resolution, titled “2020 World Population and Housing Census Programme”, and a draft decision, titled “Report of the Statistical Commission on its forty-sixth session and the provisional agenda and dates for the forty-seventh session of the Commission”.
Sustainable Development
JOSÉ ANTONIO OCAMPO, Chair of the Committee for Development Policy, introduced the body’s report on its seventeenth session from 23 to 27 March (document E/2015/33).
The representative of Myanmar said that the country’s prevailing political and socioeconomic developments and its good economic performance had boosted confidence in its ability to graduate from the current least developed countries status in accordance with the Istanbul Programme of Action, which stated that half of those countries would be able to meet the graduation criteria by 2020. The Government had formed a Committee for Least Developed Country Graduation Status and was drafting a master plan to that end. According to the Development Policy Committee’s report, Myanmar had made substantial progress in all three criteria. It was above the human asset index threshold, with the other two, namely gross national income per capita and the economic vulnerability index, remaining below their thresholds. If the development progress was maintained over the next years, it could meet the criteria.
The representative of Republic of Korea introduced draft resolution E/2015/L.13, titled “Report of the Committee for Development Policy”, by which the Council endorsed the recommendation of that Committee that Angola be graduated from the least developed country category and recommended that the General Assembly take note of that.
Also by the terms of the text, the Council called upon the Committee to continue to give due consideration to the unique and particular vulnerabilities of small island developing States in the least developed country category and to continue to monitor, on a regular basis, and together with their Governments, the progress of those States that have graduated from the least developed country status, and reaffirmed the commitment expressed in the Small Island Developing States Accelerated Modalities of Action, known as the SAMOA Pathway, to take urgent and concrete action to address the vulnerability of small island developing States.
Acting without a vote, the Council adopted the text.
Reports of Coordination Bodies
The Council took up the annual overview report of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination for 2014 (document E/2015/71).
The Council then began a dialogue with Simona Petrova, acting Secretary of the United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination. Ms. Petrova presented the report, highlighting main points of the Board’s work during the reporting period and on its first regular session for 2015 held in Paris in April. “As the international community continues to face a broad range of complex global challenges, effective and coordinated action is essential if the United Nations system is to deliver results that meet countries’ needs,” she said, emphasizing the Board’s focus on fostering policy coherence and coordination to support Member States’ priorities.
Among actions taken in 2014, it had promoted system-wide preparations for and follow-up to United Nations conferences and summits and strengthened policy coherence and coordination, particularly in the areas of urbanization, youth employment, cybercrime, cybersecurity and climate change, she said.
Accelerating implementation of the Millennium Development Goals was another key priority in 2014, she said, noting that the Board had examined progress in Benin, Colombia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Pakistan, Philippines and Yemen. Continuing that work at its April 2015 session, the Board had, since the initiative began, reviewed a total of 16 countries and one subregion.
In 2014, the Board addressed a number of areas, including enhancing United Nations system-wide coordination and policy coherence in support of preparations for the post-2015 development agenda and for climate action, she said. In support of the Organization’s approach for a data revolution, the Board’s High-level Committee on Management was compiling a central catalogue, with a view to provide improved understanding and offering the public a current inventory of all open data assets published by the United Nations system.
In the ensuing dialogue, the United States’ representative said with regard to procurement practices, the work was leading to considerable savings. Her delegations would like the Board to encourage the system to use United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) for procurement needs. The High-level Committee on Management had dedicated significant resources towards efforts in “Delivering as One” and operational efficiency could be seen in areas including foreign currency exchange rates, she said, encouraging more countries to adopt those measures.
Requests from Non-Governmental Organizations
The Council approved the list of non-governmental organizations contained in document E/2015/80.
Sustainable Development
The Council considered a report of the Secretary-General on mainstreaming of the three dimensions of sustainable development throughout the United Nations system (document A/70/75-E/2015/55).
THOMAS GASS, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Interagency Affairs, introduced the report and highlighted key findings. The report recognized the tremendous impetus to the United Nations system provided by the post-2015 development agenda. A strong analytical collaboration supported the new sustainable development goals. The report contained a number of recommendations, including that the United Nations system could make further efforts to align strategic plans with the new goals. He also encouraged the Organization to advance sustainability within the system.
Providing an overview of progress achieved with regard to implementing the SAMOA Pathway outcome document, he said the International Year of Small Island Developing States, concluded in February 2015, had aimed at raising global awareness of the sustainable development challenges facing those countries. As such, the SAMOA Pathway had become an important element in the strategic plans and work programmes and investment of the organizations of the United Nations system, and of regional and global intergovernmental groups.
Ongoing efforts focused on economic growth, trade, data and statistics, oceans and climate change, he said. It also addressed disaster risk reduction and energy. A series of recommendations had been made, including formal an informal steering group to guide follow-up activities on partnerships and organizing dialogues as a launch pad for new joint efforts.
Gender Perspective
Acting without a vote, the Council adopted draft resolution E/2015/L.11, titled “Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system”, as orally revised. By the text, the Council urged, among other things, intensifying and continuing efforts to mainstream a gender perspective, including increasing resource allocations commensurate with gender equality goals, into all policies and programmes of the United Nations.
Prior to action, the representative of the United Kingdom, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said that last-minute changes to the text prevented programme budgetary implications from arising as a result of adopting the text, and called for more clarity on such implications in future negotiations.
The representative of Japan supported the view expressed by the delegate of the United Kingdom.
Women and Development
Turning to a report on the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held 21 March 2014 and from 9 to 20 March 2015 (document E/2015/27), the Council adopted a draft resolution, titled “Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women”, by a recorded vote of 16 in favour to 2 against (Australia, United States), with 20 abstentions.
In a draft decision, the Council took note of the report of the Commission and approved the provisional agenda for its sixtieth session.