Expanding the United Nations’ partnerships — with Governments, business, the philanthropic community, civil society and academia — would be central to effectively implement the new development agenda, Martin Sajdik, President of the Economic and Social Council, told the 54-member body today, as delegates evaluated how to harness their potential, including by setting up voluntary review mechanisms to assess results.
A truly transformative post-2015 agenda demanded adaptation and change from the United Nations development system across the board, the President of the Economic and Social Council said today, as debate concluded on improving the Organization’s internal processes and external interventions designed to help countries strengthen national institutions and improve peoples’ well-being.
While “sprinting towards the last mile” in achieving targets set out under the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations must also prepare for the “marathon” challenge of improving life for the most vulnerable in the post-2015 era, said the heads of the Organization’s Funds and Programmes in a dialogue with the Economic and Social Council today.
While huge efforts had been made to adapt the development system to evolving country needs, the United Nations must use its credibility, impartiality and access to specialized knowledge more effectively in order to deliver fit-for-purpose results over the next 15 years, the Economic and Social Council heard today, as it opened its 2015 operational activities segment.
Concluding its fifty-third session today, the Commission for Social Development approved by consensus four draft resolutions for adoption by the Economic and Social Council that addressed issues of African development, ageing, youth and the rights of persons with disabilities.
The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today concluded its regular session with the adoption of its report, in which it recommended that the Economic and Social Council grant consultative status to 124 of the 330 applicants it considered during its session.
Twenty years after the landmark “Copenhagen Summit”, speakers in the Commission for Social Development today called for transformative public policies that supported a rights-based vision of a world which uplifted living standards for society’s most neglected while recognizing the vast differences among countries’ abilities to bring about that worthy goal.
Social protections, inclusive employment and equal access to education were essential for ensuring that people with disabilities remained at the heart of development efforts in the post-2015 era, the Special Rapporteur on Persons with Disabilities told the Commission on Social Development today, outlining priorities for her three-year tenure since the establishment of her mandate by the Human Rights Council last December.
Amid widening inequalities both within and among countries, delegates in the Commission for Social Development today tackled the perceived trade-off between economic growth and social progress, debating ways to design policies that could improve overall well-being without sacrificing the productivity that allowed their communities to flourish.
The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today concluded substantive work of its 2015 regular session with the presentation of the body’s draft report, which will be finalized for adoption next week.
