Yearbook of the United Nations, 2007. Part 3, Economic and social questions. Chapter 5, Regional economic and social activities

Abstract

In 2007, the five regional commissions of the United Nations continued to provide technical cooperation, including advisory services, to their member States. They also promoted programmes and projects and provided training to enhance national capacity building in various sectors. Three of them—the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)— held regular sessions during the year. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) did not meet in 2007, but were scheduled to do so in 2008. The Executive Secretaries of the commissions continued to meet periodically to exchange views and coordinate activities and positions on major development issues. In July, the Economic and Social Council held a dialogue with the Executive Secretaries on the theme “Regional aspects of the themes of the high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council's 2007 substantive session”. In October, the regional commissions signed a cooperation framework agreement with the United Nations Development Programme to optimize their comparative advantages and seek complementaries and synergies in their work at the regional and country levels. At its April session, ECE asked its Executive Secretary to develop further points with regard to ECE reform in order to enhance the functioning of its secretariat and sectoral committees. In a July resolution, the Council endorsed ECA's proposals regarding its intergovernmental machinery, by which ECA's subsidiary organs would be organized into seven sectoral committees. ECA and ECE continued to collaborate on the project for a Europe-Africa fixed link through the Strait of Gibraltar. The Council requested the Executive Secretaries of both Commissions to continue to play an active part in the follow-up to the project. The theme of ESCAP's May session addressed the development of health systems in the context of enhancing economic growth towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Asia and Pacific region. While ESCWA reported robust economic growth for the Arab region in 2007, it continued to express concern about some social development issues, particularly youth unemployment. ECLAC, too, reported positive economic figures for Latin America and the Caribbean for 2007, while treating job creation as a priority topic. In a July resolution, the Council approved the admission of the Republic of Korea as a member of ECLAC.