Progress at Mid-Decade on the Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 45/217 on the World Summit for Children

A/RES/51/186View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 98 Operational activities for development, published in 1997.

What’s in this document?

29 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General,³and welcomes the conclusions contained therein;

³A/51/256.

Welcomes the significant progress reported by most countries on achieving the majority of the mid-decade goals and objectives of the World Summit for Children, particularly in immunization, the control of diarrhoeal diseases, poliomyelitis, Guinea worm and iodine deficiency disorders, and access to safe water;

Also welcomes the overwhelming response of all countries, especially the developing countries, to the commitments agreed upon at the World Summit for Children;

Notes with appreciation the contributions of international and bilateral donors and civil society to the achievement of the goals of the World Summit for Children;

Takes note with concern of the considerable variation in the progress made across countries and regions owing to different baseline conditions in 1990 and the varying rates of progress in relation to the goals;

Expresses particular concern that progress on malnutrition, maternal mortality, sanitation, and girls' education has been inadequate, and in some cases negligible;

Reaffirms the need for effective follow-up to the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children and the Plan of Action for Implementing the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children in the 1990s;⁴

⁴A/45/625, annex.

Recognizes the need for more intensive efforts to reach the goals for child mortality, the education of children, in particular girl children, maternal mortality, child malnutrition and sanitation;

Also recognizes the important role of the United Nations system in providing coordinated support for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the World Declaration and the Plan of Action and the leadership role of the United Nations Children's Fund;

Invites Governments to increase, as appropriate, their budget allocations to basic social services for covering the special needs of children in order to facilitate the achievement of the goals set out in the World Declaration and the Plan of Action;

Urges developed countries to make increased efforts to mobilize additional resources for the fulfilment of the goals and objectives of the World Summit for Children and to ensure, in the context of their development assistance, that programmes to that end will have a priority when resources are allocated;

Encourages civil society and the private sector to continue to support generously the implementation of the goals of the World Summit for Children;

Stresses the need for according priority to the special needs of children in regions of slow progress, particularly the least developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa, and in other developing countries that have not yet reached the mid-decade goals;

Recognizes the need for continued cooperation and partnership and appropriate international support to those developing countries that have already reached the mid-decade goals or the end-of-decade goals, so as to ensure the sustainability of such achievements;

Also recognizes the contribution to the achievement of the goals of the World Summit for Children of the mutual commitment of interested developed and developing country partners to allocate, on average, 20 per cent of official development assistance and 20 per cent of national budgets to basic social programmes;

Stresses the need to continue strengthening and expanding effective partnerships between Governments, the United Nations system and other international organizations, international donor agencies, civil society, including non-governmental organizations, the private sector and the media, so as to ensure full achievement of the goals by the year 2000;

Also stresses the need for greater efforts to involve children themselves, in accordance with article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in all matters affecting them;

Further stresses the need for sustainable progress in the attainment of goals through, inter alia, support for national capacity-building, including that of local communities, civil society and non-governmental organizations;

Recognizes the importance of fostering exchanges of experience between countries, including South-South cooperation, in order to help disseminate successful programmes;

Calls upon all relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system to take into account the lessons learned at mid-decade, and invites relevant governing bodies to consider specific measures, within their respective competencies, to address the special needs of children for the achievement of the goals for the year 2000, giving priority to issues and areas where progress has been slow;

Also calls upon all relevant bodies and organizations of the United Nations system to strengthen inter-agency collaboration regarding improved protection and assistance for children in especially difficult circumstances, including displaced and refugee children, as well as those suffering from exploitation, and to take the necessary steps to ensure that such collaboration is considered in related policies and programmes;

Stresses the necessity and importance of setting measurable indicators and targets and of improving data collection and assessment concerning the implementation of all the goals of the World Summit for Children with regard to the development, protection and survival of children, including the goal of improved protection of children in especially difficult circumstances;

Calls upon Governments and their partners, taking into account lessons learned during the mid-decade reviews, to adjust, refine and prioritize, where necessary, their goals and strategies, within the framework of the World Declaration and the Plan of Action and in conformity with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to respond to local situations;

Also calls upon Governments and the United Nations system to promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in the implementation of the goals of the World Summit for Children;

Urges full integration of the follow-up to the goals of the World Summit for Children into the work of the inter-agency task forces and other mechanisms established to ensure a coordinated and effective follow-up to major United Nations conferences;

Urges once again all States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify or accede to the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a matter of priority, with a view to reaching the goal of universal adherence established by the World Summit for Children;

Decides to convene a special session of the General Assembly in 2001 to review the achievement of the goals of the World Summit for Children, and to consider the arrangements for the special session at its fifty-third session;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its special session a review of the implementation and results of the World Declaration and the Plan of Action, including appropriate recommendations for further action;

Also requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-third session on the preparations for the special session and on progress on the implementation of the present resolution.

Progress at Mid-Decade on the Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 45/217 on the World Summit for Children

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