Economic issues

During the second day of deliberations at its 2011 session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) recommended special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council for 17 organizations and roster status for one, while it postponed consideration of 39 other applications pending receipt of additional information from the civil society groups.

Recalling that civil society involvement in the 2010 Millennium Development Goals summit this past September had influenced the outcome of that gathering of world leaders, Nikhil Seth, Director, Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, stressed time management in the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations as the key to coping with the increasing enthusiasm of such groups wishing to work more closely with the United Nations.

This year would be an important one for the United Nations and its work around the world, and the Economic and Social Council would be an important actor in addressing the eight strategic opportunities identified by the Secretary-General as capable of reaping the greatest gains, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said today.

Concluding its 2010 substantive session, the Economic and Social Council today elected members to some of its subsidiary bodies, adopted one draft resolution and postponed consideration of several other items until next year’s session.

Concerned over the persistent backlog of reports of States parties awaiting consideration, the Economic and Social Council today adopted a resolution asking its Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to improve its working methods in order to enable the Council to determine how to address that backlog, including by temporarily giving it more time if necessary, and to report back to the Council’s July 2011 session on efforts to do so.

Concluding its sixty-fifth session today, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved 15 draft resolutions, including one on agriculture development and food security, by which the General Assembly would stress the need to enhance production, productivity and sustainability, while calling for the timely realization of the 2009 G-8 commitment to mobilize $20 billion over three years for sustainable agricultural development.

The General Assembly would stress the importance of responsible borrowing and lending, while urging all lenders and borrowers to integrate debt sustainability analyses into their decisions in order to help maintain sustainable debt levels through a coordinated and cooperative approach, according to one of seven draft resolutions that the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved by consensus today.

The General Assembly would encourage Member States to approach the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico, with a view to achieving a substantive, balanced and ambitious outcome,according to one of seven draft resolutions approved by consensus today in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

The global economic and financial crisis had highlighted the need to reform the international financial system and architecture, and added a new impetus to ongoing international discussions on that subject, the General Assembly would stress, according to one of three draft resolutions approved without a vote by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.

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