Background

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and the United Nations system. It is responsible for promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress; identifying solutions to international economic, social and health problems; facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It has the power to make or initiate studies and reports on these issues. It also has the power to assist the preparations and organization of major international conferences in the economic and social and related fields and to facilitate a coordinated follow-up to these conferences. With its broad mandate the Council's purview extends to over 70 per cent of the human and financial resources of the entire UN system.

Picture of the first session of the ECOSOC at Church House in London , 23 January 1946. This picture shows Mr. Gladwyn Jebb (right), Executive Secretary of the United Nations, congratulating Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar of India upon his election as first President of ECOSOC.

The ECOSOC was established under the United Nations Charter as the principal organ to coordinate economic, social, and related work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, 10 functional commissions and five regional commissions. The Council also receives reports from 11 UN funds and programmes.

In the Millennium Declaration , Heads of State and Government decided to further strengthen the Economic and Social Council, building on its recent achievements, to help it fulfill the role ascribed to it in the UN Charter. In carrying out its mandate, ECOSOC consults with academics, business sector representatives and more than 2,100 registered non-governmental organizations . The Council holds a four-week substantive session each July, alternating between New York and Geneva , and it is organized under the High-level Segment, Coordination Segment, Operational Activities Segment, Humanitarian Affairs Segment and the General Segment. At the High-level segment, national cabinet ministers and chiefs of international agencies and other high officials discuss in detail a selected theme of global significance. A Ministerial declaration is generally adopted on the theme of the High-level Segment, which will provide policy guidance and recommendations for action.

ECOSOC events are organized in the Economic and Social Council Chamber. This room was a gift from Sweden . It was conceived by the Swedish architect Sven Markelius, one of the 11 architects in the international team that designed the United Nations Headquarters.

 

Policy leadership

ECOSOC has taken a lead role in key policy areas in recent years:

  • The 1999 High-level segment issued a "Manifesto on Poverty" which, in many respects, anticipated the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals that were approved at the UN Millennium Summit in New York .

  • The Ministerial Declaration of the High-level Segment in 2000 proposed specific actions to address the digital divide, leading directly to the formation in 2001 of the ICT [Information and Communication Technologies] Task Force .

  • The consideration of African development at the 2001 High-level Segment resulted in the first formal international endorsement of the New Partnership for Africa 's Development (NEPAD).

  • The 2002 High-level Segment adopted an innovative resolution on the contribution of human resources, in particular in the area of health and education, to development.

  • The 2003 High-level Segment on the "promotion of an integrated approach to rural development in developing countries for poverty eradication and sustainable development" led to a renewed attention of the issue and the launch of a related initiative on Madagascar.

  • The 2004 High-level Segment focused on Least Developed Countries and resources mobilization and an enabling environment for poverty eradication. The High-level Dialogue of the Council helped to highlight the specific problems of LDCs. It also led to the launch of a rural initiative in Benin .

  • The 2005 High-level Segment, together with the coordination segment, constituted a major input to the 2005 high-level review by the General Assembly of the progress made in the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, including the internationally agreed development goals and the global partnership required for their achievement.

  • The 2006 High-level Segment focused on the issues of full and productive employment and decent work, and its impact on the sustainable development. The ECOSOC Ministerial Declaration of 2006 identified a number of concrete steps for further implementation of the 2005 World Summit to make full and productive employment and decent work a central objective of national and international policies. The Council also held informal discussions on the Annual Ministerial Review and the Development Cooperation Forum, two new functions that ECOSOC will undertake starting 2007.  

Outside of the substantive sessions, ECOSOC initiated in 1998 a tradition of meeting each April with finance ministers heading key committees of the Bretton Woods institutions. These consultations initiated inter-institutional cooperation that paved the way for the success of the International Conference on Financing for Development , held in March 2002 in Monterrey , Mexico and adopted the Monterrey Consensus . At that conference, ECOSOC was assigned a primary role in monitoring and assessing follow-up to the Monterrey Consensus. These ECOSOC meetings have been considered important for deepening the dialogue between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, and for strengthening their partnership for achieving the development goals agreed at the global conferences of the nineties. Participation in the meetings has broadened since the initial meeting in 1998. In addition to the chairperson of the Development Committee of the World Bank and the chairperson of the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the International Monetary Fund, the General Council of the World Trade Organization and the Trade and Development Board of UNCTAD are now also participating in the meeting.