With time running out before the next session of the UN General Assembly, the work of the High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence has been continuing, with participants also focusing on international environmental governance.

Meanwhile, the General Assembly has adopted a resolution on development-related follow-up to the 2005 UN World Summit and another on UN management, following approval of the UN budget.
UN System-Wide Coherence
The UN System-wide Coherence Panel consultations continued through the months of June and July, focusing on funding, business practices, relations with international financing institutions, and regional consultations for Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Arab States. The High-level Panel convened for its second meeting on 1-3 June 2006 and in early July in Geneva, Switzerland. On the latter occasion, the Panel held a dialogue with major groups and stakeholders on three cross-sectional issues: sustainable development, human rights, and gender.
On 1 July, a meeting of major groups and stakeholders, organized by Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service and the Brazilian Forum of NGOs and Social Movements for sustainable development and environment, convened to prepare for the dialogue with the High-level Panel. Suggestions discussed included: building compliance and liability mechanisms into the architecture of international environmental governance; transforming the Commission on Sustainable Development into a subsidiary body of the General Assembly (including assuming the sustainable development-related issues of the General Assembly’s Second Committee); placing sustainable development “front and center” of the UN reform agenda; and ensuring that the multilateral system is a counterweight to international finance institutions.
Two additional UN reform-related meetings, which took place from 3-4 July 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland, focused on the structure of the Environmental Management Group (EMG) in the framework of the General Assembly informal consultations and the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel. Senior-level officials representing EMG members met on 3 July and executive heads of agencies and executive secretaries of MEAs met on 4 July to discuss the implications of the UN reform initiatives for the EMG and to develop an EMG contribution to the reform processes. Issues discussed included the need to give the EMG two years to demonstrate its added value as a distinct forum and a proposal to review existing cooperative arrangements between EMG members and to use this information to identify areas in which cooperation among EMG members can provide additional benefits (IISD Sources).
Development
On 30 June 2006, following lengthy negotiations, the General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution on progress on development items of World Summit follow-up and commitments to further reform. The resolution, inter alia, calls for: the full implementation of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, taking into account the Rio principles; the promotion of the integration of the three components of sustainable development, as mutually reinforcing pillars; and concrete action. The resolution further reaffirms that the eradication of hunger and poverty, changing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development are overarching objectives of and essential requirements for sustainable development. The G-77 expressed concern that the resolution would not ensure the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals by their target date of 2015, while other governments welcomed it as a reflection of the UN’s commitment to development as a central pillar of its work. UN press release (30 June 2006). Text of the resolution.
UN management reforms
On 10 July 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled, “Investing in the United Nations: for a stronger organization worldwide: detailed report,” which addresses accountability, budgetary discretion, information technology, procurement, financial management, reporting mechanisms, public access to UN documentation and future consideration of management reform. While General Assembly President Jan Eliasson considered that the resolution will further consolidate a “culture of accountability, transparency and integrity,” media reports considered the agreed reforms as “modest management reforms.” The adoption of the resolution followed the approval by consensus of the budget on 1 July, which lifted a spending cap on the remainder of the United Nations’ two-year fiscal period, imposed by developed countries with a view to ensure progress in management reforms. The United States, Japan and Australia, however, remarked that not enough progress had yet been made in the reform of the UN.

Links to further information
UN press releases (June and July 2006):
– 1 July 2006
– 28 June 2006
– 10 July 2006
Other media reports (June and July 2006):
– AlertNet – 8 July 2006
– Global Policy Forum – June 2006
– Global Policy Forum – 26 June 2006
– ReformtheUN – 28 June 2006
– ReformtheUN – 7 July 2006