Statement by John
Davison, Deputy U.S. Representative on the United Nations
Economic and Social Council, on Agenda Item 92:
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,
before the Fifty-seventh Session of the United Nations
General Assembly, in the Second Committee, October 31,
2002Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
My delegation would like to thank the
Secretariat for the documentation prepared for both
ECOSOC and the
General Assembly on Coordinated Follow-up to Major
UN
Conferences.
Over the past ten years, the United
Nations has convened World Conferences on significant
global issues. These conferences helped change and
advance world public opinion and policy, and they provided
a forum to develop new initiatives and form partnerships.
However, a propensity for “plus 5 or
plus 10” automatic reviews of conferences has proven to be
increasingly flawed.
It is now time to focus more
exclusively on implementation—on achieving the objectives
of the conference documents and on reaching the concrete
targets and benchmarks our Governments agreed to.
The
International Conference on Financing for Development
and the
World Summit on Sustainable Development both
established follow-up mechanisms that are different from
those of earlier conferences. We should seize upon the
momentum to improve the way we do business. We offer the
following suggestions:
When mandated, the
functional commissions of ECOSOC should continue to
have the primary responsibility for the review and
assessment of progress made in implementing UN conference
documents. However, their methods of work should take on
a new focus:
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The functional commissions should
be more inter-active and should engage in more
dialogue among all stakeholders. They should serve as
forums for the discussion of partnerships that promote
implementation of the conference documents.
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The annual session should address a
limited number of themes.
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The annual sessions should examine
results achieved at national level, highlight progress
made, best practices, and lessons learned; and they
should foster new partnerships and identify tools or
other initiatives that could accelerate implementation
of the conference documents.
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Governments should be encouraged to
send substantive experts who are knowledgeable in the
particular areas under consideration, and who are
prepared to share national experiences.
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Members of civil society,
especially NGOs with operational and field experience
and the private sector, should participate in the annual
meetings, in accordance with the relevant rules of
procedure.|
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Increasingly, we need to structure
meetings so that we can hear from those doing the
implementing.
-
Negotiations on resolutions and
other outcome documents should be limited to every three
years.
The Economic and Social Council
should continue to review progress in the implementation
of issues common to all conferences, such as poverty
eradication and gender equality. The Council should also
assist in identifying crosscutting themes, and in
prioritizing and coordinating the work of the functional
commissions.
ECOSOC should also continue its
cooperation with the Bretton Woods Institutions and the
World Trade Organization.
The General Assembly could also broaden its dialogue with
these important stakeholders.
The General Assembly should ensure
that the Secretary-General is not saddled with competing
or duplicative reporting mandates stemming from conference
follow-up mechanisms. Whatever modality we select to
focus on integrated follow-up to conferences, we should
remember that the challenge will be to prioritize our
work. Our focus should remain squarely on achieving
results.
My delegation looks forward to working
with other delegations on conference follow-up. I know we
all share the vision that we are focusing on
coordination—not for coordination’s sake—but to reach in a
coherent manner the goals and objectives we have agreed to
these past ten years.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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