You are viewing our old site. See the new one here

ENB:05:01 [Next] . [Previous] . [Contents]

PREPARATIONS BY THE CSD SECRETARIAT

: UN Resolution 47/191 asked the Secretary-General to prepare a number of reports for the first substantive session of the CSD, which will take place from 14-25 June 1993 in New York. These reports include:

  • Initial financial commitments, financial flows and arrangements to give effect to the decisions of the Conference from all available funding sources and mechanisms;
  • Progress achieved in facilitating and promoting transfer of environmentally sound technologies, cooperation and capacity-building;
  • Progress in the incorporation of UNCED recommendations in the activities of international organizations and measures undertaken by the Administrative Committee on Coordination to ensure that sustainable development principles are incorporated into programmes and processes within the UN system;
  • Ways in which, upon request, the UN system and bilateral donors are assisting countries, particularly developing countries, in the preparation of national reports and national Agenda 21 action plans;
  • Urgent and major emerging issues that may be addressed in the course of the high-level meeting; and
  • Recommendations and proposals for improving the coordination of programmes related to development data that exist within the UN system.
The responsibility for the preparation of these six reports falls to the CSD Secretariat, located within the new Department of Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development (DPCSD), one of the three departments created by UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali last December, but yet to be either staffed or funded. At present the DPCSD and the CSD Secretariat consists of eight UN professionals in both Geneva and New York who have remained throughout the dismantling of the UNCED Secretariat after the Rio Conference. The resumed session of the 47th General Assembly, which will be convened during the second week in March, is expected to approve the budget for the DPCSD and allow Under-Secretary-General Desai to staff his department. Despite Razali's assurances to the members of the Commission that documentation would be ready by May 1, Desai will be hard pressed to meet this deadline.

[Return to start of article]