Second Committee

Looking to move forward on agreements made at the Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries in Istanbul, delegates in the General Assembly’s Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today stressed the need for full implementation of the Programme of Action to address the many challenges and vulnerabilities still facing least developed countries, small island developing States, and landlocked developing countries.

While there was no longer any doubt that globalization was impacting every country on the planet, the costs and benefits of this new era of interconnectedness should be more equally shared, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) said today as they took up their agenda item on globalization and interdependence.

With nearly 1.5 billion people still living in absolute poverty, eradication efforts had not succeeded and it remained the most significant challenge facing humankind, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) said today.

Global economic recovery remained “very vulnerable to further negative shocks”, a panel of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials told the Second Committee (Financial and Economic) today during a briefing on the outcome of the 2011 annual meetings of the Bretton Woods institutions.

The current global financial crisis should in no way impact upon the delivery of official development assistance pledges, and more must be done to meet those commitments, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) stressed today.

Concerned that the global economic crisis would take its toll on official development assistance (ODA) from the developed world, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today looked to the great potential existing in the global South, while also calling for greater balance in the core and non‑core resources of United Nations operational activities for development.

Amid the urgent global need for jobs, there was a growing consensus that rebuilding the link between markets and people was necessary for the creation of a new model of political commitment to production and employment growth, a senior official with UN Women told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.

Although cautious optimism had prevailed at the time of drafting the Secretary-General’s report on external debt sustainability, it had since dissipated in the face of the global economic deterioration, a senior official of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today, as it began its consideration of macroeconomic policy questions.

While multilateralism had never been more vital, “inertia and deadlock prevailed on critical issues”, the representative of Guyana told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today as it concluded its general debate.

Although the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) region had enjoyed a “golden decade” of growth and development in the late 1990s and up to 2008, it had been hit harder by the “great recession” than any other, Executive Secretary Ján Kubiš told the Second Committee today.