Development and the UN Economic and Social Council

Released by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations

Thank you, Mr. President.

In the Millennium Declaration, the international community reaffirmed an ambitious set of development goals. With the Doha Development Agenda and the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development, we took major decisions on a framework to implement this agenda.

The Global Conferences of the 1990s forged a broad global consensus on democracy, free markets, sustainability and human rights as the ingredients of successful development. The current cycle of conferences, now drawing to a close, has established that tackling poverty requires realistic targets for outputs, for results and for success.

This is a significant change in our common approach to development. We have shifted from aspirations to quantified and achievable objectives. Donors have committed external resources and developing nations have committed tackling basic issues of governance, thus building the environment for public and private investment.

The United Nations system is at the very center of international support for development. The Economic and Social Council has a unique function, as a coordinating body for the United Nations. The Council needs to serve as a results-driven interface across the UN system. ECOSOC is a venue for measuring and assessing international progress. This role was clearly laid out in the Monterrey Consensus. It is now time for the Council to demonstrate its ability to address these challenges.

The United States appreciates the Report prepared by the Secretary-General for this discussion. It recognizes the importance of rationalizing the implementation of international commitments and calls for improvements on the reforms of recent years to better provide overall guidance and coordination of the UN system.

ECOSOC reform is a perpetual process. The latest reports and proposals are part of a train of exhortations for ECOSOC to better coordinate, integrate, develop political support for, document, and advertise its development role. General Assembly Resolution 50/227 of May 1996 extensively revised the procedures of ECOSOC. It built upon General Assembly Resolutions in 1993 and 1991. Those resolutions themselves offered ECOSOC much of the same general advice.

Mr. President, the real challenge to ECOSOC today is implementation, both of the development agenda and of the Council's own mandates and procedures. During the High Level debate, we heard repeatedly from Ministers that following the Millennium Declaration, Doha and Monterrey, the challenge now is implementation. We agree and we propose that ECOSOC heed the lesson and focus on implementing its own plans, resolutions and intentions. The Economic and Social Council can be an important forum for advancing development if its members, its bureau and its secretariat agree to make real and effective use of the coordination mandate of the Council and eschew the extensive debate that too often consumes us.

Today we have a remarkable development landscape before us. We are agreed on where we want to go. An extensive review of ECOSOC operations has been conducted over the past decade. We know what needs to be done. We know what ECOSOC as a council needs to do. Let us now go and do it.