Economic issues

In any country, the devastating legacy of conflict — death, disease, population displacement and capital flight — could erase hard-won development gains and States emerging from such situations must manage myriad and often competing priorities in order to meet all eight of the Millennium Development Goals, high-level United Nations officials stressed today.

In a world virtually ruled by new technologies and with millions of people obsessed with instant access to information through mobile networks and the Internet, cybersecurity must be placed high on the United Nations agenda, warned Economic and Social Council Vice-President Somduth Soborun of Mauritius.

Expressing grave concern at the increasing number of people affected by humanitarian emergencies, including those associated with natural hazards, the Economic and Social Council today pressed the United Nations, on one hand, to strengthen humanitarian capacities by transferring technology and expertise to developing nations, and urged Member States to develop disaster preparedness and risk reduction measures, on the other.

With natural disasters increasing in frequency and complicated, multiparty conflicts hampering the delivery of humanitarian assistance and endangering relief workers, senior United Nations officials joined diplomats today in stressing the urgent need for early preparedness and timely, predictable and coordinated efforts to respond to growing demands for effective humanitarian assistance.

Six months after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake ravaged Port-au-Prince and left some 1.6 million Haitians homeless, less than 2 per cent of the $10 billion pledged to help rebuild the country had been received, according to the Haitian Government’s Special Envoy to the Secretary-General, who addressed the Economic and Social Council today in a joint event of its operational and humanitarian segments, on transitioning from relief to development in the Caribbean nation.

Enhanced coordination was essential not only for the United Nations system to provide quality support for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals at the national level, but also to streamline relevant efforts, avoid duplication, lower transaction costs, and simplify reporting methods, senior officials from the world body’s funds and programmes stressed today, as the Economic and Social Council continued its operational activities segment.

The demands of least-developed, developing and middle-income countries required a broad mix of capacities from the United Nations, and the Organization had to evolve in its response to such new and unique needs, national policymakers stressed today as the Economic and Social Council weighed efforts to improve overall development cooperation.

Globalization had created a complex interdependence across countries, with many developing nations emerging as powerful players on the world stage, and there was now an urgent need to reflect those changes in the structures and practices of global economic governance, delegates stressed today as the Economic and Social Council continued consideration of those and related issues on day three of its coordination segment.

With the world economy still reeling from the profound repercussions of the global economic crisis, which had rocked financial markets in the North and threatened to reverse recent gains in developing countries, the Economic and Social Council today examined the United Nations short- and long-term response, which was seen as critical to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Improving global health required a life-cycle approach, providing essential health services in an integrated package that included maternal, newborn and child health, sexual and reproductive health, and adequate budgeting for HIV/AIDS and malaria, United Nations experts stressed today as the Economic and Social Council opened its coordination segment under the theme of “implementing the internationally agreed development goals and commitments in regard to global public health”.