Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) delegates today expressed concerns about the costs and efficacy of implementing a flexible workplace environment at United Nations Headquarters and welcomed the development of a long-term capital maintenance programme for the Organization as they scrutinized the Secretary-General’s proposals on both topics.
Opening their ninth session, members of the Peacebuilding Commission’s Organizational Committee today elected that body’s 2015 bureau and chairs of its country configurations, as well as discussed its goals for the coming year.
Speakers stressed the importance of transparency, equal opportunities for vendors, and streamlined processes, among other things, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) examined the United Nations efforts to make its procurement activities more efficient.
As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up the topic of “accountability” in its review of the Organization’s efficiency in administrative and financial functioning, delegates welcomed continuing progress and pointed to gaps needing to be addressed.
Despite gains made since the 1995 adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action for Women, a renewed commitment to eliminating inequality was vital to reaching sustainable development goals, senior Government and United Nations officials said as they opened today’s General Assembly thematic debate aimed at inspiring women’s advancement in the run-up to agreement on a post-2015 agenda.
The General Assembly today adopted a resolution encouraging relevant stakeholders to strengthen their efforts to promote peace, human rights, democracy, respect for religious and cultural diversity, and justice through education.
Applauding the start of construction last month of a new facility for the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in the United Republic of Tanzania, Stephen Cutts, Assistant Secretary-General of the Office of Central Support Services, Department of Management, told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) “this is a momentous achievement in the project, and is the result of successfully meeting all planned milestones due to date”.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the first part of its resumed sixty-ninth session today with a review of its 2015 work programme and organization of work, the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015 on programme criticality of safety and security, and of the role of the Joint Inspection Unit.
Covering diverse ground, delegates in the General Assembly today adopted two consensus resolutions by which they first addressed global geospacial information management, and then commemorated the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, a historic event that had brought “untold sorrow” to humanity.
Concluding its annual session today, the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on Strengthening the Role of the Organization adopted its 2015 draft report and forwarded its recommendations to the General Assembly.
