Economic and Social Council reviews world economic and social policy, calls for measures to combat AIDS.

Economic and Social Council reviews world economic and social policy, calls for measures to combat AIDS

THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL, at its second regular 1987 session (Geneva, 23 June--9 July), made a broad review of international economic and social policy, adopting 58 texts on matters ranging from specific development and assistance issues to food and population problems to combating the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic.

In opening the session, Council President Eugeniusz Noworyta of Poland said that international co-operation "should enrich countries and not impoverish some of them'. Without restoring mutual confidence, economic co-operation, trade and resource flows would not attain levels commensurate with development needs.

Many negative phenomena persisted in international relations which inhibited wide co-operation among countries at different levels of development, and the introduction of an equitable international economic order, taking account of the legitimate interests of all groups of countries. Disparities between the economic potential of States had increased, he said.

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar told the 54-member body of some general improvements in the world economic picture, while stipulating that risks from financial imbalances, unstable exchange rates and other uncertainties still existed. Sufficient attention was not paid to emerging social problems and their consequences, he added.

One urgent social problem on which the Council adopted a resolution was AIDS, expressing deep concern that the disease had assumed pandemic proportions affecting all regions. It called on States to take measures to prevent and

control AIDS in line with the global strategy recently formulated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The text, proposed by President Noworyta, stated that AIDS represented a serious threat to the attainment of health for all by the year 2000 and to social and economic development in general. United Nations organizations, and bilateral and multilateral agencies and non-governmental and voluntary organizations, were urged to support the world-wide struggle against AIDS in close co-operation with WHO.

The Council also invited the General Assembly to observe in 1988 WHO's fortieth anniversary "in a manner befitting the organization's achievements and future role in international health'. The Assembly was also asked to proclaim 1990 as International Literacy Year.

Other texts dealt with regional co-operation, special economic, humanitarian and disaster relief assistance, assistance to Palestinians, the effective mobilization and integration of women in development, and science and technology for development. Questions relating to implementation of the General Assembly's 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, permanent sovereignty over natural resources in the occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories, and international co-operation and co-ordination within the United Nations system were also acted on.

Consultation, co-ordination improved

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, addressing the Council on 23 June, made a general assessment of the world economic and social situation. He said that the process of consultation and co-ordination among major market economies had improved. There had been a major realignment of the dollar versus other key currencies as well as a decline in international interest rates. Many developing countries were pursuing courageous adjustment programmes. Several developing countries had recorded rapid growth in 1986. Net material product in the centrally planned economies of Eastern Europe had risen by more than 4 per cent.

In spite of those improvements, he felt the present situation and the immediate outlook were deeply disturbing. The exceptional strains and uncertainties affecting the international economy were not being addressed in a manner that could restore sustained buoyancy to the world economy, reactivate the development process and inspire confidence in the mechanisms of international trade and finance.

The global economy seemed to be set on a slow growth path, and there was considerable risk that growth might slow down further, the Secretary-General observed. That risk stemmed from the persistence of large external and internal imbalances, unstable exchange rates, a high degree of uncertainty in financial and capital markets, mounting protectionist pressures and the depressed state of key commodity markets.

Mr. Perez de Cuellar emphasized that there was immediate need for action to protect earnings of the countries dependent on commodity exports. The flow of resources into developing countries had been abruptly curtailed in recent years to the point where many of those countries had a negative cash flow and had to run trade surpluses to pay the interest on their debt. That was having a depressing effect on developed economies as well. At a time when some industrial countries had large financial surpluses, consideration should be given to directing part of them to developing countries, particularly through multilateral institutions.

With reference to the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development, 1986-1990, the Secretary-General expressed concern that the international community had failed to provide adequate support, particularly as regards financing, for efforts towards structural adjustment that African countries were making in order to establish a sound basis for growth and development. Action must also be taken to relieve the debt burden which weighed so heavily on many developing countries, especially in Africa and Latin America.

Sufficient attention was not paid to emerging social problems and their consequences, he stated. For example, population trends posed serious constraints on efforts to improve the well-being of people in many parts of the world. The aging of populations and youth unemployment were among the most serious demographic issues of our time, as were drug abuse and trafficking and crime prevention and control. More had to be done to ensure the better integration of economic and social considerations, whether it be lasting solutions to the refugee problem, the eradication of illiteracy or the full integration of women into economic and social life. The changing role of the family as societies became more complex deserved critical examination in the context of overall development.

International economic social policy

In a resolution on the net transfer of resources from developing to developed countries, the Council emphasized the need for the urgent adoption of specific measures to reverse the negative net transfer of resources by reducing the outflow of resources from developing to developed countries and by increasing the flow of resources to developing countries. Developed countries were urged to increase and improve access to their markets for products from developing countries, to take steps to improve and protect the purchasing power of developing countries export earnings, and to increase the flow of official development assistance to developing countries so as to achieve by the end of the decade the established target of 0.7 per cent of the gross national product of developed countries.

Developed countries were also urged to encourage the increase of both private finance and non-concessional public long-term lending and, in that regard, to improve the terms of lending; and to provide substantial debt relief. Developed countries were called upon to take concrete action directed towards correcting the major imbalances in the world economy, which contributed to the net reverse transfer of resources.

The vote on the text was 31 in favour to 11 against (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom, United States), with 3 abstentions (Iceland, Norway, Turkey).

By another resolution, the Council invited the Secretary-General to submit an updated report to the General Assembly in 1991 on the role of the public sector in promoting the economic development of developing countries. Appropriate organs, organizations and programmes of the United Nations system were invited to provide opportunities for the exchange of experience and information on the role of the public sector in the economic and social development of developing countries.

The Council also asked the Secretary-General to provide the 1988 General Assembly with a comprehensive analysis of the global effects of the indebtedness and persistent fiscal and external imbalances of developed countries on the international economic environment and in particular on the development process in developing countries.

Food problems

The Council noted with concern that hunger and malnutrition had been increasing since the World Food Conference in 1974, that the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition had grown in the 1980s and that the central objective of the World Food Conference remained largely unfulfilled. It endorsed the Beijing Declaration of the World Food Council (see UN Chronicle, August 1987, No. 3) as a reaffirmation of the world community's commitment to the eradication of hunger and malnutrition and as a framework to accelerate action to attain that objective.

Governments and international assistance agencies were called on to redouble national and regional food strategy efforts as part of comprehensive economic and social action to eliminate hunger and poverty. It recognized that developing countries pursuing self-reliance might be obliged to adopt policies that could protect their agricultural production.

It also reaffirmed that support measures for agricultural exports, together with other protectionist practices that certain developed countries applied in the agricultural sector, contributed to an accumulation of excess stocks on the world market and that depressed international prices did not serve the purposes of world food security in that the domestic output of developing countries might be eliminated from local and international markets.

All countries were asked to make a greater effort to participate actively in the negotiations on the third replenishment of the International Fund for Agricultural Development. All contributors to the Fund were urged to make additional efforts to contribute to the Fund's resources with a view to ensuring the highest possible level of replenishment while preserving the institution and its unique structure. Regional development banks, regional commissions, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and donor countries were invited to facilitate practical arrangements to accelerate financing and technical and economic co-operation among developing countries, giving particular attention to the expansion of tripartite arrangements through which developing countries would help to finance South-South co-operative action. (The vote on the text was 34 in favour to none against, with 13 abstentions.)

In another resolution, the Council submitted to the General Assembly for consideration and adoption a draft resolution by which the Assembly would establish for 1989 and 1990 a target for voluntary contributions to the World Food Programme of $1.4 billion, and would express the hope that those resources would be augmented by substantial additional contributions from other sources. It would further urge United Nations Member States and members and associate members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and appropriate donor organizations to make every effort to ensure the full attainment of the target.

Population questions

The Secretary-General was asked to continue vigorously the monitoring of world population trends and policies and to prepare the review and appraisal of the World Population Plan of Action. Work programmes were to continue on socio-economic development and population; interrelationships between the status and role of women and population; population policies; analytical studies with respect to demographic target-setting; estimates and projections of population; mortality analysis; fertility and family planning; urbanization and internal and international migration; consequences of changes in population and household structure; and development of the Population Information Network.

Interdisciplinary technical co-operation activities were to continue in such areas as: training in demography and population-and-development matters; evaluation and analysis of basic population data, particularly with respect to the 1990 round of population censuses, use of computer programmes, and dissemination of data and their utilization in national development planning.

By another text, the Secretary-General was asked to prepare regular reports on the activities of the United Nations system in the field of population, on the work of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in the implementation of the World Population Plan of Action and on the monitoring of multilateral population assistance.

By another resolution, the Council recommended that the General Assembly approve the change of the name of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) to the United Nations Population Fund, while retaining the abbreviation UNFPA.

Women in development

In a resolution on strengthening the work of the United Nations in integrating women effectively in economic development programmes and activities, the Secretary-General was asked to make specific recommendations aimed at enhancing co-ordination in the implementation of the economic development measures contained in the 1985 Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the year 2000.

The five regional commissions were asked to implement the system-wide medium-term plan for women and development and to make every effort to develop fully its regional dimensions.

The Secretary-General was to make every effort to ensure that sufficient expertise be made available to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) for implementing the work programme of regional and subregional machinery for integrating women in development in Africa.

Regional co-operation

Member States, African and international organizations and the secretariats of ECA, the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) were urged to intensify efforts to accelerate implementation of the programme for the Industrial Development Decade for Africa (1980s) during its remaining four years. It appealed for an increased flow of investment and technical assistance resources to the industrial sector in Africa to make it possible to facilitate the implementation of the programme for the Decade.

The Decade was proclaimed in December 1980, on UNIDO's recommendation, to mobilize greater political commitment to, and financial and technical support for, Africa's industrialization.

In a resolution on a Europe-Africa permanent link through the Strait of Gibraltar, the Executive Secretaries of ECA and the Economic Commission for Europe were asked to allocate as far as possible the resources necessary for the evaluation of studies and work relating to the project.

In other texts, the Council:

Called on the international community to give high priority to the agricultural sector in Africa, in particular to agricultural research and the development of technology. The Secretary-General was asked to make proposals to the General Assembly that would be relevant to the international year for the mobilization of financial and technological resources to increase food and agricultural production in Africa. (In its resolution 38/198, the Assembly had noted that 1991 might be designated such a year.)

Asked the Secretary-General to enable the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia to meet its personnel requirements.

Palestinians

The Council asked the Secretary-General to seek the implementation of the programme of economic and social assistance to Palestinians set out in his report (A/42/289-E /1987/86 and Add. 1) in close co-operation with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and to co-ordinate the activities envisaged by United Nations organizations within the programme's framework.

It urged the disbursement of aid or assistance to the occupied Palestinian territories solely for the benefit of Palestinians and in a manner that would not serve to prolong Israeli occupation.

The international community, the United Nations system and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations were asked to sustain and increase their assistance to Palestinians in co-operation with the PLO. (The vote on the text was 48 in favour to 1 against [United States], with no abstentions.)

In a resolution on Israeli economic practices in the occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories, the Secretary-General was asked to implement in full General Assembly decision 40/432, by which the Assembly had asked the Secretary-General to prepare a report on the financial and trade practices of the Israeli occupation authorities in those territories. (The vote on the text was 47 in favour to none against, with 1 abstention [United States].)

Photo: President Noworyta

Photo: "International co-operation to enrich countries, not impoverish them . . .'