The United Nations General Assembly Second Committee (also known as the Economic and Financial Committee or ECOFIN or C2) is one of the six main committees of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...

. It deals with

global finance The global financial system is the worldwide framework of legal agreements, institutions, and both formal and informal economic actors that together facilitate international flows of financial capital for purposes of investment and trade financ ...

and

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

matters. The Second Committee meets every year in early October and aims to finish its work by the end of November. All 193 member states of the UN can attend.

Mandate

The work of the committee falls under eleven thematic clusters: # Macroeconomic policies # Operational activities for development # Financing for development # Groups of countries in special situations # Globalization and interdependence # Eradication of poverty # Sustainable development # Information and communication technologies for development # Agriculture development, food security and nutrition # Human settlements and sustainable urban development

Current state

In its 76th Session, the committee will focus on: * Promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and recent United Nations conferences ** Information and communications technologies for sustainable development ** Macroeconomic policy questions ** Follow-up to and implementation of the outcomes of the International Conferences on Financing for Development ** Sustainable development ** Globalization and interdependence ** Groups of countries in special situations ** Eradication of poverty and other development issues ** Operational activities for development ** Agriculture development, food security and nutrition ** Towards global partnerships * Maintenance of international peace and security ** Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources

Reporting bodies

The committee has five main bodies that report through it to the General Assembly. Two programmes: the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on ...

and the

United Nations Human Settlements Programme The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlem ...

, as well as the governing bodies of the three Rio conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Working methods

The work of the committee usually begins in early October and ends sometime by the end of November, though extensions are often granted to allow the committee to continue its work until early to mid-December. Its work is split into two main stages: (1) general debate and (2) action on individual items. The first stage, the general debate, lasts up to one week and begins with a keynote address by an invited speaker. The second stage last around four weeks, and is usually when negotiations on draft proposals are conducted. The committee also meets annually in a joint meeting with the Economic and Social Council.

Bureau

The following make up the bureau of the Second Committee for the 76th Session of the General Assembly:

References

External links

Economic and Financial Committee
UN 2 {{international-trade-stub