ECLAC Executive's Statement On Technical Cooperation.pdf

The technical cooperation projects and missions executed by ECLAC are an essential part of our substantive work and are conducted in direct collaboration with our member countries in the region. The primary strategic objective of the technical cooperation being promoted by the members of the Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations is to help member countries to fulfil the commitments they have made at the Millennium Summit and at international conferences sponsored by the Organization since 1992. The Economic Commission's cooperation activities are financed both out of its regular budget and with extrabudgetary resources, with bilateral contributions covering 70% of the extrabudgetary expenditures made in the last biennium. The secretariat has been making an effort to consolidate and expand its cooperation activities, including those relating to the promotion of horizontal cooperation, in accordance with a long-standing, specific mandate to that effect. Steps in this direction include the new programmatic approach which we have recently begun to apply in our joint activities with the Government of Germany. Today, this committee will undertake a detailed review of the activities carried out by the secretariat during the past biennium, and will also have an opportunity to view the web site on cooperation that has recently been added to the Commission's Internet portal. There will, in addition, be a debate on the challenges for technical cooperation which we will be facing at the regional level in the near future.