Economic issues

Opening its regular session for 2012, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, which is responsible for vetting applications seeking consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, today recommended special consultative status for 47 organizations, all but three of which were based in countries in the global South.

As the United Nations embarked on an important year of milestone events, Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon said today that the work of the Economic and Social Council — the central forum for discussing and coordinating action on such issues as sustainable development, disaster risk reduction, and economic growth — would be vital in realizing his vision of global “solidarity for an era of austerity and uncertainty”.

Concluding its session today, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved three draft resolutions, including one on information and communications technology for development, by which the General Assembly would stress that the development promise of science and technology remained unfilled for the majority of the poor.

The General Assembly would stress the importance of continuing to consider the issue of development cooperation with middle-income countries, according to one of six draft resolutions that the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved by consensus today.

Resuming its 2011 substantive session, the Economic and Social Council today adopted two draft texts, including one on small island developing States, and filled vacancies on seven subsidiary bodies, including the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).

The General Assembly would stress the need for active measures to reduce excessive food-price volatility, while acknowledging the incomplete understanding of its causes and the importance of carrying out more research, according to one of five draft resolutions that the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved by consensus today.

The General Assembly would urge the international community to adopt urgent measures to eliminate the use of unilateral coercive economic measures against developing countries as they were inconsistent with the principles of international law and the multilateral trading system, according to one of 14 draft resolutions approved by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.

The General Assembly would urge States and international organizations to protect coral reefs and related ecosystems while implementing integrated and comprehensive approaches to their management, according to one of 12 texts approved without a vote in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.

The General Assembly would demand that Israel stop exploiting, damaging, depleting, and endangering the natural resources in occupied Arab lands, according to the terms of one of seven draft resolutions approved today by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

More than 10 years after the Monterrey Consensus was adopted, most countries remained well short of allocating 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) to official development assistance (ODA), and sharp reductions planned in response to the global economic and financial crisis made for a bleak forecast of future growth in foreign aid, the President of the Economic and Social Council told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.