Economic and Social Council

Meeting briefly today, the Commission for Social Development took up a number of issues that would set the tone for its upcoming work and, more broadly, allow it to engage in more relevant ways within the United Nations system, especially the Economic and Social Council, whose principal role in the follow-up to major United Nations meetings was elevated by the landmark 2012 Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development.

Integrating the three pillars of sustainable development into United Nations development efforts would underpin the work of the Economic and Social Council in 2013, the organ’s newly elected President said at Headquarters today.

With an estimated 75 million young people out of work around the world — nearly one in four in some parts — rapid action was needed to stimulate job creation, give young people and other excluded groups a voice in decision-making and institute schemes for social protection floors, the Commission for Social Development heard today as it continued its fifty-first session.

Seizing the “strategic and unique” opportunities before the Economic and Social Council could make 2013 an “historic year” for the body, its President said today as he called on delegations to work together on a results-oriented agenda that would both strengthen the Council and enhance its contribution to United Nations-backed sustainable development processes now getting under way.

The High-level General Assembly Meeting on Disability and Development — to be held in September — would provide an historic opportunity to chart the way towards a truly inclusive development agenda while empowering the world’s 1 billion disabled persons as both agents and beneficiaries of change, the Commission for Social Development heard today as it moved into week two of its fifty-first session.

Faced with expanding inequality and widening gaps between rich and poor, world leaders poised to devise a new development agenda for the post-2015 era should embark upon a “new discussion” about the often-neglected social dimension of sustainable development, speakers urged today as the Commission for Social Development continued its fifty-first session.

Wrapping up the first part of its regular session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today adopted its draft 2013 report, which contains the list of 159 NGOs recommended for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.

Governments must promote policies aimed at providing decent jobs as protection against poverty — which a delegate described as “the source of all ills”, including poor health and stalled economic growth — the Commission for Social Development heard today as it explored linkages between empowerment and poverty eradication.

With the world at a critical juncture in the lead-up to the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda, poverty eradication, social integration and employment must play a pivotal role in defining that agenda, the Commission for Social Development heard today as it resumed its fifty-first session.

Giving the poorest and most vulnerable the voice and tools needed to lift themselves out of poverty is key to bolstering efforts towards and beyond the achievement of global development goals, according to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on promoting people’s empowerment, the priority theme of the Commission on Social Development’s fifty-first session when it meets from 6 to 15 February at United Nations Headquarters.