Draft for 1995 summit prepared.

• Position: World Summit for Social Development completes preliminary document at UN Preparatory Committee session, Jan 31-Feb 11, 1994

A draft structure for a Declaration and a Programme of Action to be adopted at the 1995 World Summit for Social Development was finalized at the first substantive session of its Preparatory Committee (New York, 31 January-11 February).

The Declaration would describe the world social situation and reasons for convening the Summit, outline goals and "common challenges", and reaffirm international instruments relating to the Summit's three core issues: enhancing social integration; reducing poverty; and expanding employment.

A five-part Programme of Action was to promote "wide-ranging social development strategies" at the local, national, regional and international levels. its main sections were to deal with the three core issues, as well as parameters for ensuring an "enabling environment" and means of implementation and follow-up.

During the session, many speakers said that social unrest was increasing and that growing disparities had caused increased domestic, political, religious and ethnic violence. The core issues affected all societies, they said, but the impact was greater in developing countries, particularly in Africa. Debt and structural adjustment programmes, as well as the plight of women, required particular attention, many speakers said.

|The new name of peace'

Preparatory Committee Chairman Juan O. Somavia of Chile said that the end of the cold war had given the international community an opportunity to examine social problems outside the restrictions of an ideological framework. Development was the "new name of peace", he said, but development models needed revision. A basic objective of the Summit would be to achieve economic growth within a context of social justice by searching for "people-friendly markets".

A trust fund to facilitate participation of least developed countries in the Summit has been established.

Set to take place in Copenhagen on 11 and 12 March 199 5, the Summit aims to put the needs of people at the centre of development and international cooperation. The General Assembly, in resolution 47/92, specified that the Summit should "address in creative ways the interaction between the social function of the State, market responses to social demands, and the imperatives of sustainable development".

Major trends

Delegates reviewed a report providing an overview of the Summit's core issues and policy measures to attain its objectives. The 48-page text (A/CONF.166/PC/6) analyzed trends in social development...