Yearbook of the United Nations, 2007. Part 5, Institutional, administrative and budgetary questions. Chapter 1, United Nations restructuring and institutional matters

Abstract

In 2007, the Secretary-General continued to work with Member States and the UN system to further enhance system-wide coherence in areas of development, humanitarian support and the environment, especially at the country level. He submitted his views on recommendations contained in the 2006 report of the High-level Panel on United Nations System-wide Coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment, entitled “Delivering as one”. The Secretary-General said that the Panel's recommendations provided further impetus to reform measures on United Nations business practices, agreeing fully with the Panel's assessment of the need to consolidate and strengthen current structures, including by focusing on gender equality and the empowerment of women. In January, the “Delivering as one” pilot initiative, recommended by the Panel, was launched to test how the United Nations could provide more coordinated development assistance in eight countries. The Secretary-General asked the Deputy Secretary-General to manage and oversee the system wide coherence agenda to ensure that the UN system's initiatives to act on the Panel's recommendations were guided by, respectful of and closely coordinated with intergovernmental consideration of the Panel's report. However, no agreement was reached by the General Assembly's informal consultations on the follow-up to the Secretary-General's report on the High-level Panel's recommendations. The Assembly President recommended that those consultations should continue. The Assembly's informal working group on mandate review formally re-launched its work since negotiations had stalled in October 2006. However, those negotiations were inconclusive. In December, the Assembly President submitted elements of mutually agreed parameters to continue the mandate review process. For its part, the Security Council's Ad Hoc Committee on Mandate Review achieved its objectives and the Security Council agreed that its work could be concluded. The Secretary-General submitted in December an updated report on the implementation of resolutions on the revitalization of the Assembly's work. The Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters related to the Security Council considered ways to advance progress on Council reforms. The Assembly also adopted a number of decisions for strengthening the Economic and Social Council. The Assembly continued to focus on administrative and institutional matters. It resumed its sixty-first session and opened its sixty-second session on 18 September. Two high-level plenary meetings were convened, including one on the commemoration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade (17 December). The Assembly also declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy. The Security Council held 202 formal meetings to deal with regional conflicts, peacekeeping operations and other issues related to the maintenance of international peace and security. In addition to its organizational and substantive sessions, the Economic and Social Council in April held a special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund), the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.