The draft biennial calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations is prepared in odd-numbered years by the Planning Unit of the Planning and Meetings Servicing Section on the basis of the budgetary proposals of the Secretary-General and information provided by the programme managers responsible for the substantive servicing of each United Nations body.  The calendar is designed to ensure optimum utilization of conference-servicing resources.  Particular attention is paid in the planning stage to ensure that conferences and meetings are staggered throughout the year and to avoid the overlapping of meetings related to the same sector of activity in the same conference location.

    At its substantive session in odd-numbered years, the Committee on Conferences examines the draft biennial calendar; in even-numbered years, the Committee examines the draft revised calendar for the second year of the biennium.  The draft, amended as necessary by the Committee, is submitted to the General Assembly through its Fifth (administrative and budgetary) Committee, and ultimately adopted in a resolution at the close of the main part of the Assembly session, usually in December.  The General Assembly may subsequently authorize changes to the calendar as it reviews its agenda and hands down mandates to its various subsidiary organs.

    Once the new biennium begins, requests for changes to the approved calendar, known as inter-sessional departures, are referred for approval to the Committee on Conferences, which acts on behalf of the General Assembly.