The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, from 6-31 July 2009, for its annual substantive session. The session commenced with a High-Level Segment and the 2009 Annual Ministerial Review, focused on “Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to global public health.” The High-Level Segment adopted a Ministerial Declaration on implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to global public health, through which ECOSOC recognizes that health and poverty are interlinked and that achieving the health-related goals was central to sustainable development.
Among other segments, on 14 July 2009, ECOSOC conducted a round table discussion on the theme “Towards a UN comprehensive response to the challenges of climate change” as part of its Coordination Segment, and on 15 July 2009, the Operational Activities Segment opened with a thematic panel discussion on “The current economic, food and climate change crises and their effects on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals: the role of the UN System’s support to national efforts.” On 21 July 2009, during a discussion about special economic, humanitarian and disaster relief assistance as part of its Humanitarian Affairs Segment, ECOSOC participants discussed the increasing need for humanitarian assistance due to natural disasters caused by climate change. Speakers at the General Segment of ECOSOC, on 23 July 2009, noted that climate change presents an additional global challenge “for which extraordinary resources are needed,” and that the financial architecture dealing with climate change should be efficient, effective and equitable.
On 29 July, the Economic and Social Council adopted four resolutions and seven decisions on economic and environmental questions, including on sustainable development, human settlements, environment, population and development, United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), and transport of dangerous goods. The decision related to the UNFF authorizes the holding of a one-day special session of UNFF 9 within existing resources and at the earliest possible date in 2009. A resolution on human settlements requests the Secretary-General to submit a report on the coordinated implementation of the Habitat Agenda for consideration by ECOSOC at its substantive session of 2010. In a resolution on review of UN support for small island developing States, ECOSOC decided to consider the issue at its 2010 session. ECOSOC adopted the report of the seventeenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development and the report of the eighth session of the UNFF, as well as reports on dates for the next sessions for both. [ECOSOC 2009 session newsroom]