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Follow up to global conferences and declarations in 2000
This section outlines the types of activities that the UN system undertook in Thailand during 2000 in support of the UN global agenda, which emerges from the various global UN conferences and declarations. The Millennium Declaration is a particularly important document in this regard, setting out the direction in which UN policies are to go in the coming years.
- The Millennium Declaration and the UN’s global agenda
- Thailand’s progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
- Follow-up to global UN conferences
The Millennium Declaration
and the UN’s global agenda
The UN family of agencies works at the nexus between the national development needs of its member states and a global normative agenda that has evolved over the years in a series of regional and global conferences, often embodied in international declarations and UN Conventions. UN agencies in Thailand are therefore engaged in advocating this global agenda, supporting member states to respond to the agenda’s priorities and also providing assistance to promote Thailand’s national priorities.
The most important of these conferences in 2000 was the Millennium Assembly, which took place at the Head of State level in New York in September. At the Assembly, the world leaders clearly indicated the need to develop a more inclusive agenda in dealing with the challenges of globalisation.
Central to this agenda is the recognition that in order to promote sustainable and equitable development; poor and vulnerable groups must be empowered so they are able to participate as full and equal partners in the global economy. The need for a fully inclusive people-centric vision of development has been seen as the most pressing challenge of the new millennium.
At the Millennium Assembly, the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, himself launched two priority initiatives:
- Half Extreme Poverty by the Year 2015
- Promote girl’s education
The Millennium Declaration, issued at the conclusion of the Assembly, included 7 long-term goals that the UN system should work towards. The goals are mutually reinforcing and address different areas and facets of poverty, with special focus on weak and vulnerable groups in accordance with the agenda adopted at the Assembly.
The progress Thailand has made towards achieving the goals of the Millennium Declaration can be found here.
Other global conferences during 2000 have shaped the UN agenda in the specific areas of Social Development, Women, Education and Transnational Crime. The UN System in Thailand has undertaken various initiatives and implemented numerous activities to follow-up on these conferences. These are mostly done by Thematic Working Groups, which oversee the respective areas under the inter-agency set up in Thailand. UN agencies have also followed up on the conferences individually according to each agency’s mandate.
During 2000, the UNCT assisted Thailand in the preparation of its input to UN conferences as well as helping Thailand address priority issues identified at the conferences. The section on the follow-up to global UN conference outlines some of the projects that UN agencies have pursued in connection with these conferences.
The UN system in Thailand, in conjunction with the Royal Thai Government and other development partners, have helped identify Thailand’s development priorities, which are specific to Thailand as outlined earlier in this report. These priorities do not necessarily correspond exactly to the goals of global UN conferences, although all the issues generally complement each other and have the same overarching objective of minimising suffering and promoting equitable and sustainable development for all.
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