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Mr. President
I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.
The mandate for the coordination segment of the ECOSOC emanates from the General Assembly resolutions 50/227 and 57/270 B which emphasize the responsibility of the UN system to assist Governments in the implementation of the agreements and commitments reached at the major UN conferences and summits. These resolutions reiterate the need for continuous improvement in the effectiveness, efficiency and management of the UN system in delivering its development assistance.
This mandate was further revitalized in the GA resolution 61/16 of 9 January 2007 with the historic decision to launch the Development Cooperation Forum with a view to enhancing international development cooperation for the realization of the internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs.
In view of the strengthened role of the ECOSOC in overseeing system-wide coordination of economic and social aspects of the UN policies and programmes, we hope our deliberations during this segment will provide an opportunity to review progress made by the UN system in promoting the goals of full employment and decent work. We agree that the World Summit for Social Development had earlier made a major conceptual contribution to promote the centrality of employment and decent work in the development and poverty reduction agenda.
This segment should also help us to identify gaps in the current approaches and to recommend ways and means for the relevant agencies of the UN system to support efforts to mainstream these important goals in their policies, programmes and activities. In this regard, the Group of 77 and China take note of the report of the Secretary-General contained in document E/2007/49.
Mr. President
The Ministerial Declaration of the High Level Segment of the Economic and Social Council of 2006 recognized the full and productive employment and decent work for all as key elements of sustainable development for all countries and, therefore, a priority objective of international cooperation. The Declaration stressed the urgent need for creating an environment at the national and international levels that supports investment, growth and entrepreneurship for the creation of opportunities for men and women to obtain productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. The creation of such an environment is directly linked to and crucial for eradication of poverty and the improvement of the economic and social well-being of the world's poor.
The developing countries have demonstrated dedication to implement their part of these commitments- to devise national development strategies, improve governance, and create a macro-economic climate conducive for growth, trade and investment. Unfortunately, our development partners have not demonstrated a similar readiness in implementing their part of the commitments whether in development assistance and financing, trade, technology transfer and other areas of cooperation.
The Group of 77 and China believe that the United Nations system, particularly its funds, programmes and specialized agencies as well as the financial institutions should keep their part of the bargain and support the efforts of the developing countries.
The implementation of the toolkit, developed by the International Labour Organization to mainstream employment and decent work in the policies and programmes of the UN system would help in this regard. The UNDP and other relevant UN agencies should also consider assisting the programme countries, where requested and as appropriate, in developing projects aimed at generating employment opportunities. Establishing small and medium enterprises through micro-finance and micro-credit initiatives and specifically targeting such enterprises on building supply side trade productive capacities in the developing countries could be particularly helpful.
The G77 and China believe that the achievement of full and productive employment and decent work for all hinges critically upon the promotion of an enabling overall macroeconomic environment based on the implementation of an integrated and coherent set of policies both at the national and international levels. It is, therefore, imperative that macroeconomic policies must endeavour to incorporate employment creation as an integral component.
However, there are increasingly worrying trends in the global economic architecture that continue to impede effective development cooperation necessary to facilitate employment generation in the developing countries.
These include the gradual decline in ODA, widening divide between the rich and the poor countries and rising poverty levels in many countries, the worrying impasse in Doha Trade Negotiations primarily due to a refusal on the part of some to make this a genuinely Development Trade Round, and the continued marginalization of developing countries in international economic decision making.
It is in this context that the Group of 77 and China believe that the role of the Economic and Social Council becomes more crucial to strengthen global partnership for development as set out in the Millennium Declaration, the Monterrey Consensus and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.
The Group would like to propose the following specific actions for effective follow-up to the major UN summits and conferences including the Ministerial Declaration of last year on the theme of full employment and decent work for all.
First: There should be a substantial increase in resources for operational activities of the UN on a predictable, continuous and assured basis to enable the United Nations funds, programmes and the specialized agencies to contribute effectively to promote growth, enterprise creation and sustainable implementation of the outcomes of the major UN Conferences and Summits.
Second The UN system should enhance efforts for the capacity building of the developing countries in human resources development to enable these countries to exploit the full potential of their young populations for national development and growth.
Third The international organizations especially the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization should deepen their interaction with the United Nations particularly in the financing for development process with a view to ensure their participation in the effective implementation of the commitments reached in the Monterrey Consensus.
Fourth The newly launched Development Cooperation Forum and the Annual Ministerial Review under the strengthened ECOSOC should, inter alia, evolve a framework to assess the impact of policies of the UN agencies, funds and programmes, on economic growth and employment generation in the developing countries. This mechanism should also serve to enhance the effectiveness and coherence of international development cooperation and its responsiveness to national development plans and strategies.
Finally The Development Cooperation Forum should also promote exchange of information on best practices amongst the UN system and develop innovative approaches to development problems and challenges. It should encourage UN agencies to identify country specific employment generation policy options for consideration by the member States.
Mr. President
The year 2007 should be a year of concrete action to strengthen the coordination role of the Economic and Social Council in implementation of the major UN summits and conferences. We are already at the halfway mark along our trajectory towards the deadline for achieving the MDGs by 2015. Unless national development strategies and the related commitments of the international community to support these strategies are not fulfilled, we risk failure. The consequences of such failure would be most felt by those most in need, namely the multitudes of humanity living in abject poverty, in conflicts and situations of foreign occupation and under threats of climate change. These are certainly not the situations conducive to creating environment for employment generation and decent work for all.
All of us who are here today have a responsibility towards the needs of the World's poorest. The least we can do towards fulfilling our obligations is to install and strengthen the structures for monitoring the fulfillment of our shared commitments for development cooperation. This would be essential for the success of our national development strategies including the promotion of full employment and decent work for all.