Working Group

Open-ended Ad-hoc Working Group of the General Assembly on the Integrated and Coordinated Implementation of and Follow up to the outcomes of the major United Nations Conferences and Summits in the Economic and Social Fields

The General Assembly Resolution 57/270 provides the basis and the work of the Working Group should be consistent with the provisions of the General Assembly resolution 50/227, bearing in mind the continuing reform process of the United Nations;

The provisional agenda of the Working Group are interlinked and constitute a comprehensive framework towards the integrated and coordinated implementation and follow-up to the major UN Conferences and Summits;

The Working Group should provide recommendations that would contribute to the achievement of internationally agreed targets and goals, including the MDGs, through effective and successful implementation and fulfillment of the commitments made at major UN Conferences and Summits in the economic and social fields, by all stakeholders;

The effective implementation of the outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits requires urgent fulfillment of commitments relating to means of implementation. In this context, cross-sectoral commitment regarding financial resources, capacity building, technology transfer, and market access should be honoured, and appropriately and regularly reviewed at national, regional and international levels;

All internationally agreed development targets and goals and commitments made by all stakeholders at the major UN Conferences and Summits, including the MDGs and are part of development agenda that should be considered in a balanced manner and should be fully implemented;

The assessment by the ECOSOC of the implementation of the outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits in the economic and social field could be undertaken, as appropriate, through a cross cutting approach based in common themes, as a tool to identify gaps and overlappings. In order to avoid such possible mechanism to become a potential source of conditionalities, some aspects should be decided in advance, such as focus, format, a selection of some prioritized cross cutting issues, etc.

INTEGRATED AND COORDINATED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OUTCOMES OF MAJOR UN CONFERENCES AND SUMMITS, AT NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVELS

1. The recommendation of the WG should result in concrete impact the at country level. In this regard, it is important to ensure the linkage and harmonization between policy development and operational activities of the UN fund and programmes, UN specialized agencies, BWIs and WTO.

2. The status of the implementation and fulfillment of the commitments made by all stakeholders at the major UN conferences and summits should be systematically reviewed and assessed at all levels.

3. Implementation at the national level should be carried out in accordance with countries’ priorities. In this context, the mechanism and instrument for integrated and coordinated implementation should be guided by a country-driven and ownership principle.

4. The outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits should be integrated as guidelines in designing the programme of the operational activities of the UN Funds and Programmes. Commitments made to provide commensurate resources to achieve the internationally agreed development goals and objectives should be honoured and periodic review to assess the status of implementation should be undertaken by its respective existing mechanisms.

5. Reporting mechanism by national governments should be harmonized and simplified. Reports should be provided based on national data and statistics and in this regard, support to the national capacities should be provided where needed.

6. The developed countries should ensure the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals including those contained Millennium Declaration through policies that are consistent and coherent with the commitments made at the major UN conferences and summits.

7. The developed countries should assist efforts by the developing countries to achieve sustainable development and the eradication of poverty.

8. Adequate financial resources, transfer of technology and capacity building should be provided to implement the outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits.

9. The guidelines for the programmes of work for all intergovernmental mechanisms, the CEB and the UNDG should be based on the outcomes of major conferences and summits.

10. Greater coordination between heads of international agencies should be enhanced to ensure integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow up to the major UN conferences and summits.

11. BWI’s and WTO have an important role to play both in the implementation and follow up of the UN conferences and summits. In this context, modalities of further interaction with the UN need to be explored with a view to contribute to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals and target including the MDGs.

12. Work programmes of other relevant stakeholders at the regional level, including the regional development banks should be appropriately geared to achieve the development goals and targets sets out by the major UN conference and summits.

13. Modalities for engaging civil society and the private sector have to be clearly defined in order to promote their enhanced participation in the implementation and follow up of the major UN conferences and summits.

14. Global reviews on progress achieved in the implementation of the internationally agreed development goals including MDG’s should be carried out in a comprehensive and balance manner. In this regard, particular attention should be paid to the achievement of goal 8 of MDG’s as well as the enabling environment.

15. Assessment of the performance of the existing mechanisms for the implementation of and follow up to the outcomes of major UN conferences and summits should be carried out with a view to improve and enhance their effectiveness as well as to assess the possibility of developing new mechanism.

16. A study providing necessary inputs should be made to facilitate a consideration of creating or strengthening a mechanism on finance and trade issues to review the progress achieved in the implementation of the outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits.

17. Review of the implementation across the board should be focus on implementation of commitments at all levels both in developed and developing countries. In this contexts, there is a need to develop and apply an inter-governmentally agreed tools/ indicators to measure the implementation of all commitments agreed at the major UN conferences and summits by all stakeholders including the UN system.

INTEGRATED AND COORDINATED FOLLOW-UP OF THE OUTCOMES OF MAJOR UN CONFERENCES AND SUMMITS ACCORDING TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY 57/270

1. The role of the General Assembly as the highest intergovernmental mechanism for the formulation and appraisal of policy on matters related to integrated and coordinated follow-up to the major UN conferences and summits should be strengthened.

2. The overall policy formulation and appraisal by the GA should also take into account the outcome of the high level dialogue which will be convened in the alternate years, and attended by high level policy makers and other relevant actors on an agreed theme.

3. The relation between the High-Level Dialogue in the ECOSOC and the General Assembly need to be considered.

4. The recommendation of ECOSOC coordination segment should mutually reinforced the work of functional commissions and specialized agencies.

5. ECOSOC should continue to strengthen its role as the central mechanism for system-wide coordination.

6. The possibility of combining the High Level Segment and the Coordination Segment of ECOSOC to ensure enhanced and high level participation, and enlarging the membership of ECOSOC, at least during the meeting on the Integrated and Coordinated Implementation of and Follow-up to the Major UN Conferences and Summits and dedicated session of ECOSOC on this matter should be considered.

7. A greater harmonization and coherency in the work of all segments of ECOSOC through, inter alia, thematic unity is needed. In this regards, ECOSOC should promote a better linkages and coordination between its subsidiary organs and the executive board of the UN funds and programmes.

8. Greater coordination among the functional commission is needed in order to effectively enhance its work.

9. Regional commission should play a stronger role in the coordination of other relevant stakeholder at the regional levels, including the regional development banks.

10. Mobilization of additional financial resources is required for funding the activities by the UN Funds and Programmes and UN specialized agencies in order to enable them to implement effectively all of the programmes arises from outcomes of the UN major conferences and summits.

THE CONSIDERATION OF THE WORK OF THE PLENARY OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND ITS SECOND AND THIRD COMMITTEES RELEVANT TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FOLLOW-UP TO MAJOR UN CONFERENCES AND SUMMITS, INCLUDING THE MODALITIES OF REPORTS PRESENTED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

The second and third committees of the UN should not be merged and in this regard the Working Group should only provide recommendation on how to structure the work of both committees relevant to the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of major UN conferences and summits. The primacy of the discussion of macro economic policies issues should be maintained.

HOW BEST TO ADDRESS THE REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OUTCOMES OF THE MAJOR UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCES AND SUMMITS, INCLUDING ITS FORMAT AND PERIODICITY

1. UN conferences and summits provides crucial role to improve awareness, momentum as well as to serve as a pressure to stocktaking of the implementation of the outcomes of major UN conferences and summits by all relevant stakeholders at all levels. In this regard, the review of the implementation of the outcomes of major UN conferences and summit is important.

2. Periodicity and format of review should be based on the assessment to the performance of the existing implementation and follow-up mechanism as well as the economic and political developments which require high level engagement.

3. Review of implementation of the outcomes of the major UN conferences should take into account a principle of flexibility. An intermediate and long term review should be linked to the time-bound targets and goals.

Request the Secretariat to produce list of issues that considered as cross sectoral and request them to provide recommendation proposal in this regard.