teams to make UNFPA more responsive to field needs. A review of the proposal was requested for the 39th UNDP Governing Council in 1992 to report on the progress to implement the arrangements for agency support costs. Major issues before the Governing Council's Budgetary and Finance Committee were UNFPA budget estimates for the biennia 1990-1991 and 1992-1993; the problem of rising administrative costs; and the establishment of a separate internal audit unit. BFC decisions concerning UNFPA included limits on future revised estimates to mandatory increases and the rejection of the Executive Director's proposal to establish a separate internal audit service within the UNFPA Secretariat. In the Council's SCPM, UNFPA interregional and regional programs for 1992-1995 and proposed new country programs for 14 developing countries were reviewed. The Council approved the English-speaking Caribbean subregion and the following multi-year country programs: Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Congo, Mauritania, Niger, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Albania, Morocco and Tunisia. The United States joined consensus in support of all the proposed programs. The Council's Drafting Committee approved language for a draft decision on UNFPA. The decision encourages all countries to increase their commitment of resources to population programs, calls on UNFPA to increase its support for family planning and maternal/child health programs, and calls on UNFPA to further strengthen its role in coordinating and assisting developing countries to obtain and to distribute adequate contraceptive supplies. Commission on Human Settlements Mandate and Governance The UN Commission on Human Settlements (UNCHS) was established by the UN General Assembly in 1977, following the UN Conference on Human Settlements held in 1976 in Vancouver. The same resolution established a Secretariat for the Commission known as the UN Center for Human Settlements (Habitat), which has permanent headquarters in Nairobi. The Commission and the Center were created from existing UN bodies to consolidate human settlements activities, as well as to give them new emphasis. The Commission meets biennially; the 13th session of the Commission was held April 29-May 8 in Harare, Zimbabwe. The UNCHS mandate is to assist countries to improve their ability to solve human settlements problems through comprehensive and integrated approaches. The Commission promotes international cooperation in the field of human settlements, and seeks to increase resources available to developing countries for human settlements. UNCHS consists of 58 members elected for 3-year terms; the United States has been a member since 1977. The Commission provides policy guidance to the Center, whose responsibilities include coordinating and reviewing all human settlements activities within the UN system, executing human settlements projects, and serving as a focal point for information exchange. The United States has a Permanent U.S. Representative to the Center in Nairobi who is also accredited to the UN Environment Program (UNEP). Center programs are geared towards helping governments establish and manage policies designed to improve conditions under which the populations of their countries are able to obtain adequate housing. Toward this end, the Center performs research, conducts training and carries out technical assistance projects for developing countries, and provides information on human settlements. The UNCHS budget for 1991 was $10,611,700 and actual expenditures amounted to $10,437,700. Extra-budgetary resources (including UNDP trust funds and UN Habitat Foundation) were $76,240,600 and actual expenditures amounted to $74,862,292. During the pledging session for the Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation, the U.S. Delegation reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the Foundation and announced its FY 1991 contribution of $400,000. Major themes on the agenda of the 13th Commission session were the significance of human settlements and the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000 (GSS) to the concept of sustainable development, and the use of energy by households in construction and in production of building materials. The agenda also called for a review of progress on the rational and worldwide implementation of the GSS. The U.S. Delegation made four formal presentations to the Commission. The U.S. opening statement reported on U.S. housing policy and development assistance activities in the shelter sector. It further reported that U.S. domestic policy initiatives that relied on the private sector to produce housing while the government facilitated the process were consistent with the prescriptions of the GSS. The U.S. Delegation continued efforts from previous Commission sessions to stress the importance of the private sector in providing shelter, and successfully sponsored a resolution that called for implementation of an internationally comparable set of key quantitative and policy-sensitive indicators to monitor GSS implementation. Consistent with the substance of this resolution it sponsored, the U.S. Delegation urged Habitat to focus priority attention on reporting, in clear terms, on progress toward the GSS goals using quantitative and policy-sensitive indicators proposed in the resolution. It also stated that development must have both economic and environmental sustainability, and called for expanded research to inform decision-making, greater public participation in the sustainability debate, and more attention to the alleviation of poverty. The following decisions relating to the three major themes of the agenda were approved: • A decision on sustainable settlements development that called on the Executive Director, in accordance with the GSS, to emphasize work elements which can address and reverse undesirable environmental implications of settlement growth, especially in urban slums, by improvements in urban management. • A decision which, among other things, called on governments to encourage improving energy efficiency and pollution control. It suggested achieving this by improving building designs and procedures followed by the building materials and construction industries. The decision also recommended that governments provide necessary incentives to energy conservation programs and investments and discourage wasteful polluting use of energy in the household, construction and production of building materials. • A resolution which adopted the second report of the Commission on Human Settlements to the UN General Assembly on implementation of the GSS, after noting that many governments had taken concrete steps to revise existing national shelter strategies or to formulate new strategies based on the principles of the GSS; and that a large number of other governments had taken steps to address specific issues in shelter strategies. The decision on the GSS also urged the private sector to expand its operations to provide shelter to middle- and low-income sectors of the population, and invited governments to work with the private sector to create an adequate legal framework in areas such as finance, taxation, regulation, standards and procedures affecting the shelter sector. A resolution on women in development, cosponsored by the United States, called on governments to identify methods, within shelter strategy development and implementation, which reveal and strengthen the role of women in settlements development. It also requested the Executive Director to review and develop a more comprehensive policy on women in development which ensured gender-sensitive methods in the total work program and budget of all divisions within the Center in a manner that related gender-sensitivity training to specific technical aspects of the work of Habitat staff. The Commission adopted a resolution which established an open-ended Committee of Permanent Representatives to Habitat. The Permanent Representatives will meet four times a year to review progress in implementation of the program of Commission resolutions, as well as specific issues proposed by the Permanent Representatives or the Executive Director. Despite U.S. objection, a decision on the housing conditions of the Palestinian people was adopted. The decision called for an intensified effort by the Executive Director to alleviate the situation, and submission of a report to the Commission at its 14th session. It also described Israeli settlement policies in the occupied territories as illegitimate and a serious obstacle to the peace process. The decision was adopted by a vote of 21 to 1 (U.S.), with 15 abstentions. Commission on Transnational Corporations The UN Commission on Transnational Corporations (CTC) was established by ECOSOC in 1974 to assist the Council "in fulfilling its responsibilities in the field of transnational corporations." Its mandate includes acting as the forum within the UN system for consideration of issues relating to transnational corporations (TNCs); promoting the exchange of views among governments, intergovernmental groups, trade unions, and business and consumer groups; providing guidance to the Center on Transnational Corporations; and developing a Code of Conduct relating to TNCs. The 17th session of the Commission on TNCs was held April 10-19 in New York. Discussion at this session was less ideological than in previous years, and was characterized by an increased recognition of the need for an open investment climate. Topics included determinants of foreign direct investment, TNCs and international economic relations, TNCs and the environment, the role of TNCs in services, TNCs in South Africa, international standards of accounting and reporting, and negotiations on a code of conduct. The United States opposed a report proposed by the CTC on multinational corporations and the environment, prepared for the June 1992 UNCED Conference in Rio de Janeiro, as going beyond the mandate of the organization. The United States also expressed strong reservations about the Center's work on traderelated investment measures and trade-related intellectual property matters as peripheral to expanding investment and perfecting trade in intellectual property. The United States supported the continued presence in South Africa of responsible corporations that subscribed to the principles of the comprehensive antiapartheid act. Code of Conduct In 1977 the Commission established the Intergovernmental Working Group to draft language for an international code of conduct for TNCs. During its 17th session in April, very little progress was made regarding a code. The U.S. Delegation questioned the relevance of a code of conduct in today's economic liberalization climate, and whether such a code would bring benefits to the developing countries or divert capital investment elsewhere. In its statement, the U.S. Delegation said public and private sectors would recognize developing countries' efforts to improve investment climate in the establishment and maintenance of liberal investment policies that encourage marketdriven investment flows. The Commission urged member states to conclude negotiations on a code of conduct and the matter was referred to the July ECOSOC. ECOSOC in turn referred it to the 46th UN General Assembly, where the United States joined in the decision to indefinitely suspend code negotiations at least until after states were able to assess the outcome of the Uruguay Round, UNCTAD VIII and the UNCED Rio conference. UN Conference on Trade and Development The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is a major organ of the United Nations concerned with economic issues of trade and development. UNCTAD is a forum for its 172 members, including the United States, to examine a wide range of economic issues, both of national experiences and international concern. UNCTAD publishes statistical and other reports, |