Mixed Results Cited in Decade of Efforts for ‘People-Centred’ Development
Citing a decade of unfulfilled commitments from United Nations-backed summits and action plans languishing at the country level, participants in the forty-fifth session of the Commission for Social Development called on Governments to draw on the untapped potential of overlooked social groups as a way to help close the gap between intentions and actions and to move towards equitable societies with equal rights and equal opportunities for all.
Youth delegates joined advocates for the elderly, disabled persons and others often excluded from the public arena, in stressing that the international community’s efforts to achieve the overarching goal of the 1995 World Summit on Social Development -- a sustainable “people-centred”, enabling environment for social development -- had been mixed, with policymakers tending to focus more on economics than on human beings and their needs.
“Today, we are at a crossroads of social development,” said one young speaker among several youth delegates and civil society actors who highlighted national achievements but urged Governments to further boost the capacity of youth, persons with disabilities, rural families and ex-prisoners, among others, to influence policy and programme decisions towards creating decent work for all; a solid system of basic social services; and sound principles for social policies, with particular attention to the role of women in social policy.
MORE http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/soc4727.doc.htm
Citing a decade of unfulfilled commitments from United Nations-backed summits and action plans languishing at the country level, participants in the forty-fifth session of the Commission for Social Development called on Governments to draw on the untapped potential of overlooked social groups as a way to help close the gap between intentions and actions and to move towards equitable societies with equal rights and equal opportunities for all.
Youth delegates joined advocates for the elderly, disabled persons and others often excluded from the public arena, in stressing that the international community’s efforts to achieve the overarching goal of the 1995 World Summit on Social Development -- a sustainable “people-centred”, enabling environment for social development -- had been mixed, with policymakers tending to focus more on economics than on human beings and their needs.
“Today, we are at a crossroads of social development,” said one young speaker among several youth delegates and civil society actors who highlighted national achievements but urged Governments to further boost the capacity of youth, persons with disabilities, rural families and ex-prisoners, among others, to influence policy and programme decisions towards creating decent work for all; a solid system of basic social services; and sound principles for social policies, with particular attention to the role of women in social policy.
MORE http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/soc4727.doc.htm