| Highlights from Friday, 1 July 2005 |
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Web Archives: Wednesday 29 June Thursday 30 June |
ECOSOC HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT ENDS
ECOSOC's 2005 High-level Segment closed shortly after 7pm on Friday evening, 1 July. The meeting concluded without the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration, with ECOSOC’s President Arkam noting in the closing plenary that negotiators did not appear to be ready at this stage to formalize agreements ahead of the upcoming UN General Assembly High-level Plenary – or “2005 World Summit” – taking place in September 2005. Although the meeting did not produce a Ministerial Declaration, a summary of the meeting will be prepared by the ECOSOC President as a contribution to preparations for the September Summit. Delegates attending Friday's ECOSOC sessions also heard more official statements on achieving the internationally-agreed development goals, and convened in a panel session on the response of the UN Chief Executives Board of Coordination to the Millennium Declaration. A panel with the Chairs of the Commissions on the Status of Women, Social Development, and Population and Development also took place. |
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ECOSOC President Munir Akram (Pakistan) informed delegates that, while the usual procedure for a High-level Segment is to adopt a declaration, it had proved difficult to reach agreement at this meeting. He suggested that some delegations might be concerned that formulating an agreement now could be prejudicial to formulations that happen at the UN General Assembly High-level Plenary/World Summit in September 2005, and that it was perhaps not appropriate at this stage to compel countries to take formal positions on some of the key issues. He added that such a declaration would in any case be unlikely to capture the “breadth, depth and richness” of the discussions and recommendations during the past three days. Instead of a declaration, he indicated that he intended to prepare a President's summary of the High-level Segment, which he said would serve as input to the preparatory process for the September Summit. |
Reflecting on the meeting, President Akram said delegates had experienced an intense and productive few days. In particular, he highlighted several key issues that had emerged, including recognition that:
the MDGs, together with major outcomes of key UN conferences and summits, constitute a comprehensive development agenda for the international community;
the main challenge we face now is not one of conception but ensuring implementation of this development agenda;
overall progress in the achievement of the goals has been uneven, both in terms of the goals and by region;
there is a new spirit and sense of positivity that should be carried through into September, as demonstrated in the recent EU announcement on ODA and G8 decision on debt relief; and finally,
ECOSOC has rediscovered its role as the central UN body for promoting economic and social development, and the only place where all key actors, governments, international agencies, civil society and business groups can come together and talk openly about achieving a common agenda. |
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Panel presentations on the response of the Chief Executive Board to the Millennium Declaration |
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Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, DESA, drew attention to development challenges such as increasing inequality, conflicts, diseases, environmental degradation, slums and unemployment. He said that to respond to these challenges, the UN development agenda's implementation requires a system-wide, holistic approach with more policy coherence.
Patrizio Civili, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Interagency Affairs, DESA, introduced the report, One United Nations – catalyst for progress and change: how the Millennium Declaration is changing the way the United Nations system works . He identified the need for better coordination and cooperation within the UN system to demonstrate that “multilateralism works and can deliver.”
Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director, UN Population Fund (UNFPA), called for increasing coherence within the UN system to ensure that global action translates into country-level fulfilment. She stated that “the UN must be accountable to people it serves” both in terms of money spent and results achieved. |
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| Lennart Båge, President of the International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD) (right) and Chair of the High-level Committee on Programmes of the Chief Executive Board for Coordination, emphasized the Millennium Declaration's fundamental impact on the UN system. He identified changes needed in the UN system, especially deepening understanding and managing knowledge better, as well as increasing transparency and accountability. |
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| Panel with the Chairs of the Beijing, Cairo and Copenhagen Commissions |
| Ernesto Aranibar Quiroga, Chair of the Commission for Social Development (Bolivia), Carmen Maria Gallardo Hernandez, Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women (El Salvador), Patrizio Civili, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, ECOSOC President Munir Akram (Pakistan),
Vivien Pliner-Joseph, Secretariat, and Crispin Grey-Johnson, Chair of the Commission on Population and Development (Gambia). |
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Ernesto Araníbar Quiroga (Bolivia), Chair of the Commission for Social Development, informed delegates of the Commission's recent finding that the broad concept of social development, affirmed by world leaders in the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action, has “gradually become less comprehensive and significantly weakened in global policy making.” While noting some positive developments, he expressed concerns over external debt, jobless growth, and lack of an international strategy on employment and migration. Carmen María Gallardo Hernández (El Salvador), Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, briefed participants on the Commission's review, and reported on a High-level Round table held in February 2005, which looked at gender equality and the MDGs. She said gender equality should be a truly cross-cutting issue at the September Summit.
Crispin Grey-Johnson, Chair of the Commission on Population and Development (Gambia), reported on the 10-year review of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, highlighting a variety of issues, including HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, and migration. He reflected that the 10-year review had reaffirmed not only the Millennium Declaration, but the continued relevance of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development for the broader UN development agenda that is now emerging. |
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Ewa Eliasz, International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (Interights), highlighted the need to recognize persons with disabilities in the outcome of the September Summit. Carmen María Gallardo Hernández reported that she was actively seeking to ensure that gender mainstreaming and the rights and needs of disabled women and the girl-child were reflected at the Summit. |
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| Milivoje Panic , Vice-Chair, UN Committee for Development Policy (right), reported on the Committee's seventh session in March 2005. He urged, inter alia, substantially improving the quality of ODA by strengthening administrative machinery, capacity building, improving human capital, and enhancing the monitoring framework. |
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Orlando Requeijo Gual, Permanent Representative of Cuba, identified neo-liberal policies, agricultural subsidies, and military spending as causes of global inequality, and urged placing development at the center of the UN agenda.
Hjalmar W. Hannesson, Permanent Representative of Iceland, recognized that the MDGs will not be met in LDCs, particularly in Africa, without an increase in ODA. He also highlighted the need to strengthen or improve health systems, foreign direct investment, gender equality, and access to energy, and referred to the impacts of climate change.
Sichan Siv, Ambassador, US Representative to ECOSOC, noted many of the US efforts in financing the MDGs, urging the importance of developing appropriate national-level institutions for private sector development and property rights. |
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Carmen María Gallardo Hernández, Permanent Representative of El Salvador, emphasized the need to achieve the MDGs as part of a larger development agenda, and noted the country's progress in education, health, gender and poverty-related MDGs.
Highlighting Egypt 's work on the MDGs, Maged Abdelfattah Abdelaziz, Permanent Representative of Egypt, noted the need to strengthen ECOSOC's role in coordinating international financial and monetary policies and coordinating the role of UN agencies supporting countries emerging from conflict. |
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Nirupam Sen, Permanent Representative of India, said the MDGs are important benchmarks for development, urged clear timetables and targets for debt relief, trade and technology transfer, and highlighted that employment, science and technology are also needed to achieve the MDGs.
Hartwig de Haen, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), speaking on the behalf of FAO, IFAD and the World Food Programme (WFP), urged the need to focus on hunger reduction and proposed a twin-track approach of provision of immediate assistance for people in hunger "hotspots," along with long-term programmes for agriculture and increasing productivity in rural areas.
Aldo Mantovani, Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy, urged a “true partnership between developed and developing countries,” supporting, inter alia, the establishment of the International Finance Facility and its pilot project for vaccinations, and the establishment of a UN Environment Agency. |
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All Pakistan Women's Association (left)
reported on the adoption of the Islamabad Plan of Action at the recent International Conference on Gender Mainstreaming and the MDGs.
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