Meetings and Events
Commission for Social Development
The Commission for Social Development is a functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. It consists of 46 members elected by ECOSOC.
Since the convening of the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, the Commission has been the key UN body in charge of the follow-up and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. As a result of the Summit, the mandate of the Commission was reviewed and its membership expanded from 32 to 46 members in 1996. It meets once a year in New York, usually in February.
Each year since 1995, the Commission has taken up key social development themes as part of its follow-up to the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit. These themes are listed below. The pages contain all documentation of the Commission for each of its sessions since the Summit.
In 2001, the Bureau of the Commission for Social Development initiated a review of the working methods of the Commission.
The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
It is a high-level advisory body that deals with indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, environment, education, health and human rights.
Since it's stablishment UNPFII has held four annual sessions, and the last three have thematically focused on Indigenous Youth, Indigenous Women, and the first two Millenium Goals. The Fifth Session of the Permanent Forum will focus on the remaining six MDGs.
The International Forum for Social Development
The International Forum for Social Development is a recent initiative of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs to bring together personalities from Governments, international and regional organizations, the private sector and civil society for an informal dialogue on global issues of development and social progress.
The Forum is part of the follow-up to the outcome of the 1995 World Summit for Social Development as well as of subsequent major international gatherings, including the Millennium Summit. The overarching theme of the International Forum for Social Development, which is being carried out as a technical cooperation activity financed by voluntary contributions, is Open Societies, Open Economies: Challenges and Opportunities. The Forum seeks to promote international cooperation for social development and to support developing countries and social groups not currently benefiting from the globalization process.
The International Year of Microcredit
Microcredit has been changing people's lives and revitalizing communities since the beginning of trade. Currently microentrepreneurs use loans as small as $100 to grow thriving business and, in turn, provide their families, leading to strong and flourishing local economies. The year of Microcredit 2005 calls for building inclusive financial sectors and strengthening the powerful, but often untapped, entrepreneurial spirit existing in communities around the world.
Social Summit +5 (Geneva 2000)
The United Nations General Assembly convened a special session in Geneva in June-July 2000 to assess the achievements made at the Social Summit of Copenhagen and to discuss new initiatives.
The special session marks the fifth anniversary of the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, that was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, a conference that decidedly promoted the social development agenda as an international and national priority. Yet in reviewing developments since Copenhagen, countries agreed that progress in reducing poverty and unemployment had not materialized, and that countries were still far from reaching internationally set goals on health and education.
Without renegotiating the outcome of the Social Summit, the special session managed to go beyond Copenhagen to reach agreements on ever more sensitive issues, such as national taxation, new and innovative sources of finance and on the need for greater openness, transparency and accountability in national governments and in international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
World Summit for Social Development Copenhagen 1995
At the World Summit for Social Development, held in March 1995 in Copenhagen, Governments reached a new consensus on the need to put people at the centre of development. The Social Summit was the largest gathering ever of world leaders at that time.
It pledged to make the conquest of poverty, the goal of full employment and the fostering of social integration overriding objectives of development.
At the conclusion of the World Summit for Social Development, Governments adopted a Declaration and Programme of Action which represent a new consensus on the need to put people at the centre of development. The largest gathering yet of world leaders 117 heads of State or Government - pledged to make the conquest of poverty, the goal of full employment and the fostering of stable, safe and just societies their overriding objectives.
Second World Assembly on Ageing Madrid, 8-12 April 2002
The General Assembly resolved to hold the Second World Assembly on Ageing in 2002 in order to assess the progress made by Member States during the past 20 years in implementing the Vienna Plan of Action. A Preparatory Committee was established to review new challenges and barriers to progress, and to provide an outcome document for the World Assembly - a new Plan of Action on Ageing.