Welcome to the website of the Executive Committee of Economic and Social Affairs (ECESA). ECESA is an Executive Committees of the United Nations and aims to bring coherence and common approaches among United Nations’ entities engaged in normative, analytical and technical work in the economic and social field.
Unifying for common results
Making the UN work better as a system
Promoting a unified approach for advancing the UN development agenda
Quotations:
"ECESA brings together United Nations Departments, Offices, Funds and Programmes and other entities by substance rather than by the source of financing."
Secretary-General's letter to the President of the General Assembly (A/51/829)
"As a global center of innovative thinking and consensus building, the United Nations can make maximum use of its analytical capacity to identify common problems and find solutions."
Secretary-General's report on Renewing the United Nations: a programme for reform (A/51/950)
The outcome of the 2005 World Summit calls thus for very specific action to improve the coherence of the United Nations system and make it genuinely function as a system. ECESA has a major role on this front. It works through 11 thematic clusters bringing together programme managers. The clusters all operate within the framework of the internationally agreed development goals.
ECESA aims to sharpen the contribution that each unit makes to the overall objectives of the United Nations, facilitating greater complementarity and coherence, and thereby also reducing duplication of effort. ECESA is designed as an instrument of policy development, decision-making and management to reach this goal. The heads of United Nations entities that make up ECESA’s membership consult with one another on policy issues, on work programmes, as well as on other substantive and administrative matters of collective concern. Through its thematic clusters, ECESA identifies and exploits ways of pooling resources and services in order to facilitate joint strategic planning and decision-making, maximize programme impact and minimize administrative costs.