Second Committee Introduces Five Draft Resolutions, Discusses Revitalizing Work of General Assembly

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this morning to introduce five draft resolutions, including a new text on “Financial inclusion for sustainable development”.

By the terms of that text, the Committee would have the General Assembly decide to give appropriate consideration to financial inclusion in the follow-up and review framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, working in a coherent and integrated manner with the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, the Economic and Social Council and all other relevant organs and forums.

Introducing that draft (document A/C.2/70/L.36), the representative of South Africa, speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, said that it was necessary to align the work of the Second Committee on issues pertaining to financial inclusion and the resolution would bridge that gap in the Committee’s agenda.

He also introduced draft resolutions on the “Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its contribution to sustainable development” (document A/C.2/70/L.39); “Implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and strengthening of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)” (document A/C.2/70/L.35); “Science and technology for development” (document A/C.2/70/L.40); and “Development cooperation with middle-income countries” (document A/C.2/70/L.38).

On the subject of revitalizing the work of the Committee, the Chair stated that it was necessary to consider its methods of work and organization of the agenda, as well as the relevance and impact of its work.

In the ensuing discussion, the European Union’s delegate highlighted some proposals, such as avoiding proliferation of resolutions at the sub-item level and the merger of resolutions into clusters.

The representative of the United States, speaking on behalf of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Iceland, Norway, Israel and Switzerland, stressed that “all the negotiators are exhausted”.  Many new resolutions had been introduced after the deadline and it was important to consider the priorities and resources of the Committee.

Concluding, the Chair added that he would, in early 2016, present a very short and procedural draft decision on the topic.