Ad hoc group formed to elaborate 'Agenda for Development.' (to look at priority issues) (UN General Assembly Second Committee activity).

The General Assembly on 19 December decided to establish an ad hoc open-ended working group to begin work in early 1995 to further elaborate a comprehensive, action-oriented "Agenda for Development". The possibility of holding an international conference on development is among the issues to be examined. The text was among 45 resolutions and one decision adopted by the Assembly on the recommendation of its Second Committee (Economic and Financial). Only one resolution--on economic and social repercussions of Israeli settlements on Palestinians in the occupied territories and on the Arab population of the Syrian Golan--was adopted by a vote.

As a follow-up to the International Conference on Population and Development, held from 5 to 13 September in Cairo, the Assembly adopted a wide-ranging resolution emphasizing the importance of the early identification and allocation of financial resources by the international community to enable it to fulfil its commitments to the implementation of the 20-year Programme of Action adopted by the Conference and endorsed by the Assembly.

For the first time in three years, the Assembly adopted without a vote a resolution on the foreign debt problem of developing countries. In addition, it stressed the need for trade liberalization and improved access to markets and asked for an analysis of South-South cooperation worldwide.

High-level meetings

The Assembly held four high-level meetings on the Secretary-General's recommendations on his "An Agenda for Development", with debate reflecting wide agreement on the need to tackle the eradication of poverty and African development as priority issues.

By resolution 49/126, the Assembly decided that the working group's deliberations should take into account: the Secretary-General's recommendations; the outcome of the high-level segment of the 1994 substantive session of the Economic and Social Council; the summary of the June 1994 World Hearings on Development; the high-level debate held during the forty-ninth Assembly; and other proposals. A progress report was due in 1995.

The working group was asked (resolution 49/95) to take advantage of the presence of high-level representatives during the early part of the Assembly sessions to conduct a dialogue and to convene special sessions on major themes relevant to the current and emerging economic and social issues in the global agenda, including those identified under the "Agenda for Development".

In an 11 November report (A/49/665), the Secretary-General said new development approaches should enable people to participate in decisions affecting their lives, provide job-led growth and replenish the natural heritage on which all life depended. "The battle for people-centred and sustainable development will be won or lost not in the corridors of Governments, but in every hamlet and home, in every village and town, in the daily enterprise of every member of the global community and every institution of civil society", he said.

In a note (A/49/320), the President of the forty-eighth Assembly session said, in elaborating the "Agenda for Development", the establishment of a high-level body on development and economic policy that would meet in permanent session must be considered.

The Assembly also asked (49/92) the Secretary-General to ensure that the "Agenda for Development" would strengthen the implementation of the Declaration on International Economic Cooperation, in particular, the Revitalization of Economic Growth and Development of the Developing Countries, and the International Development Strategy for the Fourth UN Development Decade.

Uruguay Round completed

The Secretary-General's report (A/49/328) on the implementation of the Declaration and the Strategy stated that, with the recent completion of the Uruguay...