ECOSOC 2006 SUBSTANTIVE SESSION: COORDINATION

UNCLAS GENEVA 001748

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR IO/EDA, IO/T

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR EAID ELAB KUNR TBIO
SUBJECT: ECOSOC 2006 SUBSTANTIVE SESSION: COORDINATION
SEGMENT

REF: GENEVA 1699 (NOTAL)


1. (U) Summary: The Coordination Segment (CS) of ECOSOC's
Substantive Session met July 6-10 and again on July 17 in
Geneva. The Coordination Segment theme "Sustained economic
growth for social development, including poverty eradication
and hunger" had strong thematic links to the High Level
Segment (HLS ) see reftel) which focused on employment
issues and treated employment as a key route out of poverty.
The CS required more time than usual to conclude due to
prolonged negotiations on the segments resolution, which was
finally approved on July 17. Delegations meeting in New York
in June failed to agree on the need for a resolution, but in
Geneva parties agreed that a short, focused and balanced
resolution made sense. A side event on avian flu (see
septel) was also held July 10 during the Segment. End
Summary.


2. (U) This year's ECOSOC Coordination Segment (CS) assumed a
relatively low profile. It appears that ongoing New York
negotiations in June over the Development follow-up
resolution (A/60/L59) and the ECOSOC HLS Ministerial
Declaration drew much of the focus away from preparations for
this segment. The CS theme "Sustained economic growth for
social development, including poverty eradication and hunger"
appeared to a number of delegations to be a repetition of
numerous debates held in the GA's Second Committee over the
fall of 2005. The Secretary General's report for this
Segment (E/2006/56 - Sustained economic growth for social
development, including poverty eradication and hunger)
described the debate between the "human development" approach
and the "pro-poor growth" approach, and generated a set of
recommendations on coordination and policy coherence that
could fit into nearly any UN report on development policy.
It conspicuously downplayed the importance of democratic
governance as a necessary component of such growth.


3. (U) Consensus on a Coordination Resolution: Following
several false starts in New York, negotiators on a resolution
to reinforce the Coordination theme finally engaged in Geneva
in a constructive process that led to consensus. On the
margins of a third informal session, the U.S., EU, G-77 and
Switzerland agreed to scrap a draft text that was overloaded
with policy prescriptions in favor of a concise, technical
resolution aimed at implementation of the ECOSOC theme. The
facilitator (Iceland) produced a clean draft. The
Coordination Segment resolution, which an ECOSOC plenary
adopted by consensus on July 17 (E/2006/14),recognizes that
the inter-linkages between economic growth and social
development are complex and require both sound national
development strategies and more effective guidance from the
UN. The resolution urges the UN to align its studies and
assistance with national priorities for social development.
Closing the CS after the resolution was adopted July 17,
ECOSOC President Hachani presented and the ECOSOC approved an
oral decision to defer to a resumed session the finalization
of a multi-year program of work for the CS, and to take note
of the SYG's report E/2006/56 (discussed on July 6).


4. (U) Alongside the negotiations for a resolution described
above a range of discussions made up the 2006 CS. Brief
summaries follow:

A) General Debate: The general debate that opened the CS
meeting July 6 focused on managing the interaction between
economic growth and social development, and explaining what
the UN might do to help to spur such linkages. ECOSOC Vice
President Ambassador Hannesson (Iceland) and Assistant SYG
for Policy Coordnation Civili opened the debate, which
featured tatements from nine delegations. A/SYG Civili
apeared to give more importance to the need for "poicy
space" than to correct policy choices by developing
countries. The U.S. statement stressed tht policy decisions
matter, a point which elicite support from many delegations.
The U.S. also hghlighted the need to allow the private
sector fexibility to operate in support of development,
instead of becoming hobble by excessive regulation. The G77
statement wasunusual in that it lauded the recently approved
General Assembly Development Follow-up resolution, ad
focused heavily on what it called the new repoting
requirements contained therein. The G77 alo stressed that
the CS is an important ECOSOC sement and should not be
reduced in length when ECOSOC reform proceeds, a topic that
has been under discussion among delegations in New York. In
its statement, the EU focused on the need to avoid "jobless,
rootless and faceless growth," arguing that social policies
are not simply an "add-on" to macroeconomic policy, but a key
component of development policy.

B) Dialogue with Executive Secretaries of the Regional
Commissions: The Executive Secretaries of the Regional
Commissions briefed ECOSOC July 6 on labor market
developments in their regions. While the Asia and the
Pacific region primarily faced a "jobless growth" situation
with a few positive exceptions, Latin America faced
insufficient overall growth, at below 4.5 percent, to impact
the labor market. The cluster of issues involving social
protection in Latin America also needed more sustained
support from donors and governments. Africa posted overall
growth of 5.3 percent last year, but there was little trickle
down impact and poverty rates and the use of child labor
remained too high. The Middle East was likewise lagging in
new job creation and faced an exploding youth population, for
which jobs had to be created. The Executive Secretary for
Western Asia warned of an inefficient education/training
system in the region and of an influx of immigrants from
Asia. Finally the Economic Commission for Europe noted
strong employment prospects in some transition economies in
the former CIS but considerable problems in Central Europe,
where unemployment was closer to 10 percent. He noted that
the former CIS countries had learned from Central Europe's
mistakes about the proper sequencing of economic and labor
market reforms. In his intervention, Ambassador Miller noted
the Executive Secretaries painted a gloomier picture of the
employment market and economic progress than statistical data
and trends suggested.

C) Panel Discussion with Executive Secretaries of the
Functional Commissions: This July 7 panel discussion
featured chairs or co-chairs from various ECOSOC functional
commissions such as the Commission on the Status of Women
(CSW),the Commission on Science and Technology for
Development (CSTD),the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF),the
Commission on Population and Development (CPD) the Commission
for Social Development (CSD),the Statistical Commission and
the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Personnel from the
Functional Commissions explained their specific approaches to
their mandates. The panel discussion highlighted the lack of
coherence among the commissions and confirmed suspicions that
ECOSOC was not performing an adequate coordinating/guiding
role, especially now that UN reform was moving forward. A
number of delegations highlighted the fact that although
ECOSOC was responsible for overall policy guidance to the
commissions, it had failed to provide real direction.
Ambassador Miller echoed these views and noted that ECOSOC
members themselves needed to do more to address the
incoherent approach of the functional commissions to their
work programs, a key task of the Coordination Segment.

D) Panel Discussion entitled "Sustained economic growth for
social development and the eradication of poverty:" This July
7 event featured a mix of government representatives (UK,
Uganda),UN representatives, and NGOs. Countries reviewed
their experience as donors or aid recipients but the
discussion was clearly biased towards the "pro-poor" growth
model, noting economic growth in itself was insufficient to
handle social needs. A representative from the Geneva-based
"South Center" gave a 1970's style presentation on the need
for the developing world to carve out substantially more
"policy space" and to aim for "resource sovereignty" so that
natural resources can be used to benefit the poor in
developing countries. The need for a democratic political
system to support the interests of the poor in national
development programs was not addressed in these
presentations, until Ambassador Miller noted the concept's
conspicuous absence. He also challenged a number of the
presentations for using statistics selectively to support
their arguments.

5 (U) Avian flu Event: The ECOSOC event drew together
representatives from a number of organizations, including the
WHO, UNDP, ICAO, the World Bank and the World Tourism
Organization, who detailed their preparations for a possible
widespread outbreak among humans, and their responses to the
illness among poultry. Attention was drawn to the spread of
the problem to Africa, and the weakness of the veterinary and
health delivery systems in Africa. Successes in containing
the disease in Europe and East Asia were attributed to good
communications with the public and early alerts to farmers,
and a strong veterinary response. The resources pledged at
Beijing (before the spread to Africa) are unlikely to be
sufficient to deal with the poultry problem in Africa. There
were calls for the development and distribution of affordable
vaccines (see septel for expanded report).
TICHENOR