Economic and Social Council: Press Release

Following are Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks at an informal briefing to the Economic and Social Council on progress in implementing General Assembly resolution 64/289 on system-wide coherence, in New York, 17 February:

The Commission for Social Development will review global efforts to eradicate poverty when it meets at United Nations Headquarters from 9 to 18 February.

The International Year of Forests — a year-long celebration of the vital role that forests play in people’s lives — will be launched on 2 February, at a ceremony attended by world leaders, Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai and United Nations forest experts. Global observance of the Year comes amid growing recognition of the role that forests managed in a sustainable manner play in everything from mitigating climate change to providing wood, medicines and livelihoods for people around the world.

Strategies that can help the world’s forests to promote social development, livelihoods and poverty eradication will be the focus of the United Nations Forum on Forests, which will meet from 24 January to 4 February. The Forum, which consists of all 192 Members of the United Nations, aims to emphasize the role and needs of people who depend on forests at a time when unsustainable practices and economic crises continue to threaten healthy forests.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks to the organizational session of the Economic and Social Council, in New York, today, 19 January:

Increased globalization, urbanization and rising prosperity around the world are taking an ever greater toll on the world’s ecosystems, according to two reports issued to coincide with the opening of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.

Achieving green growth through better management of materials throughout their life cycle will be central to this year’s session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. The Commission, which will take place in New York from 3 to 14 May, starts a new two-year cycle that will review waste management, transport, chemicals, mining and the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production.

The impacts of development policies on indigenous peoples’ culture and identity will be the focus of a two-week meeting beginning Monday, 19 April, at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Effective participation and consultation of indigenous peoples is central to such policies.

As mortality declined in most countries during the twentieth century, life expectancy has risen in all world regions, the United Nations reports, ahead of an intergovernmental meeting on population and development next week in New York. From 47 years in 1950-1955, global life expectancy increased sharply to 68 years in 2005-2010.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks to the Special High-Level Meeting of the Economic and Social Council with the Bretton Woods institutions, World Trade Organization and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in New York today, 18 March: