Second Committee

Determining whether migration was a positive or a negative phenomenon depended on how it was managed, Michelle Klein-Solomon, Permanent Observer of the International Organization for Migration, told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today as it a panel discussion on that subject.

Low productivity, reduced investment, land degradation, water scarcity and climate change had combined to form a “perfect storm” of challenges to the agricultural output of several Member States, General Assembly President Vuk Jeremić (Serbia) told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.

While the revolution in mobile telephony had helped bridge the digital divide, it could not address all the challenges relating to information and communications technology and development, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today.

Full access to information and communications technology would allow developing countries to participate actively in the global economy and harness the benefits of globalization, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today.

Desertification affected one third of the earth’s surface and about 1.5 billion people globally, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) was told today as it continued its general discussion on sustainable development.

The Rio+20 United Nations Conference had been a “crucial milestone” for the international community and had ushered in “a new era of sustainable development”, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today.

There had been deliberate increases in Israeli attacks on Palestinian farmers during the olive-harvesting season, with some 8,000 trees uprooted, burned or destroyed this year alone, the Observer for Palestine told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today as it took up the question of permanent sovereignty of Arab peoples under occupation over their natural resources.

Despite fewer people suffering chronic hunger and a drop in the proportion of the world’s population that was undernourished, gains in tackling hunger and food insecurity were “nowhere near good enough”, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) was told today.

The 2016 habitat world summit — Habitat III — should reinvigorate, at the highest political level, the global commitment to sustainable urban development through the accelerated implementation of a new “Urban Agenda for the 21st Century”, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) was told today.

Any international plan to combat the risks of sovereign debt default must be capable of handling a potential crisis in one of the world’s largest economies, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today.