24 July 2008: The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) concluded the
work of its general segment, adopting 15 resolutions and 8 decisions, including
on strengthening the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance.

The Council
also adopted a resolution on the UN’s role in implementing the Council’s 2007
Ministerial Declaration on “Strengthening the efforts to eradicate poverty and
hunger, including through the global partnership for development.” Recognizing
that the challenge of eradicating poverty and hunger requires a comprehensive
and multidimensional response by the entire United Nations system, the
resolution requests the world body’s funds, programmes and agencies, acting
within their mandates, “to make further progress towards more comprehensive,
coherent and multidimensional approaches in the formulation of their policies,
programmes and operations supporting the eradication of poverty and hunger.”
The
Council also adopted a resolution reaffirming the need to continue to
strengthen its role as the central mechanism for system-wide coordination, and
recalling that it should increase its role in overseeing system-wide
coordination and the balanced integration of economic, social and environmental
aspects of UN policies and programmes aimed at promoting sustainable
development. In a resolution on strengthening the coordination of UN emergency
humanitarian assistance, the Council expresses grave concern about the increase
in the number of people affected by humanitarian emergencies. It also
expresses deep concern at the increasing challenges to member States and the UN’s
humanitarian response capacity posed by the consequences of natural disasters,
including the impact of climate change and the humanitarian implications of the
current global food crisis. [UN Press
release]