Economic and Social Council

As Member States discussed ways to envelop the pressing needs of an ageing population that could reach 1.6 billion in the developing world by 2050, the Commission on Social Development today heard three experts lay out ways in which social protection measures could shield individuals and their families from the most severe economic shocks emanating from a financial crisis.

Stressing that social security was a human right, a senior ILO official today spotlighted the issue of social protection and its importance in poverty eradication at a Headquarters press conference on a United Nations-backed programme aimed at promoting investment in and access to essential services and social transfers for poor and vulnerable communities.

Warning of the social costs to economic growth, such as social unrest and protests, and exclusion of the most vulnerable segments of society, the United Nations Independent Expert on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty told the Commission for Social Development today that the only way to ensure that growth benefited the poor was to include in it a human rights component.

As Governments around the world mapped out strategies that would truly help reduce the ranks of hundreds of millions of people living in abject poverty, the United Nations Commission for Social Development today heard four anti-poverty experts offer ways to keep the ranks of people living without adequate food, clothing and shelter from swelling.

In striving to improve the lot of the world’s poorest people and achieve sustainable development for all, the international community must recognize that its far-reaching goals would remain elusive unless it tackled unemployment among the youngest members of society, the United Nations Commission for Social Development heard today as it opened its forty-ninth session.

Wrapping up its 2011 regular session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended special consultative status for 24 entities to the Economic and Social Council, boosting the session to a record 112 organizations that had been recommended for status, said the Committee’s Chairman.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended six entities for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and postponed consideration of 25 applications in the penultimate day of its 2011 regular session, which heard extensive debate over the appropriate rights and procedures required to pose questions to groups seeking standing in the 19-member body.

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 Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 13 entities for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, postponed consideration of six applications and took note of 210 quadrennial reports, or “briefs” submitted by NGOs every four years outlining their activities in support of the Council and, more broadly, the United Nations.

As it concluded its ninth session this afternoon, the United Nations Forum on Forests strongly urged the international community to use the International Year of Forests, 2011, to raise awareness of the diverse benefits of woodlands to human life and to accelerate their sustainable management.