New ECOSOC Coordination Segment Aims to Maximize Impact | News | SDG Knowledge Center

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) convened its 2022 coordination segment. The two-day session aimed to advance the outcomes of the 2021 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) through integrated action among United Nations bodies.

In resolution 75/290A of June 2021, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) agreed to modify several elements of ECOSOC’s work and annual calendar of meetings. With regard to the coordination segment, it decided that the segment will provide guidance and coordination to the subsidiary bodies, ensuring a clearer division of labour, aligning their work with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and promoting the implementation of the HLPF Ministerial Declaration of the previous year.

The Coordination Segment was mandated to provide detailed guidance to the subsidiary bodies of ECOSOC and other organs of the United Nations system, regarding their work on the main theme of the ECOSOC cycle, their contributions to the thematic review which takes place during this year’s HLPF. It will also review the work of these bodies on the links between the SDGs and the integrated implementation of the 2030 Agenda. participate in the coordination segment.

The 2022 ECOSOC cycle is the first since governments adopted these reforms. ECOSOC President Collen Kelapile launched the segment on February 3, 2022, saying its opening the day after the partnership segment “embodies one of the most significant changes introduced by the General Assembly last June to strengthen ECOSOC”. He explained that the resolution calls on ECOSOC to hold a “flagship moment early in the year to launch the ‘ECOSOC season'” and provide direction for the rest of the Council’s work during the year. year, which culminates with the HLPF and the ECOSOC High-Level Segment in July.

Kelapile also observed that ECOSOC is “the one and only platform that gets an overview of the work of UN system bodies and organizations on sustainable development”, and the new design of the coordination segment aims to strengthen this aspect of ECOSOC’s role and to maximize the UN’s impact on sustainable development. He called on participants to identify aspects of the 2030 Agenda that receive insufficient attention, such as “SDGs and orphan targets,” and find a place for them in the ECOSOC system.

The head of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, reported on plans for this year’s Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) and other key initiatives for 2022 in the region, including:

  • scaling up comprehensive social protection and universal health care systems that guarantee vaccines for all;
  • translating the commitments of the “Regional Action Plan to Strengthen Regional Cooperation in Social Protection” into national actions in several countries;
  • integrating climate actions into national COVID-19 recovery strategies;
  • develop national roadmaps for SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy);
  • accelerate digitization in line with the 2030 Agenda; and
  • debt-for-climate swaps in the Pacific; and sustainable bonds in least developed countries (LDCs) in the region.

The head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Achim Steiner, also spoke. His prepared remarks echoed ESCAP’s emphasis on vaccinating people against COVID-19, noting that only 11% of people living in low-income countries have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Over the past six months, more people have received booster shots in the world’s wealthiest countries than the first vaccines in low-income countries, he reported.

Steiner cited three priorities for multilateral efforts to better emerge from the pandemic: get the world vaccinated; expanding fiscal space and advancing SDG-aligned financial flows, including debt relief, concessional financing, special drawing rights, and SDG “push” investments; and advancing energy access and the transition to a global green economy.

A summary of the 2022 coordination segment will be prepared by the President of ECOSOC. The ECOSOC cycle will then include forums on: youth, in April 2022; financing for development (FfD), in April 2022; and science, technology and innovation (STI), in May 2022. [Forum website] [Webcast of opening session]

Donald E. Patel