Economic and Social Council: Meetings Coverage

Improving global health required a life-cycle approach, providing essential health services in an integrated package that included maternal, newborn and child health, sexual and reproductive health, and adequate budgeting for HIV/AIDS and malaria, United Nations experts stressed today as the Economic and Social Council opened its coordination segment under the theme of “implementing the internationally agreed development goals and commitments in regard to global public health”.

Reaffirming the vital role of women as agents of development, the ministers and heads of delegations participating in the high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council’s 2010 substantive session declared today that gender equality, empowerment of women, the full enjoyment of their human rights, and the eradication of poverty were essential to socio-economic development, including achievement of all of the Millennium Development Goals.

In parallel meetings today, the Economic and Social Council wrapped up its Annual Ministerial Review, spotlighting actions and progress aimed at achieving the global agenda on women’s issues, as it also began its general debate, which heard nearly 50 Government delegations outline their efforts to promote higher standards of living, full employment and socio-economic progress — particularly for women and girls — at home and abroad.

The Economic and Social Council today closed its second Development Cooperation Forum amid calls for a “desperately needed” road map to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and an understanding of areas where attaining the targets would have a multiplier effect, whether by investing in women and girls or supporting capacity for domestic resource allocation.

Amid what many speakers called a complex economic and financial climate, the Economic and Social Council today launched its second Development Cooperation Forum, built around multi-stakeholder dialogues covering various types of global development cooperation, aid allocation and effectiveness, and policy coherence.

Tackling complex development issues required pragmatic decision-making, the President of the Economic and Social Council said today, challenging diplomats to come up with straightforward solutions to the need for higher standards of living and greater socio-economic progress, especially for women, as the 54-member body opened the high-Level segment of its 2010 substantive session.

Meeting in a special event on the beleaguered nation of Haiti today, the Economic and Social Council heard updates on the start-up last week of the Interim Haitian Reconstruction Commission and the steering committee for its companion fund, and considered ways to optimize the coordination and coherence of its own actions for the country, which first found its way onto the Council’s agenda in 1999.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) concluded its 2010 resumed session today by adopting its draft report, with the understanding that it would be finalized with the Secretariat’s support and in consultation with Committee members, as appropriate.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today suspended its 2010 resumed session when it ran out of time to complete consideration of its report; it agreed to ask the Committee on Conferences for additional meeting time in order to wrap up its business for the year.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) today recommended sevenentities for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, postponed its consideration of 32 applications, and closed three others. It also suspended 77 organizations which failed to complete reporting requirements, and one more on the basis of a written complaint by the delegation of Turkey.