NGLS Roundup, no. 59, September 2000 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL SUBSTANTIVE SESSION 2000 INTRODUCTION The substantive session of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which met from 5 July-1 August 2000 at UN headquarters in New York, adopted 70 texts, nine by recorded vote. The Council session, chaired by Ambassador Makarim Wibisono (Indonesia), was divided into the following segments: high-level, coordination, operational activities, humanitarian affairs and general. HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY This year's high-level segment addressed "development and international cooperation in the 21st century: the role of information technology in the context of a knowledge-based global economy." Participants included Ministers and heads of delegations, the Presidents and Directors-General of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), heads of the main UN funds and programmes and specialized agencies, and NGO representatives and the media. The segment included a panel discussion with senior representatives from regional development banks; a panel with UNCTAD and the regional commissions; several keynote addresses, including statements by the President of Mali and notable private sector chief executive officers (CEOs). A unique feature of the high-level segment was an unprecedented presentation of information and communication technology wares. The 41 exhibits brought together educational displays by private sector firms from all over the world, international agencies and governments. The segment worked to address four main issues at the heart of the world's "digital divide:" connectivity; lack of training; content; and legal frameworks. In that context, issues covered during the segment included: e-commerce; knowledge-sharing; investment and finance; e-governance; info-ethics; connectivity and infrastructure; tele-medicine; intellectual property; human capital development and the environmental dimension; education; equitable access; extension of information technology into social services; development of local and regional software systems; and world class telecommunication services. Regarding connectivity, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette noted that the biggest problem was ensuring information and communication technology (ICT) access for the poor. With an appropriate regulatory environment, she said, "the private sector can provide efficient information technology services at acceptable cost in the major cities of the developing world. But in the countryside, poverty and the costs of connecting remote and under-populated areas mean we cannot rely only on market forces." She noted that capacity meant not only computers to connect to the Internet, but the technological skills needed to use information technology facilities and service them. Technological literacy is a must, Ms. Frechette said, and "traditional literacy remains a prerequisite for development." Regarding content, it was repeatedly stressed that local content was needed to increase the relevance and value of available information to users in developing countries. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that "today, 80% of the material available on the Web is in English. And most of it is aimed primarily at well-heeled and well-educated people. Naturally, it reflects their interests. We must encourage automatic translation, and the creation of local content, to ensure that the Internet revolution brings real benefits to all." The high-level segment concluded with the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration. It said Ministers were deeply concerned that the potential of ICTs for advancing development, particularly in developing countries, had not been fully captured and called on all members of the international community to work cooperatively to bridge the digital divide and to foster "digital opportunity." ECOSOC recognized the need to address the major impediments to participation of the majority of people in developing countries in the ICT revolution, such as lack of infrastructure, education, capacity building, investment and connectivity. The Declaration also stresses that the promotion of ICTs should not be a substitute for efforts to ensure the development and modernization of basic sectors of the economy, but should complement and enhance them. Human and institutional capacity were identified as being critical to sustaining access and ensuring benefits to society. Investment in education, including basic and digital literacy, remains the fundamental way of developing human capacity, the Declaration said, and should be at the heart of any national, regional and international information technology strategy. The Declaration calls on the international community to take initiatives to urgently promote programmes intensifying cooperation; actively explore new financing for ICT activities; devise measures to reduce costs of Internet access devices in developing countries; and explore measures to facilitate access to ICT training. On behalf of the Group of 77 (G-77) developing countries and China, Nigeria's Minister of Science and Technology, Ebitimi Banigo, noted that the driving force behind ICTs was primarily the private sector. He said that it was vital for that sector to contribute its expertise and resources towards bringing the information revolution to the marginalized regions of the world. He said international cooperation in ICTs must strive to mobilize resources to assist developing countries in the development of necessary infrastructure; assist in the development of strategic objectives in accordance with their national priorities; encourage investment by private sector ICT firms in developing countries; establish a trust fund through which private sector operators, international financial institutions and global business associations would provide resources; and support South-South cooperation in ICTs. Speaking on behalf of the European Union (EU) and associated states, France's Secretary of State to the Minister of Culture and Communication, Michel Dufour, noted positive aspects of the emerging information society. In education and training, he said, "they permit direct access to remote resources. In trade they open up market potential all over the world. In cultural terms they offer huge potential for exchanges between civilizations, and in general they create new areas of freedom and dialogue." However, he noted, they also present the international community with challenges, such as the applicability of territorial regulations, emergence of new forms of crime, and the protection of privacy. Mr. Dufour underscored ECOSOC's capacity to involve the private sector in its efforts to build further partnerships and encouraged it to adopt a global strategy that would, among other things, promote the mobilization of private funds to finance the development of those technologies in developing countries. United States Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers also addressed the issue of ICTs, emphasizing the need for a global consensus approach. He cited ten elements that he considered definitive to such a consensus. At the national level he proposed: market-oriented policies; strong institutions, good governance and functioning rule of law; integration with the rest of the world, exemplified by multilateral trade liberalization through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); investment in education, especially for girls; and investment in basic health. At the international level he proposed: a rule-based global economic system; a strong and stable capital flow from the industrial to the developing world; ensuring that unsustainable debt burdens do not stop poor countries from realizing their economic potential; establishing global public institutions that support public sector action; and providing "targeted" official development assistance (ODA). Mike Moore, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that e-commerce was another way of doing business and was covered by WTO agreements. Noting that the moratorium on e-commerce was up for review, he said the absence of expensive regulations was the Internet's big strength and should be kept that way so that the development of e-commerce was not impeded. The WTO's information technology agreement of 1997 helped to promote e-commerce by liberalizing telecommunication services on which the Internet depended, he noted; reducing some of those telecommunication services was a threat to further development. Mr. Annan praised the Ministerial Declaration in his concluding comments on the high-level segment. He said the Declaration focuses on actions needed at both the national and international levels to spread information technology and its benefits to the developing world. "If we succeed in this task," he said "we will ensure that poor countries can join the knowledge-based economy. We will do so by giving their people a powerful tool with which to make their voices heard and to combat ignorance and disease." FOLLOW-UP TO UN CONFERENCES During the coordination segment ECOSOC assessed progress made within the UN system, as a result of the conference reviews, in the promotion of integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to major UN conferences and summits in the economic and social fields. In addition to a general debate, two panel discussions were held on the lessons learned from the five-year review of conferences, including reviews of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing+5) and the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD+5), and on challenges faced by the UN system in supporting conference implementation. Many speakers focused on the five-year conference review processes. A number of delegations felt that the time frame was too short to show any significant progress. While the reviews had served to reaffirm commitments agreed at the major UN conferences and summits of the 1990s, it was felt that a sense of frustration often accompanied the perception that results were uneven. Among the new approaches called for were: avoiding duplication of efforts; staggering reviews; rationalizing review cycles; and holding special sessions of the Assembly every ten years. Developed and developing countries also said, among other things, that special session reviews every five years were time-consuming and not cost-effective. 10 July Panel on Five-Year (+5) Reviews Patricia Durrant (Jamaica), Chair of the Preparatory Committee of the 1990 World Summit for Children, spoke of preparations for the 2001 Special Assembly Session on Children and noted that the major challenge had not been to recognize children in legislation but in implementation. Muhammad Ali Sorcar (Bangladesh), speaking on behalf of Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, Chair of the Preparatory Committee for the five-year review of the International Conference on Population and Development, said that preparatory technical meetings had largely contributed to the formulation of draft measures for further implementation of the Programme of Action. He said extensive preparation had been very useful for in-depth reflection of the programme and policy aspects. He noted that in the outcome of each of the conferences there should be strong commitments from the development partners to reverse the situation of declining ODA. Bagher Asadi (Iran), Vice-Chair of the Preparatory Committee for the five-year review of the World Summit for Social Development, said that while increased priority had been given to social development, there had been little progress in some areas and regress in others. Globalization, an enabling environment and compliance had been divisive issues that prevented the implementation of some challenges, he said. Christine Capalata (United Republic of Tanzania), Chair of the Preparatory Committee of the five-year review of the Fourth World Conference on Women, said that the characteristic of plurality captured by the integrated approach in the Beijing Platform for Action was a forward-looking aspect of the text. It was vital therefore, she said, to examine the modalities and make revisions periodically. Zadek Kedzia of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the five-year follow-up to the World Conference on Human Rights had helped to move human rights from a somewhat isolated issue to one linked with democracy. 10 July Panel on Main Challenges Facing the UN System for Supporting Conference Implementation Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said that maintaining the high level of political involvement displayed at the initial conferences was a challenge in the follow-up processes. He noted that during the preparatory processes of the conferences, there were integrated mechanisms for cooperation between departments at the national level, but that cooperation was not maintained for the follow-up conference. He also underscored the high degree of inter-agency collaboration of the conferences, which he said had carried over well in the post-conference phase. The link between financial institutions and the UN Secretariat established during the conference phase had not carried over so well, he said. The professional community doing the analytical work in the preparatory process had largely maintained their level of engagement in the post-conference era. But the high level of involvement of civil society during the conferences had decreased, and there had been a significant decline in the level of commitment of donors to NGOs in the post-conference phase, he said. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said that helping countries to meet conference goals posed a number of operational challenges to the UN system. She asked how the system could best mobilize its considerable range of technical resources to support poor countries. She identified as a major challenge resource mobilization to meet the global development vision, which she said presented a paradox for the free market system since countries that needed those flows were unable to attract them. In addition, resources for development assistance were declining, she said, and commitments by the international community to the global conference goals needed to be matched by commensurate commitments to provide resources to support national efforts. Turning to the proposed ten-year reviews, she said that the recent five-year reviews had required intense negotiations on politicized rather than technical issues and took time away from further advancing implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action. She said that the review processes were "wearying" and should be undertaken not as special events, but rather through the normal processes of ECOSOC and the General Assembly. Angela King, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, said that the five-year reviews served to "keep awareness alive." They provided insight into best practices, provided a global overview and determined the direction for action, as well as provided opportunities for all stakeholders to review and plan for the future. An effect of the Beijing+5 review had been to demonstrate the integrated responses of the UN in light of the conference, and to show the interrelationship of sectors in addressing the recommendations. Ms. King recommended that the focus of intermediate reviews be the national and regional levels, and that there be a mid-term review five or six years after a major conference at the functional commission level. In a resolution on "basic indicators for the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to major UN conferences and summits at all levels" (E/200/L.30), ECOSOC urges countries, UN funds and programmes, the UN Secretariat, bilateral and regional funding agencies, and the Bretton Woods Institutions to work closely together to implement recommendations contained in a similar resolution in 1999. The resolution urged, among other things, the same bodies to work together to mobilize the required resources to support national statistical capacity building in developing countries. The resolution on basic indicators also calls for mobilizing required resources and coordinating efforts to support national statistical capacity building in developing countries. The Council also invited the Statistical Commission to serve as the intergovernmental focal point for the review of indicators used by the UN for implementation of follow-up to major UN conferences and summits. The Council adopted "draft agreed conclusions" (E/2000/L.10) that say the major UN conferences and summits of the 1990s have contributed towards the development of an integrated framework and a global partnership for development; governments have the primary responsibility for bringing together priorities in the social, economic and environmental areas; and international cooperation is crucial for the implementation of conference outcomes. *************************************************************************** Secretary-General Calls for Additional Resources and Debt Cancellation In his closing statement to ECOSOC, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan highlighted the need for more resources in order to translate recommendations on how to bridge the digital divide into concrete and efficient strategies that will make a tangible difference in the lives of people. "This will require a major commitment of resources, intensified cooperation, and strong partnerships between all stakeholders, including the private sector," Mr. Annan said. He noted that it was not only information technology that needed resources, but the development goals agreed at the UN conferences of the 1990s and reaffirmed at the General Assembly special sessions. Toward this end, Mr. Annan called on governments to take action to accelerate debt relief for poor countries. "Pledges are no longer enough," he said. "We need concrete and immediate measures. So once again, I urge the donor countries and the international financial institutions to cancel the official debts of poor countries that are committed to poverty reduction, and to expand the number of countries eligible for the so-called Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative by allowing them to qualify on grounds of poverty alone." Mr. Annan cited the example of Nigeria, saying that it seemed "desperately wrong that Nigeria, under its new democratic government, should be struggling to service all the debt contracted under military dictatorships in the 1980s and 1990s....Here is surely a case where debt relief would also be a form of conflict prevention." Mr. Annan also said that debts owed by countries that suffered major conflicts or natural disasters should be cancelled. "As you rightly underlined during your Humanitarian Segment," he said, "we must reinforce our prevention efforts and improve our response to complex emergencies. We must also build on the preventive and response capacities of these countries. But if we decide, as a principle, to wipe off the debt of those countries, we will give them a real chance to rebuild their [societies] and start again." *************************************************************************** CORE RESOURCES FOR UN FUNDS AND PROGRAMMES The operational activities segment was dominated by the issue of declining core resources for the funds and programmes of the UN. Many speakers stressed that predictable and assured resource levels, commensurate with needs, were a key and essential ingredient of the effectiveness and impact of operational activities of the UN. It was also stressed that the shortfalls and decline in core resources were adversely affecting the capacity of the UN to contribute to national development, as well as its responsiveness to the needs of developing countries. Immediate and effective remedial steps to redress that situation were called for. Mr. Desai, who introduced the Secretary-General's report on funding operational activities for development, asked ECOSOC how so much importance could be given to conference goals while resources were not made available to back them up. Mr. Desai said that without the commitment of the donor community, the credibility of funds and programmes was eroding. He called on the donor community to back up commitments made at conferences. Norway said that if the governments of developing countries were being held to their commitments on development and poverty eradication, they were fully justified in holding developed countries to their commitment to reach the UN target for official development assistance. Norway added, however, that the heterogeneity and complexity of the rules and procedures of the UN system placed a heavy burden on many developing countries. It was imperative, Norway said, that UN funds, programmes and agencies accord the highest priority to simplifying their programming procedures and instruments and take concrete measures toward streamlining them. Pakistan's representative said that core resources had reached perilously low levels for some organizations, including the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP). In order to attract sufficient funds, Pakistan said, programmes had undertaken restructuring efforts. Countries participating in these programmes had accepted those changes with the understanding that they would reverse the decline in contributions, but that had not happened. Reform was not the real issue, Pakistan said; the reason for the decline in core resources contributions was a lack of political will. The issue of declining core resources was also a persistent theme in the high-level policy dialogue with the executive heads of funds and programmes, held on 18 July as part of the operational activities segment to celebrate 50 years of UN development cooperation. Technology, harmonization of programmes, capacity building and global governance were some of the other key issues raised. Among the speakers was UNDP Associate Administrator Zephirin Diabre, who said that the development agencies of the UN were facing an acute problem. "We have been clear with UNDP's donors that the organization is in the midst of a severe financial crisis," he said, although he expressed hope that the tide in the decline of core funding may be turning. "Our ongoing reform efforts, combined with energetic efforts to document results of our programmes, lay a strong foundation for rebuilding the political support that is necessary for any increase in core funding for operational activities." Mr. Diabre highlighted the importance of the UNDP Resident Coordinator System in implementing UNDP's mandate but reiterated that "the bottom line remains the bottom line. For a real turnaround, this growing momentum urgently needs to be broadened and maintained." He pointed to the importance of the High-Level Event for the Financing of Development planned for 2001, which he said would have important implications for UNDP's future. *************************************************************************** International Day of Solidarity with Migrants Taking into account the large and increasing number of migrants in the world and encouraged by growing interest of the international community in the full protection of the human rights of all migrants, the Council adopted a Resolution (E/2000/L.24) recommending that the General Assembly proclaim 18 December as International Day of Solidarity with Migrants. *************************************************************************** HUMANITARIAN SEGMENT: INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS During the humanitarian affairs segment ECOSOC focused on special economic, humanitarian and disaster relief assistance. It also held a panel discussion on internally displaced persons (IDPs). During that discussion, much attention was directed at displaced women and children, particularly girls. Another much-debated issue was that of sovereignty and territorial integrity in relation to international humanitarian responses to displaced persons, who were often on their own national soil. Speakers also stressed that non-combatants in emergency situations must not be forgotten, and that every conflict had many more victims than soldiers. Many governments expressed support for building local capacities of national governments to help cope with emergency situations and IDPs, and emphasized that primary responsibility for both lay with national governments. The importance of new technologies to increase prevention and responsiveness to emergencies was highlighted, as was the need for better coordination to deal with IDPs. The UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), which relies on a collaborative, multi-actor approach to provide effective protection and appropriate assistance to civilians and especially displaced women and children, was repeatedly supported. Nat Colletta, Manager of the Post-Conflict Unit of the World Bank, said that meeting the special needs of IDPs helped bridge the gap between relief and development. 19 July Panel Discussion on Internally Displaced Persons The Council held a panel discussion on IDPs, which was moderated by Carolyn McAskie, Emergency Relief Coordinator of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA). She said that internally displaced persons were in danger of becoming an "abstract concept" and there was a need to "humanize" the problem. She highlighted the need for adequate national and international responses as a major challenge, and noted that UN country teams in particular were in need of stronger support from all partners in order to develop policy strategies and to deal with the most burning issue of what could done on the ground for IDPs. Zoraida Mesa, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Angola which has some 3.8 million IDPs, said that as many as 300,000 people were in areas inaccessible to relief organizations. She noted that populations hosting the internally displaced were themselves becoming seriously affected as newcomers competed for limited resources. She highlighted demining, and access to health care, clean drinking water and education as necessary central features of humanitarian efforts. The Humanitarian Coordinator for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Martin Mogwanja, said that major concerns in his country related to the IDP situation included lack of access to health care and large-scale food insecurity. He said it was particularly necessary to restore a minimal producing capacity among IDP households. He also pointed to security problems, which he said prevented an adequate humanitarian response to all displaced communities. Marco Borsotti, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Georgia, said that the prevailing attitude in the country was that rights and long-term needs of IDPs were issues to be dealt with via development projects in conflict areas once the IDPs returned home. In the interim, relief assistance was the focus. He noted that there was an assumption that if needs were addressed in situ, however, the will to return was reduced and as a consequence the strength of territorial claims was reduced. Conflict resolution efforts that placed IDP return at the centre of debate were increasing tensions that undermined peace processes, he said. Mr. Borsotti described several lessons learned: quick development-oriented assistance was vital; early development-oriented programmes should aim to address the social needs of both the displaced and the receiving populations: in order for early engagement of transitional and development assistance to be possible, vigorous and high-level humanitarian diplomacy was necessary; and the right of return should neither be sacrificed nor forgotten. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, who said that the fate of refugees and IDPs was usually linked, called for a comprehensive approach. She said that the debate on IDPs should not focus on humanitarian response but rather on political solutions to conflicts, as humanitarian action could only buy time for peace and reconstruction efforts but could not solve the underlying problems. She also called for a large and sustained commitment of resources by governments. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said that women and children accounted for 80% of the total displaced population. Yet most programming for the displaced focused on men. She said that the long-term needs of children, both during the period of displacement and during the reintegration period, should be taken into account. Ms. Bellamy stressed the importance of education, especially for girls, which she said would contribute enormously to rehabilitation and development. During later discussions, the Russian Federation said that the international community should concentrate as much as possible on the use of existing potential--first and foremost by improving coordination of the action of humanitarian agencies and by strengthening their cooperation with concerned States. Egypt, Japan and Canada all stated that affected countries had the primary responsibility for ensuring the internally displaced were able to enjoy the same rights as all national citizens. The international community's response, said Canada, should aim to support and complement national efforts. MALDIVES FIGHTS "GRADUATION" FROM LDC STATUS During the Council's consideration of economic and environmental questions, the Chair of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), Just Faaland, said that the CDP had developed some methodological and statistical improvements and had constructed and applied an economic vulnerability index (EVI) as one of the criteria for identification of least developed countries (LDCs). As a result, Mr. Faaland said, the Committee recommended that the Maldives be removed from the LDCs list. There are officially 48 LDCs: 33 in sub-Saharan Africa, nine in Asia, one in the Caribbean and five in the Pacific. A country that is removed from the list could be deprived of concessionary loans, debt relief and tariff concessions, in addition to the loss of certain economic privileges granted by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international financial institutions. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives, said in a letter to Ambassador Wibisono that the loss of preferential access to markets would lead to the collapse of the country's tuna industry. "The fisheries sector is at the present time beset with the worst crisis that it has had to face for a number of years, and loss of market for canned tuna will have far-reaching impacts on the economy," Mr. Gayoom said. He further noted that foreign direct investment flows were likely to slow down if there was a loss of preferential access, magnifying difficulties imposed on attracting foreign private capital. He said the vulnerability of the economy was represented by the fact that imports accounted for 90% of gross domestic product (GDP) and that the fisheries sector had faced shocks during the past 30 years. Vulnerability was further exacerbated by high dependence on the tourism sector, Mr. Gayoom noted. He said that the tourism industry accounted for 68.4% of the country's foreign exchange earnings. Maldives Ambassador Hussain Shihab described the CDP decision as "totally unfair and unreasonable" and said it was based on an economic profile that did not conform to reality. "We have one of the world's most vulnerable economies. We have coral bleaching which has reached catastrophic proportions. And our development efforts have been severely constrained by [a] low level of human resource development," he said. Mr. Faaland agreed that Maldives was vulnerable but said that compared to other countries, it "well" exceeded the quality of life index for LDCs. If, to the Council, vulnerability was of higher value on the index than other criteria the CDP would respect and reflect that in its decisions, he said. Mr. Shihab responded that while the CDP had taken note of the Maldives' vulnerable environment, it was "aiming to identify performance in arbitrarily chosen areas, rather than identifying the extent and impact of long-term structural handicaps and problems of sustainability." He said that the CDP report had not captured the extent of poverty and the level of regional disparities. Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby of Norway said the CDP had recognized the concern of the Maldives about consequences of possible sea-level rise and suggested that the Council consider how to assist the country in this regard. Norway felt that the decision of "graduating" the Maldives from the LDC list merited further consideration. Mauritius Ambassador Anund Priyay Neewoor and Bangladesh Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury also supported the position of the Maldives, noting that the cost of graduation had not been assessed for Maldives and suggesting that given the country's vulnerability, now was not the right time to deny it a number of benefits vital for economic development. The Council deferred the Maldives' graduation until July 2001 in order to further review the status of the small island developing state. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES FORUM The Council adopted by consensus a resolution (draft Resolution 3 of E/2000/23) to establish a Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, an unprecedented event in the international community. The process was initiated in 1993 when the World Conference on Human Rights first proposed such a forum, and on 28 April 2000 the Commission on Human Rights in its 56th session adopted a resolution (E/CN.4/RES/2000/87) recommending the Forum's establishment. The Forum will provide indigenous representatives the opportunity to participate in a high-level forum in the UN system. The world's 300 million indigenous peoples live in more than 70 countries on five continents and have been seeking representation at the international level since they first approached the League of Nations early in the 20th century. Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Coordinator for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995-2004), welcomed the decision as an "historic step forward." She said the Permanent Forum "promises to give indigenous peoples a unique voice within the United Nations system, commensurate with the unique problems which many indigenous people still face, but also with the unique contribution they make to the human rights dialogue at the local, national and international levels." Mr. Annan hailed the Forum as one of the greatest achievements for indigenous rights. "Intended as a forum for dialogue, reconciliation and cooperation in all areas of concern to indigenous peoples," he said, "the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is to be in place by 2002 and will be the first high-level representation of these groups in the United Nations." The Forum will be a subsidiary organ of ECOSOC and will consist of 16 representatives. Eight members will be nominated by governments and elected by the Council; others are to be appointed by the President of the Council following broad consultations with indigenous organizations and groups. The selection process is to take into account principles of representation and the diversity and geographical distribution of indigenous peoples. Organizations of indigenous peoples may participate in the Forum as observers along with States, UN bodies, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. Indigenous groups welcomed the Forum but remained skeptical that the body would serve the needs as identified and articulated by native populations themselves. According to Alberto Saldamando of the General Council of the International Indian Treaty Council, one area of concern to indigenous peoples is "the consensus requirement for any recommendations issuing from the Forum," which he said could prevent any meaningful results from being heard by the General Assembly. Indigenous groups also expressed concern that countries with large native populations such as the United States, Canada, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia, and countries that deny having such populations, might undermine the Forum later in the process by not providing sufficient funding. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz of the Asian Indigenous Women's Network noted that the US and Canada had "suggested" that the funding issue would be raised at the UN General Assembly's Administrative and Budgetary Committee meeting this year, and that shortage of funding could be grounds for jeopardizing the establishment of the Forum. This edition of NGLS Roundup was prepared by the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS). The NGLS Roundup is produced for NGOs and others interested in the institutions, policies and activities of the UN system and is not an official record.