Amid widening inequalities both within and among countries, delegates in the Commission for Social Development today tackled the perceived trade-off between economic growth and social progress, debating ways to design policies that could improve overall well-being without sacrificing the productivity that allowed their communities to flourish.
Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks on the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the World Summit for Social Development, in New York today:
“People-centred” development, brought to prominence at the 1995 World Summit on Social Development, remained especially critical today, as Governments, civil society and the United Nations itself worked to finalize the next generation of international targets meant to improve peoples’ lives, the Commission for Social Development heard, as it moved into day three of its fifty-third session.
Building on the dynamic momentum leading up to the adoption of new post-2015 goals, delegates debated ways to fine-tune a transformative people-centred approach to sustainable development that would leave no one behind, as the Commission on Social Development opened the second meeting of its fifty-third session today.
Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the World Family Summit +10, as delivered by Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), held in Zhuhai, China from 2 to 4 December:
The Commission for Social Development concluded its fifty-second session today with the approval of six draft resolutions for adoption by the Economic and Social Council that addressed issues of empowerment, older persons and the family, as well as one text that would hone the Commission’s own focus on visual health.
A lack of data, inadequate monitoring and evaluation of social programmes, as well as a dearth of trained professionals hindered the achievement of social development objectives, the Commission tasked with advancing those goals heard today, as it wrapped up its substantive work for the session with discussions on issues affecting vulnerable social groups.
The impact of social factors on sustainable development and the critical role of families were the focus of two panel discussions today in the Commission for Social Development as its first week drew to a close.
Employment remained a challenge for persons with disabilities in many countries, a United Nations expert told the Commission for Social Development, as some delegations described national achievements in that field.
