International News
As the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and glaring inequities continue to wreak havoc on development, the General Assembly today adopted 37 resolutions and two decisions of its Second Committee (Economic and Financial) aimed at reversing setbacks and setting the global community back on track.
Note: Following is a partial summary of today's meetings of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial). A complete summary will be available Wednesday afternoon, 24 November.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today approved 12 resolutions, voting on two of them, with one of the texts calling for enhancing the capacity of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to increase pandemic and disaster preparedness and resilience, as Member States strive to recover from COVID-19 and its impacts.
With the Committee for Programme and Coordination unable to reach consensus and recommend the approval of programme plans in 2021, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today exchanged differing views on the role of their Committee in addressing programme planning, following the General Assembly’s decision to allocate that agenda item to all its Main Committees and the Plenary.
Poorer nations will feel the full brunt of COVID‑19 as the crisis continues, suffering from rising hunger, poverty and heightened inequities, a United Nations official said today at a joint meeting of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) and the Economic and Social Council on productive capacities and the post-pandemic world.
Israel’s ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan, colliding with the impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic, have turned into a crisis within a crisis for the millions of people living there, delegates heard today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) took up the issue of those lands.
With the COVID-19 pandemic upending economic gains and hampering efforts to push forward with country-level goals, speakers highlighted the need to harness South-South cooperation and ramp up funding for the United Nations development and resident coordinator systems, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) took up operational activities for development today.
With COVID‑19 sending shockwaves through trade and supply chains and pushing developing countries further behind, speakers called for urgent reform of the global trade system that ensures an equitable and inclusive recovery for all, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) took up macroeconomic policy today.
In rerouting the global community onto a sustainable path after COVID-19 setbacks and devastating natural hazards, speakers in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today highlighted the need to restore degraded land, protect biodiversity, conserve natural ecosystems and tackle climate change.
Protecting nature and biodiversity are critical not only to sustainable development, but to the future of humanity and the planet, delegates stressed as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) took up sustainable development and heard reports on the topic today.