Human Resources Development

A/RES/70/220No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 24cHuman resources development, published in 2016.

What other versions does this mandate have?

12 versions · 2002–2024

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/79/224

2024A/RES/79/224Human resources developmentLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/77/182Human resources developmentCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/74/236Human resources developmentCompare with previous version
2018A/RES/72/235Human resources developmentCompare with previous version
2016A/RES/70/220Human resources developmentCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

10 topics

Decent Work Development Strategies Education Health Services Human Resources International Migration Labour Market Resources Mobilization Social Security Training Programmes

What does this mandate say?

28 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;

Calls upon Member States to place human resources development at the core of economic and social development and to develop short-, medium- and long- term strategies to effectively enhance their human resources capacities, as educated, skilled, healthy, capable, productive and flexible workforces are the foundation for achieving sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth and development;

Stresses the need for Member States to emphasize and integrate human resources development into national development strategies, including national development policies and strategies to eradicate poverty and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in order to address structural and multidimensional challenges to enhancing national productive capacities and to ensure that human resources development implications are taken into account by all national development stakeholders;

Recognizes that comprehensive approaches to human resources development that address poverty eradication and the creation of a skilled workforce are also critical in reducing unemployment and brain drain and in promoting greater social inclusion;

Encourages Member States to adopt and implement comprehensive human resources development strategies premised on national development objectives that ensure a strong link between education, training and employment, help to maintain a productive and competitive workforce and are responsive to the needs of the economy;

Stresses that human resources development policies should focus on supporting the emergence of a sufficiently wide and flexible pool of skilled human resources, especially among women and youth, to support all sectors of the economy and be matched with present and future workforce needs, which requires well-sequenced investments in basic education, vocational training, on-the-job training and more advanced managerial, engineering and scientific education to increase the supply of technological knowledge that can be absorbed by national innovation systems;

Emphasizes the need for Member States to adopt cross-sectoral approaches and mechanisms to identify human resources development needs in the medium and long term for all sectors of the economy and to formulate and implement policies and programmes to address those needs;

Recognizes that comprehensive and flexible science, technological knowledge and innovation strategies that encompass all sectors of the economy are critical to ensuring that skills are matched with labour market demand and ready to adapt to and benefit from a constantly evolving technology landscape;

Emphasizes that when science, technological knowledge and innovation and human resources development approaches are mutually reinforcing they can lead to a virtuous circle of economic growth, human progress and sustainable development;

Stresses that investment in human resources development should be an integral part of national development policies and strategies, and in this regard calls for the adoption of policies to facilitate investment focused on physical and social infrastructure, including education, in particular skills upgrading and vocational training in areas such as science and technology, including information and communications technology, as well as in capacity development, health and sustainable development;

Encourages Member States, as appropriate, to continue to strengthen comprehensive social protection systems, to adopt policies that strengthen existing safety nets and protect vulnerable groups and to take other appropriate actions, including boosting domestic consumption and production, recognizes that social protection floors, defined according to national priorities and the individual circumstances of Member States, can provide systemic approaches to address poverty and vulnerability and can contribute significantly to successful human resources development strategies, acknowledges, in this regard, that many developing countries lack the necessary financial resources and capacity to implement such countercyclical measures, and in this regard recognizes the need for continued mobilization of additional domestic and international resources, as appropriate;

Encourages Member States in a position to do so to consider implementing, and the States members of the International Labour Organization to implement, policies consistent with the International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and their obligations under all relevant ratified conventions of the International Labour Organization, and recalls the importance of promoting decent work for all and of increasing quality jobs, including through measures aimed at ensuring occupational health and safety and through working relationships based on effective social dialogue;

Stresses that human resources development strategies should include measures aimed at reducing unemployment and underemployment among young men and women and the long-term unemployed, who have been disproportionately affected by slow growth in jobs recovery, and to integrate underutilized human resources into the labour market through policies that promote skills development and productivity and reduce barriers to employment, including gender barriers, including by providing incentives as appropriate for recruiting, retaining and retooling, assistance in job-finding and job-matching and vocational and on-the-job training, and by promoting, inter alia, youth entrepreneurship, noting in this regard the call for action by the International Labour Conference in 2012;

Also stresses the need for Member States to retain and further enhance national human resources by boosting job-rich recovery and promoting decent work, including by adopting policies and incentives that enhance labour productivity and stimulate private investment and entrepreneurship and strengthen the role of labour administration and institutions in order to foster job creation, address the gender wage gap, reduce occupational segregation and increase the participation of vulnerable groups, including workers in the informal economy;

Emphasizes the need to address the interlinkages among human resources development, energy and food security, agriculture and rural development, and encourages Member States to strengthen capacity in agriculture and rural development;

Encourages Member States to adopt and implement human resources development policies that create dynamic capabilities and core skills so as to develop, facilitate access to and apply environmentally sound technologies, and welcomes the launch of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism established in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, based on a multi-stakeholder collaboration among Member States, civil society, the private sector, the scientific community, United Nations entities and other stakeholders, in order to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals;

Stresses that sustainable development is dependent, inter alia, on healthy human resources, calls upon Member States to continue their efforts to strengthen national health systems, urges the further strengthening of international cooperation in the area of health, inter alia, by considering promoting universal health coverage and through the exchange of best practices in the areas of strengthening health systems, access to medicines, training of health personnel, transfer of technology and production of affordable, safe, effective and good-quality medicine, and in this regard stresses that international cooperation and assistance, in particular external funding, need to become more predictable and to be better aligned with national priorities and channelled to recipient countries in ways that strengthen national health systems;

Calls upon the international community, including the entities of the United Nations system, to support the efforts of developing countries to address the adverse effects of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, in particular in Africa, as well as the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, which is a challenge of epidemic proportions, and their effects on human resources;

Calls upon relevant United Nations entities to support national efforts to build institutional capacities to address long-term national human resources development needs in addition to providing training to individuals;

Calls upon the international community to assist developing countries in the implementation of national human resources development strategies, and encourages the international community, including the private sector and relevant civil society actors, to provide and mobilize financial resources, capacity-building, technical assistance and technology transfer on mutually agreed terms and to supply expertise from all sources, as available;

Calls for steps to integrate gender perspectives into human resources development, including through policies, strategies and targeted actions aimed at promoting women’s capacities and access to productive activities, and in this regard emphasizes the need to ensure the full participation of women in the formulation and implementation of such policies, strategies and actions;

Stresses the important contributions of the public and private sectors, respectively, in meeting national training and education needs to support the efficient functioning of enterprises and matching the needs of a rapidly changing economy, and encourages the integration of those contributions, including through the greater use of public-private partnerships and incentives;

Calls for actions at the national, regional and international levels that will give high priority to improving and expanding literacy, as well as science proficiency, including by providing tertiary, technical vocational and adult education, and stresses the need to ensure that, by 2030, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and will have equal access to all levels of education;

Encourages Governments to consider appropriate measures at the national level, such as upgrading human skills, better aligning educational and training systems to labour market needs and strengthening labour institutions and regulations to respond to economic downturns;

Encourages countries in a position to do so to maintain or consider enhancing measures to boost job-rich recovery, such as policies and incentives to enhance labour productivity and stimulate private investment, in addition to efforts to reduce budget deficits in the long term, as appropriate;

Encourages efforts by Member States and the international community to promote a balanced, coherent and comprehensive approach to international migration and development, in particular by building partnerships and ensuring coordinated action to develop capacities, including for the management of migration, and in this regard reiterates the need to consider innovative measures to maximize the benefits of migration while minimizing the negative effects of the migration of both highly skilled and low-skilled workers from developing countries;

Encourages giving appropriate consideration to human resources development strategies in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-second session a report on the implementation of the present resolution, and decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-second session, under the item entitled “Eradication of poverty and other development issues” the sub-item entitled “Human resources development”, unless otherwise agreed in the discussions on the revitalization of the Second Committee.

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