ECOSOC CONCLUDES GENERAL DEBATE ON ITS ROLE IN IMPLEMENTING THE TARGETS AND COMMITMENTS OF UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCES

09.07.03

Non-Governmental Organizations Highlight Importance of
Civil Society Participation in Implementing Outcomes of UN Conferences



The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) concluded this morning its general debate on its role in the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) addressed the Council and welcomed the idea of an overall architecture or structure in which ECOSOC, next to the General Assembly, had a major role to play in implementation of agreed targets and commitments of United Nations conferences.
A representative of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) said that she would like to see a more explicitly expressed recognition of the vital role of civil society and non-governmental organizations. Civil society and non-governmental organizations had played and were playing a crucial role in monitoring and implementing commitments at all levels, including at a grass roots level, where it mattered the most, she continued.
A representative of Friends of the World Committee for Consultation said that within the context of the draft resolution of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Integrated and Coordinated Implementation of and Follow-up to the Outcomes of the Major United Nations Conferences and Summits in the Economic and Social Fields, a significant omission was the lack of a call for the participation of civil society in funding and building statistical capacity. The extremely limited mention of civil society participation in the work of the resolution was one of the document’s great disappointments.
The Millennium Development Goals and their implementation must pave the way for a deeper, ongoing collaboration between the United Nations, the regional offices, governments and non-governmental organizations, said a representative of the World Federation of United Nations Associations. Moreover, although the Secretary-General’s report spoke only of civil society as a whole, one group of particular importance was the youth. The United Nations system should continue to provide opportunities for dialogue between Governments and representatives of youth organizations. The youth were the future and it would be up to them to carry these projects and programmes through.
A representative of Japan addressed ECOSOC this morning as did representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the International Federation of Settlements and Neighbourhood Centres.
ECOSOC will reconvene at 3 p.m. this afternoon to hold a panel discussion on rural development and internationally agreed development goals.

Statements
TORU SHIMIZU (Japan) joined other delegations in welcoming the successful conclusion of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields. It was getting more and more necessary to follow up and implement the internationally agreed goals in the economic and social areas. To give birth to the stated goals, nothing more was needed than steadily implementing the issues agreed upon and following them up. Almost all goals were the result of hard negotiations – efforts of the international community – and not always easy to realize. There was therefore a need to rationalize the process through the reduction of the number of meetings, and securing greater coordination and coherence among United Nations bodies and ECOSOC. This must be the objective for the better implementation and follow-up of already agreed goals and targets. Since the human and financial resources of the world were limited, priorities needed to be fixed. Japan believed that ECOSOC could play a pivotal role in providing useful directions, and in this context, a multiyear programme of work would be of great significance.
GEORGES MALEMPRE (UNESCO) said that on the basis of its active participation in the United Nations system mechanisms and in particular the Chief Executive Board for coordination and the High Level Committee on Programming, UNESCO had already acted upon some of the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General. UNESCO was effectively supporting the implementation of conference commitments concerning follow-up to the Durban and Johannesburg conferences, reflected in various parts of the Organization’s draft Programme and Budget for 2004–2005, relating to the implementation of the Johannesburg Plan of action as well as the Dakar Framework for Action adopted at the World Education Forum in April 2002 for the implementation of the Right to Education.
RACHEL BRETT (Friends of the World for Consultation) said that as pacifists, the Quakers had supported the United Nations as an organization ‘dedicated to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’. Inclusiveness was the primary foundation for peace. Within the context of the draft resolution of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Integrated and Coordinated Implementation of and Follow-up to the Outcomes of the Major United Nations Conferences and Summits in the Economic and Social Fields, she made the following points: there should be no change in the structure of the United Nations, which would more closely reflect the Bretton Woods institutions; there was concern that individual conference outcomes were being lost through being subsumed into the Millennium Development Goals; a significant omission had been made in the lack of a call for the participation of civil society in the funding and building of statistical capacity in countries in need of capacity building; a strengthened Economic and Social Council would provide opportunities to consider the potential relationships between economic and social policy, and violent conflict; and that the extremely limited mention of civil society participation in the work of the resolution was one of the document’s great disappointments. As the United Nations was the international moral voice in policy development, its Member States were called upon to endorse multilateralism and to provide the United Nations with funding to assist its members in implementation of conference outcomes and goals.
RENATE BLOEM (Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO)) welcomed the message contained in the Secretary-General’s report, as well as in the report of the Working Group of the General Assembly, namely that time had come to move from commitments to implementation and that all follow-up needed to consist of regular review and measuring progress and not in renegotiating past commitments. CONGO further welcomed the idea of an overall architecture or structure in which ECOSOC, next to the General Assembly, had a major role and was seen as the central mechanism for system wide coordination, supporting an integrated and coordinated implementation and conference follow-up, including through its subsidiary bodies. However, CONGO would like to see in this architecture a more explicitly expressed recognition of the vital role that civil society and non-governmental organizations had played and were playing in monitoring and implementing commitments at all levels, including, where it mattered the most, at grass roots.
BRUNA MOLINA FAIDUTTI (World Federation of United Nations Associations) said that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their implementation should pave the way for a deeper, ongoing collaboration between the United Nations, the regional offices, governments and non-governmental organizations. Civil society had also offered diverse and extensive contributions to the achievement of the objectives of the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs. Moreover, although the Secretary-General’s report spoke only of civil society as a whole, one group of particular importance was the youth. The experience of youth participation in the work of the United Nations had been extremely favorable. The United Nations system should continue to provide opportunities for dialogue between Governments and representatives of youth organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. The youth were the future and it would be up to them to carry these projects and programmes through.
CAROL LUBIN (International Federation of Settlement and Neighbourhood Centres) said the participation of non-governmental organizations had varied enormously in these diverse gatherings according to their access opportunities, the location of the sessions, and the attitude of the Chair and the Bureau. There had been little consistency in the rules and regulations governing the participation of NGOs and relatively – or so it appeared – little desire of one Chair or Bureau to learn from the positive or negative experience of earlier meetings. It was suggested that these practices be reviewed and that the rules to be followed by the Chair and Bureau be institutionalized for use by future meetings open to NGO participation. NGOs could be valuable allies in implementing Governmental commitments at international, national and local levels. Calling attention to the issue of evaluation and monitoring, she urged that greater involvement at the local and national levels be made available to NGOs. At present almost all the indicators being considered were basically statistical in nature. Social indicators based on what effect projects had on the local community, including how the recipients evaluated the success of projects, were essential in determining the elements of success or failure. Governments were urged to contract with appropriate NGOs to assist them in preparing their monitoring and evaluation reports to the United Nations. Such independent reports could contribute greatly to the implementation of commitments by governments.



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