Bridging the Economic and Social Committees.

• Author: Asadi, Ambassador Bagher

Chairing the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) of the General Assembly at its fifty-third session was very rich and challenging. Though not a total newcomer to the fold, let alone to the field, it was quite a new experience. I believe that our collective enterprise in the Committee made a positive contribution to the ongoing intergovernmental discussion on the wide range of economic and development issues. And I hope to have played a positive role--at the most a catalytic role--in the Committee's accomplishments.

The range and relevance of the issues discussed at the Committee this year, the seriousness and constructive spirit in which they were approached by all sides and, equally important, the consensus reached after often intensive difficult negotiations demonstrated the uniqueness and centrality of the United Nations as the universal forum for global dialogue on issues of global import and impact. A major thrust of the Second Committee's debates and resolutions this year was the affirmation of this role, including in contributing to the formulation of comprehensive international responses to the current financial and economic turmoil and to optimizing the impact of globalization.

The Second Committee had a very productive session, both in terms of the form and substance of its deliberations, as well as with regard to the resolutions it adopted. It discussed in detail such fundamental issues as: the global financial architecture and its implications for development; globalization; trade and development; external debt crisis; environment; and poverty and the future course of multilateral development cooperation. Following the two-day high-level dialogue of the General Assembly on globalization and its social and economic repercussions, the Committee addressed the issue in the course of its general discussions. The outcome of this in-depth deliberation on an important new subject was the adoption, by consensus, of a substantive resolution entitled, "Role of the United Nations in promoting development in the context of globalization and interdependence".

Adoption of 34 consensus resolutions on, inter alia, globalization, the financial crisis, renewal of the dialogue, triennial policy review of United Nations operational activities, and financing for development are just a few examples. Moreover, some of the Committee's resolutions intensified and broadened the existing consensus and, in certain instances, took it onto new ground...