The Council's coordination segment addressed the coordinated follow-up and implementation of the results of major recent international conferences in the economic, social and related fields. The agreed conclusions envisage the integrated consideration by the General Assembly of themes common to those conferences with a view to promoting better coherence and integrated policy guidance. This may involve measures to improve the coherence of the work of the relevant Main Committees of the Assembly. The Council, for its part, decided to carry out an annual review of cross-cutting themes common to major international conferences and to take action to ensure the necessary coordination of agendas and work programmes of the functional commissions involved in the follow-up to the various international conferences. Attention was also given to measures for the strengthening of inter-agency coordination at the regional and country levels, and to the role of the resident coordinators in facilitating national reporting on progress achieved in the follow-up to global conferences. The Council invited the Administrative Committee on Coordination to bring system-wide coordination issues to the attention of the Council and to make recommendations thereon. Implementation of the agreed conclusions will enhance complementarity and coherence between the Council and the General Assembly, including their subsidiary bodies, as well as interaction between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization. The complementary steps initiated by the Administrative Committee on Coordination to pursue conference agendas within a common framework will promote unity of purpose and action in the United Nations system as a whole.
The operational activities segment began to exercise its new mandate to provide policy guidance to the United Nations funds and programmes. The guidance provided covers priorities in budget allocations, improved coherence in country programmes and improved cost-effectiveness of administrative services, including the possible use of common administrative services at the field level. The Council reaffirmed the need to increase substantially the availability of resources allocated to operational activities for development on a predictable, continuous and assured basis commensurate with the needs of developing countries.
In line with these conclusions and in accordance with General Assembly resolution 47/199 of 22 December 1992, I will submit to the Assembly a range of specific recommendations, in the context of the triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities, on further steps to strengthen the role of the Economic and Social Council in this field and on important subjects such as improved substantive operational coordination at the country level, increasing the predictability and levels of resources, strengthening the resident coordinator system and a variety of programme tools such as the country strategy note, the programme approach and national execution.
The Council initiated a review of arrangements for consultations with non-governmental organizations. By its resolution 1993/80, the Council established the Open-ended Working Group on the Review of Arrangements for Consultations with Non-Governmental Organizations. A primary objective is to update and introduce coherence in the rules governing the participation of non-governmental organizations in international conferences convened by the United Nations. The Council requested the Working Group to examine ways and means of improving practical arrangements for the work of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations and the Non-Governmental Organizations Unit of the Secretariat.
The Working Group held its first substantive session from 20 to 24 June 1994. An inter-sessional meeting took place on 7 and 8 November 1994. Its second substantive session was held from 8 to 12, 26 and 31 May 1995. At its substantive session, the Economic and Social Council approved the recommendation of the Working Group that its mandate be extended for one year and that its final report be presented to the Council at its substantive session of 1996.
In accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1994/24, a Committee of Co-Sponsoring Organizations was constituted by the heads of the six co-sponsors of the joint programme on HIV/AIDS (the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank), known as UNAIDS. As the United Nations system's main advocate for the global response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, UNAIDS has three mutually reinforcing roles: to provide globally relevant policy on HIV/AIDS and promote international best practice and research; to provide technical support for an expanded response to HIV/AIDS, particularly in developing countries; and to advocate a comprehensive, multisectoral response to HIV/AIDS, well-resourced and strategically, ethically and technically sound.
At its second meeting, on 12 December 1994, the Committee of Co-Sponsoring Organizations unanimously recommended Dr. Peter Piot as director of the UNAIDS programme and the Secretary-General appointed Dr. Piot as Executive Director for a period of three years starting on 1 January 1995. On 5 May, the Economic and Social Council decided on the regional distribution of seats for 22 Member States to be represented on the Programme Coordinating Board of UNAIDS. It decided that each of the six co-sponsoring organizations, as well as five non-governmental organizations, would participate in the work of the Board. The Board held its first meeting on 13 and 14 July at Geneva.
The Commission for Social Development began its consideration of arrangements for the follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development's Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action at its 34th session, held in New York from 10 to 20 April 1995. The Economic and Social Council concluded that the scope and methods of work of the Commission should be adapted to enable it to play a more effective role in promoting an integrated approach to social development in the aftermath of the World Summit. It decided that the Commission should hold a special session in 1996 to review from this perspective its mandate, terms of reference and scope of work, elaborate a multi-year programme of work and make recommendations to the Council on the frequency of the Commission's meetings.
During its session the Commission also heard the first report of Mr. Bengt Lindqvist, the Special Rapporteur on the Monitoring of the Standard Rules for the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. The Commission also started preparations for the International Year of Older Persons, to be observed in 1999, and advanced the preparations of a world programme of action for youth, to be adopted by the General Assembly during its fiftieth session.
The Commission on Sustainable Development held its third session, including its high-level segment, in New York from 11 to 28 April 1995. More than 40 ministers attended, holding portfolios such as the environment, forestry, agriculture, tourism, development and finance. Fifty-five Governments submitted national reports on their activities in support of sustainable development by the twenty-first century. The session included panel discussions between senior officials from Governments, international financial institutions, United Nations agencies and programmes, the business community and non-governmental organizations. Two days were dedicated to the sharing of national experiences in implementing Agenda 21, adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992, and a "Day of Local Authorities" examined grass-roots efforts to achieve sustainable development. These initiatives received welcome support from the large number of non-governmental organizations attending the session, who see in the Commission a transparent and participatory mechanism for addressing sustainable development concerns, including those at the national and community levels. The Commission agreed to establish an intergovernmental panel to formulate by 1997 coordinated proposals for action with regard to the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forest. The Commission also endorsed work programmes on consumption and production patterns, the elaboration of sustainable development indicators and the transfer of environmentally sound technology.
The concluding high-level segment (26-28 April) of the Commission addressed challenges on the path towards the full implementation of Agenda 21. The Chairman's summary noted that the insufficiency of the financial resources available to support national efforts, particularly in developing countries and economies in transition, remains a continuing constraint to achieving sustainable development.
The Committee on New and Renewable Sources of Energy and on Energy for Development, a subsidiary expert body of the Economic and Social Council, held a special session on rural development from 6 to 17 February. It proposed a strategy that would include development of national sustainable energy action programmes for agricultural and rural development; priority for rural energy development; capacity-building in rural energy development; new directions in management and institutional arrangements; new financial and investment arrangements; accelerated development and implementation of new technologies; new international actions for rural energy development; and strengthening of sustainable energy activities within the United Nations system. The Commission on Sustainable Development agreed at its April 1995 session to encourage Governments to integrate renewable forms of energy into their national strategies for sustainable and rural development. It urged Governments to support efforts of interested developing countries towards the sustainable use of an appropriate mix of fossil and renewable sources of energy for rural communities.
The Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace is intended to coalesce reflection about the advancement of women and propose new directions into the twenty-first century. During the autumn of 1994 regional preparatory meetings were held in four regions, a number of expert group meetings on specific themes were organized and informal consultations were held with Member States on the draft of the platform for action. From 16 March to 7 April, the Commission on the Status of Women, acting as preparatory committee for the Conference, met and continued negotiations on the platform for action. Subsequent to the session, the focus shifted to promoting participation by Governments and non-governmental organizations in the Conference, ensuring public information about it and supporting the intergovernmental negotiation process. From 31 July to 4 August, informal consultations were convened by the chairperson of the Commission to continue negotiations. The Conference preparations have involved the largest number of non-governmental organizations ever accredited for a United Nations conference and a major effort has been made to facilitate their participation in the process.
The Division for the Advancement of Women completed, as conference documents, two major studies, one entitled "Women in a Changing Global Economy: The 1994 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development", and the second a review and appraisal of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women. In-depth studies of women and education and training, women in international decision-making and women in economic decision-making were also completed. Steps have been taken to ensure that the relevant human rights mechanisms of the United Nations regularly address violations of the rights of women, including gender-specific abuses, through provision of gender-based information to treaty bodies, work on the development of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and work on guidelines for integrating gender into human rights monitoring.
The issue of how best to ensure advancement of women in the work of the Secretariat and the United Nations system as a whole is one of the major areas central to the Conference and its follow-up. The institutional mechanisms for this are being reviewed internally and by Governments of Member States.