NGLS Roundup 77, August 2001
ECOSOC 2001: FOCUS ON AFRICA
INTRODUCTION
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the principal organs of the United Nations, held its 2001 substantive session in Geneva from 2-27 July 2001. One of the main functions of ECOSOC, which is composed of 54 members, is to serve as the central forum for discussion on international economic and social issues, and formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and the UN system at large. It also reviews the activities of the specialized agencies and the work of its various regional and functional commissions, such as the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Commission on Human Rights.
Each year, the Council holds a high-level segment, attended by senior government officials, often at ministerial or Heads of State and Government levels. In recent years, as part of the high-level segment, the Council has hosted an interactive dialogue with the heads of the principal multilateral organs dealing with the global economy, notably the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The theme of this year’s high-level segment, held from 16-18 July, was “the role of the United Nations system in supporting the efforts of African countries to achieve sustainable development.” Informal discussions on this theme resulted in a Ministerial Declaration (see box on page 2). Much support was expressed for the “New African Initiative,” which was adopted at the Heads of State Summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) held in Lusaka (Zambia) on 9-11 July 2001. The New African Initiative is a multilateral agreement among African nations to set and observe a series of principles for economic and social progress, including national ownership of development efforts, government transparency and accountability in fiscal, legal and regulatory matters, and strengthening of democracy. The Initiative appeals for these measures to be backed by increased official development assistance, African foreign debt reduction and elimination of trade barriers to African exports. In his address to the high-level segment, Rubens Ricupero, UNCTAD Secretary-General, compared the New African Initiative to a modern-day version of the Marshall Plan to rebuild post-World War II Europe, and would thus warrant comparable international assistance in order to achieve a genuine “African Renaissance”—needed not only for the sake of the African people, but for future world peace and security.
The concerns of Africa also featured prominently in much of the rest of ECOSOC’s activities. The Council devoted its coordination segment to the sharing of technology as a way of boosting economic progress in developing countries, including African nations, with the emphasis placed on improving access to information and communication technologies (ICT). The Council’s operational activities segment consisted of a triennial policy review of the UN activities for development. Agreed conclusions under this segment included a warning that reductions in resources for UN development work is affecting the efficiency, impact and the very function of the UN system and its cooperation with developing countries. During the Council’s humanitarian segment, it was also noted that there was a serious lack of funding for UN humanitarian activities, even though more effort should be put into prevention and mitigation of natural and conflict-related disasters, in view of increased global vulnerability.
During the high-level segment, the Council hosted an African Forum for Investment Promotion with the participation of representatives of the private sector. This included roundtables on the investment climate in Africa, financing of investment, and infrastructure needs.
For the first time, this year’s ECOSOC session hosted an NGO Forum, organized by the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO). Held on 13 July, immediately before the high-level segment, the NGO Forum included the participation of several African NGO and civil society leaders and focused on themes such as the impact of HIV/AIDS on Africa’s sustainable development; armed conflict and African women as peace-brokers; financing for development, poverty eradication and African debt relief; and food security and environmental protection in Africa. The main conclusions and recommendations resulting from the NGO Forum were presented to the high-level segment for consideration the following week.
In addition, the Council held a series of breakfast Ministerial Roundtables to which some NGOs were invited to participate. The roundtables were on themes such as the implications of globalization; poverty and employment; effective resource mobilization and utilization, including debt relief; enhancing food security; and reversing environmental degradation.
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Ministerial Declaration of the High-Level Segment
The ministers and heads of delegations participating in the high-level segment adopted a declaration on the role of the United Nations in support of the effort of African countries to achieve sustainable development.
The declaration calls on the United Nations and the international community to support the New African Initiative and invites the Secretary-General to take the requisite measures to ensure an effective and coordinated response of the UN system to the Initiative. It stresses the critical links between peace, democracy, national efforts towards the promotion of good governance, respect for all internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms. Economic growth supportive of poverty eradication and development, it says, should be at the core of conflict-prevention strategies.
To ensure that these links are operationalized, the declaration calls on the United Nations to take a number of actions including:
--mobilizing political support and resources for implementing the various UN poverty eradication initiatives and programmes for Africa through strengthened partnerships with African governments, bilateral donors, the Bretton Woods Institutions and civil society;
--strengthening the capacity of African governments to make the linkages between the economic and social dimensions of poverty-reduction strategies, and assisting in monitoring and analysis before and after such strategies are produced;
--combining peace-building, emergency assistance and longer-term development support measures in a comprehensive and coherent response in special development situations; and
--exploring the feasibility of creating a subregional United Nations coordinating capability, possibly by using existing UN regional offices, which would assist the UN system in setting integrated policies and strategies.
Given the multisectoral impact of HIV/AIDS, the declaration calls on all funds, programmes and agencies which have not yet done so to mainstream AIDS prevention into their activities.
The declaration further states: “We are gravely concerned that if current trends continue the majority of African countries will be unable to achieve the international development goals, including those reaffirmed by the United Nations Millennium Declaration. In this context, the urgent mobilization of domestic and external resources is required if African countries are to reverse the rising tide of poverty.”
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UN SUPPORT TO AFRICA’S SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS
In his opening remarks to the high-level segment, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that few if any of the many past development attempts of the UN system in Africa had been effective. “One reason for this,” he said, “is that although African experts and diplomats certainly played an important role in devising these plans, they were often perceived by African men and women who were expected to implement them as the work of remote bureaucrats with no understanding of African conditions.” In the future, he said, much more effort must be made to listen to the people on the ground. “We must be less eager to devise and promote United Nations initiatives, and more constructive in finding ways to support local, African initiatives.”
Mr. Annan said Africa had suffered from decades of mismanagement during which its resources, instead of being exploited for the benefit of its people, had become a source of misery. “These resources are not only wasted by incompetent governments, but misappropriated by corrupt ones. They have become the cause of devastating wars, not only among the citizens of the country they belong to, but also between armies of neighbouring states, which intervene in their neighbours’ conflicts and cynically take advantage of their misfortunes.”
However, Mr. Annan added that “Africans, including African leaders, are now much less disposed to blame all their troubles on outsiders and more determined to take responsibility for their own future. If they do, they are surely entitled to the international community’s support; and the role of the United Nations system in mobilizing and delivering that support will be crucial.” In this regard, he stressed the advocacy role the UN and the international community must play in addressing the international obstacles to Africa’s development. This includes:
--the removal of trade barriers to African products and reduction of the subsidies paid by rich countries to their farmers—amounting to nearly US$1 billion a day— which causes lower world prices, and lower incomes and poverty in Africa;
--increased official development aid needed to develop African countries’ physical and social infrastructure to the point where they can take advantage of new market opportunities, and without which they will be unable to defeat the HIV/AIDS pandemic;
--deeper and faster debt relief, “to end the same absurd and unjust situation where there is a net transfer of resources from poorer to richer countries;”
--prompt repatriation of illegally acquired wealth “which was transferred to Western banks by some corrupt African leaders and officials;” and
--dissuading foreign companies and governments from being “accomplices in Africa’s destruction, through illicit sale of arms and the purchase of illegally extracted resources.”
On the last point, Mr. Annan stressed the importance of the UN conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons held in July in New York (see NGLS Roundup 80).
A MARSHALL PLAN FOR AFRICA?
In his address to the high-level segment, UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero drew a parallel between the New African Initiative and the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe’s devastated economy after the second World War. He noted that in 1947, United States Secretary of State George Marshall had convincingly argued that the European tragedy was creating a “mortal danger,” not only for the prosperity of the United States but for international peace as well. Mr. Ricupero said the Marshall Plan was thus placed within a framework of interdependence. “It would not be far-fetched, we hope, to think that genocide, civil war, AIDS and massive violations of human rights may provide the ‘moral equivalent of war,’ the catalysts of solidarity and of a sense of interdependence with Africa.” He noted that it was the Europeans themselves “not well-intentioned foreigners, who decided to take their destiny into their own hands, to set their own priorities and to declare their readiness to do their part in providing better, more democratic, honest and competent governance.” While the challenges facing Africa today cannot be equated to post-World War II Europe, he said “there is no insurmountable reason why Africans should not succeed, provided their own self-reform efforts are supported by a sufficiently strong initial impulse.”
Mr. Ricupero noted that in order for Africa to meet the international development target of reducing poverty by half by 2015, it would need to grow by 7%-8% a year, which would mean boosting current investment levels of around 16%-17% of gross domestic product (GDP) to over 22%-25% over the next decade. Because of widespread poverty and sluggish economic growth, he said, Africans are unable to finance this out of savings, which remain extremely low. Of other possible sources of finance, boosting export earnings requires supply capacity, which in turn means that more investment is needed. He said private foreign capital flows cannot be relied on to fill the gap until growth is well under way, as these flows tend to follow rather than lead economic expansion, with the possible exception of extractive industries such as oil.
“We are left with official finance and debt relief,” he concluded. However, official development assistance flows, in real per capita terms, have contracted sharply and are now less than half those of 20 years ago. Moreover, he said that “the debt overhang is already eating into this fast-contracting pool as aid is increasingly—and perversely—being provided just to allow countries to service their debts.” Mr. Ricupero argued that the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative, even under its enhanced form, will not offer a long-term exit from the debt trap. He argued in favour of additional measures that should aim at providing a lasting solution to the “debt sustainability” question: “Who should make the ultimate judgement as to whether the debt can really be paid one day, in part or in whole; whether only creditors, however well-intentioned, should be entitled to make a decision that may prove too costly in human suffering; or whether we have here yet another case for a partnership, a good-faith deal between creditors and debtors?”
“If African countries are to overcome their aid dependency,” Mr. Ricupero insisted, “the perverse trend of dwindling amounts of official assistance being fed into debt payments must be dramatically reversed.” He said that current levels of official assistance must be doubled and maintained over at least a decade in order to allow domestic savings, exports and external private flows to pick up and gradually replace aid. “This is precisely what happened with the Marshall Plan.”
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“Africa has, in the past, been subjected to numerous externally designed models as panacea to its economic problems over the last three decades. The Bretton Woods Institutions with the support of the international community have designed some of these models. However, in spite of the good intentions of their authors, these experiments have not achieved the desired results. In some cases, the results had caused so much pain and social upheaval that their local advocates—politicians, administrators, and even academia—have had to be branded foreign lackeys. The major cause of the failure of these models was the use of pure economic logic to address problems that were often found out to be sometimes political, socio-cultural, and often very complex.
In order to avoid such mistakes, contemporary African leaders have taken the challenge of articulating for themselves their vision for regional co-operation and development, such as the New African Initiative…The continental initiative, which we hope will receive full support of the international community, addresses Africa’s new development strategy under the following paradigms: peace, security and good governance; investing in Africa’s peoples; harmonizing its strategic advantages; investing in information and communications technologies and other infrastructure; as well as developing financial mechanisms for sustainable development. We urge other stakeholders, the private sector and donor agencies to give necessary support and assistance to the Initiative.”
—Keynote address to the high-level segment by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria, delivered by Sule Lamido, Minister of Foreign Affairs
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THE IMF AND WORLD BANK PERSPECTIVES
In his address to the high-level segment, Horst Köhler, IMF Managing Director, said the New African Initiative presents a “true window of opportunity.” He said the Initiative is “firmly anchored in the fundamental principles of African ownership, leadership and accountability in eliminating the home-grown obstacles to sustained growth.” He noted that the Initiative recognizes the IMF/World Bank-initiated Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) process “as a core vehicle for building continent-wide priorities into national poverty reduction programmes and coordinating international support.” He acknowledged that the PRSP process is “still work in progress” since only five PRSPs are fully completed thus far. He added that in response to calls by African countries and the donor community, the IMF and World Bank have begun preparing social impact analyses for eventual integration into national poverty reduction strategies.
Mr. Köhler conceded that African leaders have underscored the severe demands that this process is placing on their limited administrative capacities. He noted that the IMF, World Bank and other donors “will need to provide increased and better-coordinated technical assistance to support poverty reduction strategies in Africa.” Towards the end of this year, he said, the IMF and World Bank will conduct an in-depth review of the PRSP process, drawing on the input of their membership, other international institutions, donors and civil society, with a view to identifying additional areas for improvement. In addition to better donor coordination, Mr. Köhler stressed that “donors who are truly serious about country ownership and aid effectiveness should also be willing to do more to ensure that their assistance truly serves African interests—not least by untying aid—and resist the temptation to micro-manage from the perspective of their own societies.” This applied also the IMF’s own effort to streamline its conditionality. “Conditionality remains essential,” he said, “not least to safeguard the revolving character of the Fund’s resources; but we need to focus it on the measures that are really critical to the macroeconomic objectives of country programmes, and leave real scope for countries to make choices consistent with their political and cultural traditions.” He added that the Fund “stands ready to discuss the costs and benefits of government interventions and controls, and to work with national authorities to identify ways to reduce the risks of mismanagement and corruption.”
On the question of debt, Mr. Köhler said he welcomed the decisions by Group of Seven Industrialized Countries (G-7) and other donor countries to provide further relief by forgiving 100% of their bilateral claims in the context of HIPC. However, in light of the calls by African leaders for 100% cancellation of debt owed to multilateral institutions, he insisted that “debt relief is not a panacea.” He said credit is an indispensable element for economic development, “and that is why, in the longer run, it will be crucial for poor countries to win the trust of investors in their ability and willingness to repay what they borrow.”
James Wolfensohn, World Bank President, also lauded the New African Initiative and pledged his institution’s support to African leaders in this regard. He said “first and foremost, we will base our work on the fact that programmes must be home-grown and home-owned. We recognize that top-down development imposed from Washington or London or Geneva will not work. We will build on the PRSP approach of country-owned poverty reduction strategies. Africans will be in the driving seat.” In line with Mr. Köhler’s pronouncements on the matter, Mr. Wolfensohn said that the Bank will streamline conditionality, “so that we focus much more on outcomes and results rather than on itemizing what steps a government must take to reach them.” In this regard, he referred to a new World Bank instrument called the Poverty Reduction Support Credit, which he said “by focusing on programmatic lending will reduce conditionality and constraints and provide more reliable aid flows to well-performing countries.”
Mr. Wolfensohn outlined debt reduction steps taken under the HIPC initiative, while recognizing that “we have more to do.” But he insisted that “it is simply hypocritical to give debt relief with one hand, and then deny poor countries the ability to export their way out of poverty with the other.”
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“One of the specific obstacles to the development efforts of Africa over the past decade is external indebtedness. Even with sound economic policies and full application of the debt rescheduling arrangements of the past few years, these countries continue to face an unsustainable debt situation.
There is an urgent need for effective, equitable, development-oriented and durable solution to the debt problems of developing countries, including total debt cancellation.”
—Statement by Ambassador Ali Mchumo, Permanent Representative of Tanzania to the high-level segment
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CALLS FOR A NEW ROUND OF TRADE NEGOTIATIONS
Nearly all speakers on the panel of the high-level segment’s interactive dialogue called for a new round of trade negotiations in view of the upcoming WTO ministerial conference in Doha (Qatar) in November.
Kofi Annan said “the greatest danger in times like these is that people will listen to the sirens of protectionism. Nothing could be more disastrous for the world in general, or for the developing countries in particular. Yet many of the developing countries themselves are now close to losing faith in the world trading system, because they feel that the advantages they were promised from the Uruguay Round have not materialized.” He said the launching of a new round of trade negotiations this time “must be a true Development Round, in the sense that it will give genuine priority to the concerns and interests of developing countries.”
Mr. Wolfensohn said a Development Round “that puts the welfare and the interests of developing countries firmly at its centre” would require a number of actions, including the emulation by other rich nations of the recent decision by the European Union to grant full duty- and quota-free access to least developed countries’ (LDCs) products. He added that multilateral trade rules should not impose an undue burden on developing countries by requiring large-scale investments in sophisticated administrative systems “that are not a priority for action and which may divert resources from roads, clinics or schools.” Intellectual property rights, he said, is another area where rich countries should ensure that international rules do not unfairly discriminate against low- and middle-income countries. On the implementation of trade rules, he also urged richer nations to recognize that countries have different needs and capacities, and that “one size does not fit all.”
Mike Moore, WTO Director-General, said the UN system and the Bretton Woods Institutions have an important role to play in mobilizing support for improved market access for developing countries “which can best be advanced within the framework of a new round.” He cited a number of statistics to demonstrate the benefits that could be derived from a new round, including the fact that the US$10 billion fund that Kofi Annan has called for to combat HIV/AIDS is the equivalent of only 12 days of OECD agricultural subsidies in dollar terms. Mr. Moore also argued that there are risks in not launching a round. The current slowdown in the world economy could be made “much worse” with an upsurge in protectionism. “The virtuous circle of trade liberalization and economic growth could all too easily become a vicious spiral of protectionism and stagnation,” he said. “The risk is that a global recession will jeopardize any chances of economic recovery and growth in Africa.”
In view of the strong reservations expressed by numerous developing countries, including from Africa, concerning the desirability of launching a broader set of trade negotiations—not least because of North/South imbalances in bargaining power and negotiating capacities—Mr. Moore argued that power relations in the WTO are different than under the pre-WTO trading regime. “My hope is that this power will be used to launch a new round, rather than to stop it. You can always stop it later if you feel you’re not getting something out of it.” Later in the discussion, he added that “there are injustices in the world trading system. The question is what are you going to do about it? Describe them, talk about them, or start negotiating to change them?”
During the discussion the representative of Nigeria noted that the IMF and World Bank have made it “a cardinal point” through their structural adjustment programmes that Africans should not be allowed to subsidize their farmers while, as was pointed out, the OECD countries spend nearly US$1 billion a day in agricultural subsidies. How then, the Nigerian delegate asked, can African farmers be expected to compete in the global market and become more productive without subsidies? Mr. Köhler acknowledged that the policy advice the IMF gives to developing countries is different from the practice of OECD countries. But he said the IMF opposed agricultural subsidies for African countries because it was a “dead end.” Subsidies, he said, come out of scarce budgets, which the poor will end up paying for. What was important for such countries, he said, was to build agricultural economies that were self-sustaining.
NGO RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT
The 13 July NGO Forum organized by CONGO was designed to produce a series of recommendations to the high-level segment for consideration the following week. In his opening remarks to the NGO Forum, the President of ECOSOC, Ambassador Martin Belinga Eboutou (Cameroon), said that it was with an understanding of the benefits of NGOs’ grassroots perspectives and concrete proposals that the Council was awaiting their recommendations.
Among the issues discussed and proposals put forward to the high-level segment was an appeal that funds to support Africa’s AIDS crisis be in the form of grants rather than loans, and that there be no distinction between prevention and care. Particular attention should be paid to overcoming the social stigma associated with being infected by HIV/AIDS, particularly since this puts pressure on the victims to hide their condition and discourages them from playing an active and essential part in preventing the spread of the disease.
It was noted that most peace making and brokering mechanisms in Africa have been entirely composed of and run by men. Yet experience shows that women, when given the chance, can play a pivotal role in successful peace making and brokering initiatives. In this connection, African States were encouraged to expedite approval and ratification of the optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
It was further argued that agricultural liberalization in developing countries is threatening the survival of small agricultural producers. In this regard, IMF/World Bank conditionalities in the area of agricultural liberalization in Africa were said to be even more stringent than what is required under the current WTO Agreement on Agriculture. The question was thus posed as to whether African governments, in the short term, may wish to exploit this discrepancy when negotiating with the IMF and the World Bank.
In the medium to longer term, attention was drawn to the relevance of the “development box” proposal put forward by a group of developing countries in the context of the built-in negotiations on agriculture at the WTO. The proposal (G/AG/NG/W/13) calls for modifying the agriculture agreement to exempt developing countries from its existing disciplines—thus giving them the flexibility required to readjust tariff levels or introduce new subsidies in the interest of protecting small farmers’ livelihoods, providing and sustaining rural employment, and promoting food security.
There was also an appeal for complete and unconditional cancellation of African debt, including that owed to the multilateral financial institutions, along the lines of the Jubilee campaigns. Echoing the views of African NGO speakers at the Forum, CONGO President Renate Bloem stated: “As all alternatives proposed and tried in the past have been abject failures, cancellation is the only way to renew economic viability....From the standpoint of global justice, cancellation is necessary to help reverse the continued outflow of wealth from African nations to the richest ones.”
In this respect, Mr. Demba Dembele, the organizer of the Dakar 2000 international civil society conference on debt, developed this argument further at the 18 July breakfast Ministerial Roundtable on resource mobilization and debt. He presented an independent study by two London-based chartered accountants commissioned by Drop the Debt, the successor campaigning organisation of Jubilee 2000 UK. According to the study, the IMF and the World Bank could afford complete cancellation of debt owed to them by HIPC countries, without undermining these institutions’ ability to carry out their overall functions. This could be done through a combination of measures, including using reserves to generate extra income and a repeat revaluation of part of the IMF’s gold stocks, which the report says are kept on the institution’s books at a historically low value. At the Roundtable and at a public meeting on 17 July, World Bank Vice President Mats Karlsson said he disagreed with the figures cited in the report and said debt cancellation would not be possible without crippling the lending system.
HUMANITARIAN SEGMENT
Members of ECOSOC devoted three days of their annual session to a discussion on improving coordination of responses by the United Nations, its specialized agencies, and other international and non-governmental organizations to humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters. The Council adopted a Vice-President’s summary, which addressed, among other things, the lack of funding for United Nations humanitarian activities and the unbalanced levels of funding for humanitarian and disaster relief assistance in different geographic locations. The summary says there is a perceived correlation between lack of media coverage on a particular crisis situation and lack of funding.
Ruud Lubbers, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, stipulated that his agency’s understanding of partnership was broad and inclusive. The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees coordinates and works with a range of UN specialized agencies, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs. He addressed the issue of staff security and told delegates that the call for greater interagency coordination on security matters should coincide with a coordinated response from the donor community to pay for it.
During the debate Kenzo Oshima, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, introduced the report of the Secretary-General on Strengthening the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations (A/56/95-E/2001/85). The report discusses the context and challenges of humanitarian assistance over the period 2000-2001 and the coordination and response the international community has given to these crises. It addresses key issues in coordination, such as the protection of civilians in armed conflict, internal displacement, gender and children, and it discusses progress and constraints in strengthening the coordination of humanitarian assistance. Mr. Oshima said among other things that donor response to emergencies was generous, but more funds nonetheless were needed. In particular donors were requested to address the disturbing situation whereby the provision of non-food items, such as medical and sanitation supplies, often fell short of the provision of food aid.
Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme and Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa, told the meeting that the emergency phase of response to well-publicized disasters was usually well-funded, but assistance tended to fall off very quickly after a few months. There needed to be much more funding over the longer term to help people to return to their earlier states, she told delegates.
OPERATIONAL SEGMENT
After several days of debate on the topic of operational activities for development, the Council adopted agreed conclusions, in which it expressed concerns that despite recent increases, there was an overall reduction in the flow of regular resources to finance projects in the area of international development cooperation. It also noted that the reduction of resources affected the efficiency, the impact and the very functioning of the United Nations system in its cooperation with developing countries; and that effective coordination within the United Nations of development efforts was vital. Council members also discussed the UN Secretary-General’s report on the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of Operational Activities for Development of United Nations Activities. The report (E/2001/66) evaluates progress in the implementation of the multi-year funding frameworks and the evaluation of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework. In its conclusions, the report says that the greatest challenge to the United Nations development system at present is to enhance its capacity to adapt and respond quickly and with flexibility to a rapidly changing global environment. During the exchange of views on the Triennial Policy Review, delegations noted, among other things, the need for more efficient and country-driven development projects and an increase in funding for UN development activities.
COORDINATION SEGMENT
After intensive debates on the topic of the role of the United Nations in promoting development, particularly with respect to access to transfer of knowledge and technology, especially information and communication technologies (ICT), the Council adopted agreed conclusions noting, among other things, that the majority of the world population had not yet reaped the full benefits of the ICT revolution, and that reality exposed many countries, especially in the developing world, to technological dependence and monopolistic pricing of technology, knowledge products and services. The conclusions also said that transfer of technology should be suited to the particular needs of developing countries and their development policies; and that developed countries should share with developing and transition-economy countries their experience in promoting and establishing ICT sectors in their own economies so that mistakes could be avoided and benefits maximized.
OTHER COUNCIL DECISIONS
The Council adopted a number of other resolutions, decisions and measures recommended to it by its subsidiary bodies. It also adopted a series of additional measures, which include:
--demanding that Israel comply fully with the provisions and principles of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, among other international agreements, to protect the rights of Palestinian women and their families;
--deciding to convene the first annual session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 6-17 May 2002 without setting a precedent as to any future location of the Forum;
--requesting the Secretary-General to continue to disseminate the consolidated list of products harmful to health and the environment, and to look into the possibility of on-line dissemination of the list;
--recommending that the General Assembly take a decision at its 56th session on the question of enlarging the membership of the Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 58 to 61 States; and
--deciding to adopt the following themes, respectively, for the high-level and coordination segments of the 2002 session of ECOSOC, to be held in July in New York:
- the contribution of human resources development, including in the area of health
and education, to the process of development; and
- strengthening further the Economic and Social Council, and building on its recent
achievements, to help fulfil the role ascribed to it in the Charter of the United
Nations and as contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
CONTACT
Hanifa Mezoui
Chief
Non-Governmental Organizations Section
United Nations
Room DC1-1480
New York NY 10017
USA
telephone +1-212/963 8652
fax +1-212/963 9248
e-mail <mezoui@un.org>
website (www.un.org)
Renate Bloem
President
Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship
with the United Nations (CONGO)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
telephone +41-22/917 1881
fax +41-22/917 0373
e-mail <congongo@iprolink.ch>
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.