The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) held an exceptional one‑day 2020 resumed session today owing to the COVID‑19 pandemic, during which it recommended suspending the consultative status of 187 organizations with the Economic and Social Council due to their failure to provided quadrennial reports for a specified period.
The Economic and Social Council adopted the provisional agenda for the 2021 session of the Committee on Non‑Governmental Organizations today, adopting a decision that adjusts the subsidiary body’s meeting schedule in response to the impact of the COVID‑19 pandemic.
With the world still deep in the grip of COVID‑19, many countries find themselves no more than a crisis or two away from sliding into conflict, speakers warned today during a virtual joint meeting of the Economic and Social Council and the Peacebuilding Commission that focused on ways to forge solidarity and develop conflict-sensitive responses to the worst global pandemic in a century.
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Joint Meeting of the Economic and Social Council and the Peacebuilding Commission, “Fostering global solidarity in response to coherent and conflict sensitive responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and its socioeconomic impacts”, held on 19 November:
Significant investment in infrastructure will be needed to ensure that developing countries can fully recover from the COVID‑19 pandemic, speakers told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) and Economic and Social Council today as they held a joint meeting titled “Developing sustainable infrastructure and utilizing science and technology in response to COVID‑19”.
The Economic and Social Council, holding the first plenary meeting of its 2021 session in the General Assembly Hall today, adopted four resolutions and one decision, took note of more than 50 texts adopted by the silence procedure during COVID-19-related restrictions at Headquarters and filled subsidiary body vacancies, but failed to agree on a draft ministerial declaration on sustainable development ahead of the Decade of Action on achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Economic and Social Council’s mandate remains as relevant as ever, encompassing the three simultaneous global challenges Member States are facing — the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the existential threat of the climate catastrophe — its newly elected President said today at the first meeting of its 2021 organizational session, held via videoconference due to COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions at United Nations Headquarters.
The Economic and Social Council’s high-level segment concluded on 17 July with calls to strengthen multilateralism and forge an inclusive path to recover better from the COVID-19 pandemic, yet failed to adopt a Ministerial Declaration approved at the closing of its 2020 high-level political forum session, held from 7 to 17 July via videoconference due to coronavirus-related restrictions at United Nations Headquarters.
Continuing its 2020 Management Segment in a virtual format today, the Economic and Social Council heard updates from across the spectrum of its subsidiary bodies, each of which have grappled with the pervasive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it considered reports on the recent work of committees ranging from the Commission on the Status of Women to the United Nations Forum on Forests.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council on the theme “Multilateralism after COVID-19: What Kind of UN Do We Need at the 75th Anniversary?”, in New York today:
