VZCZCXYZ0010
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGV #1748/01 1991438
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 181438Z JUL 06
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1506
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0420
INFO RUEHXX/GENEVA IO MISSIONS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS GENEVA 001748 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR IO/EDA, IO/T 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR EAID ELAB KUNR TBIO
SUBJECT: ECOSOC 2006 SUBSTANTIVE SESSION: COORDINATION 
SEGMENT 
 
REF: GENEVA 1699 (NOTAL) 
 
¶1. (U) Summary:  The Coordination Segment (CS) of ECOSOC's 
Substantive Session met July 6-10 and again on July 17 in 
Geneva.  The Coordination Segment theme "Sustained economic 
growth for social development, including poverty eradication 
and hunger" had strong thematic links to the High Level 
Segment (HLS ) see reftel) which focused on employment 
issues and treated employment as a key route out of poverty. 
The CS required more time than usual to conclude due to 
prolonged negotiations on the segments resolution, which was 
finally approved on July 17.  Delegations meeting in New York 
in June failed to agree on the need for a resolution, but in 
Geneva parties agreed that a short, focused and balanced 
resolution made sense.  A side event on avian flu (see 
septel) was also held July 10 during the Segment.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) This year's ECOSOC Coordination Segment (CS) assumed a 
relatively low profile.  It appears that ongoing New York 
negotiations in June over the Development follow-up 
resolution (A/60/L59) and the ECOSOC HLS Ministerial 
Declaration drew much of the focus away from preparations for 
this segment.  The CS theme "Sustained economic growth for 
social development, including poverty eradication and hunger" 
appeared to a number of delegations to be a repetition of 
numerous debates held in the GA's Second Committee over the 
fall of 2005.  The Secretary General's report for this 
Segment (E/2006/56 - Sustained economic growth for social 
development, including poverty eradication and hunger) 
described the debate between the "human development" approach 
and the "pro-poor growth" approach, and generated a set of 
recommendations on coordination and policy coherence that 
could fit into nearly any UN report on development policy. 
It conspicuously downplayed the importance of democratic 
governance as a necessary component of such growth. 
 
¶3.  (U) Consensus on a Coordination Resolution:  Following 
several false starts in New York, negotiators on a resolution 
to reinforce the Coordination theme finally engaged in Geneva 
in a constructive process that led to consensus.  On the 
margins of a third informal session, the U.S., EU, G-77 and 
Switzerland agreed to scrap a draft text that was overloaded 
with policy prescriptions in favor of a concise, technical 
resolution aimed at implementation of the ECOSOC theme.  The 
facilitator (Iceland) produced a clean draft.  The 
Coordination Segment resolution, which an ECOSOC plenary 
adopted by consensus on July 17 (E/2006/14), recognizes that 
the inter-linkages between economic growth and social 
development are complex and require both sound national 
development strategies and more effective guidance from the 
UN.  The resolution urges the UN to align its studies and 
assistance with national priorities for social development. 
Closing the CS after the resolution was adopted July 17, 
ECOSOC President Hachani presented and the ECOSOC approved an 
oral decision to defer to a resumed session the finalization 
of a multi-year program of work for the CS, and to take note 
of the SYG's report E/2006/56 (discussed on July 6). 
 
¶4. (U) Alongside the negotiations for a resolution described 
above a range of discussions made up the 2006 CS.  Brief 
summaries follow: 
 
A) General Debate:  The general debate that opened the CS 
meeting July 6 focused on managing the interaction between 
economic growth and social development, and explaining what 
the UN might do to help to spur such linkages.  ECOSOC Vice 
President Ambassador Hannesson (Iceland) and Assistant SYG 
for Policy Coordnation Civili opened the debate, which 
featured tatements from nine delegations.  A/SYG Civili 
apeared to give more importance to the need for "poicy 
space" than to correct policy choices by developing 
countries.  The U.S. statement stressed tht policy decisions 
matter, a point which elicite support from many delegations. 
 The U.S. also hghlighted the need to allow the private 
sector fexibility to operate in support of development, 
instead of becoming hobble by excessive regulation.  The G77 
statement wasunusual in that it lauded the recently approved 
General Assembly Development Follow-up resolution, ad 
focused heavily on what it called the new repoting 
requirements contained therein.  The G77 alo stressed that 
the CS is an important ECOSOC sement and should not be 
reduced in length when ECOSOC reform proceeds, a topic that 
has been under discussion among delegations in New York.  In 
its statement, the EU focused on the need to avoid "jobless, 
rootless and faceless growth," arguing that social policies 
are not simply an "add-on" to macroeconomic policy, but a key 
component of development policy. 
 
B) Dialogue with Executive Secretaries of the Regional 
Commissions:  The Executive Secretaries of the Regional 
Commissions briefed ECOSOC July 6 on labor market 
developments in their regions.  While the Asia and the 
Pacific region primarily faced a "jobless growth" situation 
with a few positive exceptions, Latin America faced 
insufficient overall growth, at below 4.5 percent, to impact 
the labor market.  The cluster of issues involving social 
protection in Latin America also needed more sustained 
support from donors and governments.  Africa posted overall 
growth of 5.3 percent last year, but there was little trickle 
down impact and poverty rates and the use of child labor 
remained too high.  The Middle East was likewise lagging in 
new job creation and faced an exploding youth population, for 
which jobs had to be created.  The Executive Secretary for 
Western Asia warned of an inefficient education/training 
system in the region and of an influx of immigrants from 
Asia.  Finally the Economic Commission for Europe noted 
strong employment prospects in some transition economies in 
the former CIS but considerable problems in Central Europe, 
where unemployment was closer to 10 percent. He noted that 
the former CIS countries had learned from Central Europe's 
mistakes about the proper sequencing of economic and labor 
market reforms.  In his intervention, Ambassador Miller noted 
the Executive Secretaries painted a gloomier picture of the 
employment market and economic progress than statistical data 
and trends suggested. 
 
C) Panel Discussion with Executive Secretaries of the 
Functional Commissions:  This July 7 panel discussion 
featured chairs or co-chairs from various ECOSOC functional 
commissions such as the Commission on the Status of Women 
(CSW), the Commission on Science and Technology for 
Development (CSTD), the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF), the 
Commission on Population and Development (CPD) the Commission 
for Social Development (CSD), the Statistical Commission and 
the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  Personnel from the 
Functional Commissions explained their specific approaches to 
their mandates. The panel discussion highlighted the lack of 
coherence among the commissions and confirmed suspicions that 
ECOSOC was not performing an adequate coordinating/guiding 
role, especially now that UN reform was moving forward.  A 
number of delegations highlighted the fact that although 
ECOSOC was responsible for overall policy guidance to the 
commissions, it had failed to provide real direction. 
Ambassador Miller echoed these views and noted that ECOSOC 
members themselves needed to do more to address the 
incoherent approach of the functional commissions to their 
work programs, a key task of the Coordination Segment. 
 
D) Panel Discussion entitled "Sustained economic growth for 
social development and the eradication of poverty:" This July 
7 event featured a mix of government representatives (UK, 
Uganda), UN representatives, and NGOs.  Countries reviewed 
their experience as donors or aid recipients but the 
discussion was clearly biased towards the "pro-poor" growth 
model, noting economic growth in itself was insufficient to 
handle social needs.  A representative from the Geneva-based 
"South Center" gave a 1970's style presentation on the need 
for the developing world to carve out substantially more 
"policy space" and to aim for "resource sovereignty" so that 
natural resources can be used to benefit the poor in 
developing countries.  The need for a democratic political 
system to support the interests of the poor in national 
development programs was not addressed in these 
presentations, until Ambassador Miller noted the concept's 
conspicuous absence.  He also challenged a number of the 
presentations for using statistics selectively to support 
their arguments. 
 
5 (U) Avian flu Event:  The ECOSOC event drew together 
representatives from a number of organizations, including the 
WHO, UNDP, ICAO, the World Bank and the World Tourism 
Organization, who detailed their preparations for a possible 
widespread outbreak among humans, and their responses to the 
illness among poultry.  Attention was drawn to the spread of 
the problem to Africa, and the weakness of the veterinary and 
health delivery systems in Africa.  Successes in containing 
the disease in Europe and East Asia were attributed to good 
communications with the public and early alerts to farmers, 
and a strong veterinary response. The resources pledged at 
Beijing (before the spread to Africa) are unlikely to be 
sufficient to deal with the poultry problem in Africa.  There 
were calls for the development and distribution of affordable 
vaccines (see septel for expanded report). 
TICHENOR