Commission for Social Development

United Nations portal

The Commission for Social Development is one of the ten functional commissions established by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 1946 to advise and assist it in carrying its work.

The Commission for Social Development [1] consists of 46 members elected by ECOSOC.

Since the convening of the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, the Commission has been the key UN body in charge of the follow-up and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. As a result of the Summit, the mandate of the Commission was reviewed and its membership expanded from 32 to 46 members in 1996. It meets once a year at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, usually in February for about two weeks.

Each year since 1995, the Commission has taken up key social development themes as part of its follow-up to the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit.

The World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen, March 1995

At the World Summit for Social Development, Governments reached a new consensus on the need to put people at the centre of development. The Social Summit was the largest gathering ever of world leaders at that time. It pledged to eradicate poverty, create full employment and foster social integration.

At the end of the Summit, Governments adopted the Copenhagen Declaration, the Ten Commitments (listed below) and the Programme of Action of the World Social Summit [2].

• Create an economic, political, social, cultural and legal environment that will enable people to achieve social development;
• Eradicate absolute poverty by a target date to be set by each country;
• Support full employment as a basic policy goal;
• Promote social integration based on the enhancement and protection of all human rights;
• Achieve equality and equity between women and men;
• Attain universal and equitable access to education and primary health care;
• Accelerate the development of Africa and the least developed countries;
• Ensure that structural adjustment programmes include social development goals;
• Increase resources allocated to social development;
• Strengthen cooperation for social development through the UN.

Five years later, Governments reconvened in Geneva in June 2000 for the 24th special session of the United Nations General Assembly, to review what has been achieved, and to commit themselves to new initiatives.

Related links

• UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
• Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DSPD/DESA)