Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th Special Session of the General Assembly

A/RES/80/178View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 25a Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly, published in 2025.

What other versions does this mandate have?

24 versions · 2002–2025

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/178	Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly	10,753	91%Compare
2024	A/RES/79/146	Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly	10,458	89%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/174	Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly	9,686	92%Compare
2022	A/RES/77/188	Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly	9,364	91%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/134	Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly	8,785	92%Compare

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

7 entities

(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited
Programme 7	Economic and social affairs	291
Programme 15	Economic and social development in africa	165
Programme 18	Economic and social development in latin america and the caribbean	234
Subprogramme 6	Social development	47
Subprogramme 2	Gender justice, population and inclusive development	26

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

7 entities

(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
Programme 7	Economic and social affairs	291	—
Programme 15	Economic and social development in africa	165	—
Programme 18	Economic and social development in latin america and the caribbean	234	—
Subprogramme 6	Social development	47	—
Subprogramme 2	Gender justice, population and inclusive development	26	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

24 reports · 2003–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/81/333	From commitment to implementation : advancing social development after the Doha Political Declaration report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/80/178
2025	A/80/146	Equity, economic security for all and solidarity : reaffirming social development for a sustainable future report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/79/146
2024	A/79/154	Information and digital technologies for advancing social development : opportunities and challenges for improving social policies report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/174
2023	A/78/211	Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/188
2022	A/77/175	Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/134

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 subjects

Development Policy Development Strategies Equality Poverty Mitigation Social Development Sustainable Development

What’s in this document?

88 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;²²

²²A/80/146.

Welcomes the reaffirmation by Governments of their will and commitment to continue implementing the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, in particular to promote equality and social justice, eradicate poverty, promote full and productive employment and decent work for all and foster social integration to achieve stable, safe and just societies for all, and recognizes that the implementation of the Copenhagen commitments and the attainment of the internationally agreed development goals are mutually reinforcing;

Reaffirms its commitment to working tirelessly for the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and its recognition that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental – in a balanced, holistic and integrated manner;

Recognizes that poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon, and encourages Member States to develop comprehensive, integrated and coherent poverty eradication strategies that effectively address the structural causes of poverty and inequality with an emphasis on job-rich growth; address and meet the basic human needs of people living in poverty; ensure their access to quality education, nutrition, health, water, sanitation, housing, electricity and other public social services, access to employment and decent work for all, as well as access to productive resources, including credit, land, training, technology and knowledge; and ensure their participation in decision-making on social and economic development policies and programmes in this regard;

Expresses deep concern that the global goal of eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions by 2030 is slipping from the world’s reach, and recognizes that the multidimensional impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic have exacerbated it, causing the extreme poverty rate to rise for the first time in a generation, increasing by 11 per cent in 2020, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and, inter alia, among women and girls and persons with disabilities;

Stresses the importance of taking targeted measures to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions everywhere, including extreme poverty, and achieve social development, so that no one is left behind, with enhanced international support and strengthened global partnerships, and notes the need for countries, the United Nations development system and all relevant stakeholders to ensure and promote a multidimensional coordinated approach in their work and efforts to eradicate poverty;

Calls upon Member States to adopt measures to recognize, reduce and redistribute women’s and girls’ disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work and the feminization of poverty, which was exacerbated by the COVID‑19 pandemic, including through poverty eradication measures, labour policies, public services and gender-responsive social protection programmes;

Emphasizes that the major United Nations conferences and summits, including the Millennium Summit, the International Conference on Financing for Development, in its Monterrey Consensus,²³ the 2005 World Summit, the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, in its Doha Declaration on Financing for Development,²⁴ the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the 2013 special event to follow up efforts made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the third International Conference on Financing for Development, in its Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Summit, the 2024 Summit of the Future, and the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, have reinforced the priority and urgency of the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions within the United Nations development agenda;

²³Report of the International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico, 18–22 March 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.II.A.7), chap. I, resolution 1, annex.

²⁴Resolution 63/239, annex.

Recognizes the complex character of the ongoing food insecurity situation, including food price volatility, as a combination of several major factors, both structural and conjunctural, which is also negatively affected by, inter alia, environmental degradation, drought and desertification, global climate change, natural disasters, the lack of the necessary technology, and armed conflicts, and also recognizes that a strong commitment from national Governments and the international community as a whole is required to confront the major threats to food security and to ensure that policies in the area of agriculture do not distort trade and worsen food insecurity;

Also recognizes that investing in the capacities of women and girls is important in reducing poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition and inequalities, as well as in achieving higher productivity and boosting social returns in terms of health, lower infant mortality and the well-being of their families;

Reaffirms the importance of supporting the African Union’s development framework, Agenda 2063, as well as its 10-year plan of action, as a strategic framework for ensuring a positive socioeconomic transformation in Africa within the next 50 years, which is the African Union long-term strategy emphasizing industrialization, youth employment, improved natural resource governance and the reduction of inequalities, and its continental programme embedded in the resolutions of the General Assembly on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development²⁵ and regional initiatives, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme;

²⁵A/57/304, annex.

Stresses that the benefits of economic growth should be inclusive and distributed more equitably and that, in order to close the gap of inequality and avoid any further deepening of inequality, comprehensive social policies and programmes, including appropriate social transfer and job creation programmes and social protection systems, are needed;

Reaffirms that social integration policies should seek to reduce inequalities, promote access to basic social services, quality education for all and healthcare, eliminate discrimination, increase the participation and integration of social groups, particularly young people, older persons and persons with disabilities, noting the role of sports in this regard, and address the challenges posed to social development by globalization and market-driven reforms in order for all people in all countries to benefit from globalization;

Stresses that an enabling environment is a critical precondition for achieving equity and social development and that, while economic growth is essential, entrenched inequality and marginalization are an obstacle to the broad-based and sustained growth required for sustainable, inclusive and people-centred development, and recognizes the need to balance and ensure complementarity between measures to achieve growth and measures to achieve economic and social equity and inclusion in order for there to be an impact on overall poverty levels;

Acknowledges that investment in human capital and social protection has been proven to be effective in reducing poverty and inequality, and invites Member States to mobilize innovative sources of financing, including through public-private partnerships, to secure adequate levels of social expenditure necessary for expanding coverage towards universal access to health education, innovation, new technologies and basic social protection and to address the issues of illicit financial flows and corruption;

Stresses that international trade and stable financial systems can be effective tools to create favourable conditions for the development of all countries and that trade barriers and some trading practices continue to have negative effects on employment growth, particularly in developing countries, that good governance and the rule of law at the national and international levels and the need to promote respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms are essential for sustained economic growth, sustainable development, the reduction of inequalities, the eradication of poverty, hunger and malnutrition and for addressing the most pressing social needs of people living in poverty, and in this regard also stresses the importance of economic, social and cultural rights and the importance of the principles of non‑discrimination, inclusivity and meaningful participation for the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development;

Acknowledges that inequalities persist within and among countries, posing significant challenges to social cohesion, reaffirms that the eradication of poverty, the promotion of prosperity, gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and the reduction of inequality within and among countries are fundamental to achieving sustainable development for all, and that this requires collective and transformative efforts to leave no one behind and put the furthest behind first, and adapt institutions and policies to take into account the multidimensional nature of inequality and poverty and the inherent interlinkages between different Goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda;

Urges Member States to strengthen social policies, as appropriate, paying particular attention to the specific needs of disadvantaged and marginalized social groups, inter alia, women, children, youth, persons with disabilities, people living with HIV/AIDS, older persons, Indigenous Peoples, refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants and other persons in vulnerable situations, as well as to address all forms of violence in its many manifestations, including domestic violence, and discrimination, including xenophobia, against them, to ensure that these groups are not left behind, and recognizes that violence increases the challenges faced by States and societies in the achievement of poverty eradication, full and productive employment and decent work for all, and social integration;

Reaffirms the commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, as well as to the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into all development efforts, recognizing that they are critical for achieving sustainable development and for efforts to combat hunger and malnutrition, poverty and disease, to strengthening policies and programmes that improve, ensure and broaden the full participation of women in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life as equal partners and to improving the access of women to all resources needed for the full exercise of all their human rights and fundamental freedoms by removing persistent barriers and allocating adequate resources for the elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against women, including in the workplace, inter alia, by addressing wage inequality, ensuring equal access to full and productive employment and decent work for all, reconciliation of work and private life for both men and women, as well as strengthening their economic independence;

Recognizes that youth participation is important for development, and urges Member States and United Nations entities, in consultation with youth and youth-led and youth-focused organizations, to explore and promote new avenues for the full, effective, structured and sustainable participation of young people and youth‑led organizations in relevant decision-making processes and monitoring, in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life, including in designing and implementing policies, programmes and initiatives, in particular while implementing the 2030 Agenda;

Reaffirms the right to food and acknowledges the importance of promoting sustainable farming and agriculture, and, recognizing the important contribution that family farming and smallholder farming can play in providing food security, reducing inequality in access to food and nutrition, calls upon Governments to ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round;

Urges Governments, with the cooperation of relevant entities, to establish nationally appropriate social protection that supports labour market participation and addresses and reduces inequality and social exclusion, and social protection systems and floors, including through streamlining fragmented social protection systems/programmes, ensuring that such programmes are gender-responsive and disability-sensitive, and progressively extend their coverage to all people throughout their life cycle, including for workers in the informal economy, invites the International Labour Organization, upon request, to support government efforts to strengthen social protection strategies and policies on extending social protection and social security coverage, urges Governments, while taking account of national circumstances, to focus on the needs of those living in, or vulnerable to, poverty and to give particular consideration to universal access to basic social security systems, including the implementation of social protection floors, which can provide a systemic base upon which to address poverty and vulnerability, and in this regard takes note of the International Labour Organization recommendation on social protection floors;

Urges Member States to build resilient and inclusive social protection systems towards universal social protection throughout the life course, including by extending coverage to workers in the informal economy and to people in vulnerable situations;

Encourages Member States to ensure safe, fair and decent working conditions, including through living wages, regular adjustments of minimum wages, effective enforcement of labour standards, and active labour market policies for both formal and informal workers;

Stresses the need to address challenges faced by those working in informal or vulnerable jobs, by investing in the creation of more decent work opportunities, including providing access to decent jobs in the formal sector in accordance with International Labour Organization recommendation No. 204 concerning the transition from the informal to the formal economy, and enhancing the productive capacities of people, and strengthen labour institutions and employment and labour-market policies, taking into consideration the specific circumstances of each country and by promoting close partnerships with relevant stakeholders;

Urges Member States to strengthen, as appropriate, the authority and capacity of national mechanisms for promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, at all levels, which should be placed at the highest possible level of government, with sufficient funding, and to mainstream a gender perspective across all relevant national and local institutions, including labour, economic and financial government agencies, in order to ensure that national planning, decision-making, policy formulation and implementation, budgeting processes and institutional structures contribute to women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work;

Also urges Member States to address the high rates of youth unemployment, underemployment, vulnerable employment, informal employment and young people not in employment, education or training by developing and implementing targeted and integrated local and national youth employment policies for inclusive, sustainable and innovative job creation, improved employability, skills development and vocational training to facilitate the transition from school to work and to increase the prospects for integrating youth into the sustainable labour market, and through increased entrepreneurship, including the development of networks of young entrepreneurs at the local, national, regional and global levels that foster knowledge among young people about their rights and responsibilities in society, and encourages Member States to invest in education, support lifelong learning and provide social protection for all youth and to request donors, specialized United Nations entities and the private sector to continue to provide assistance to Member States, including technical and funding support, as appropriate;

Recognizes that promoting full employment and decent work for all also requires investing in education, training and skills development for women and men, and girls and boys, strengthening social protection and health systems and applying international labour standards, and urges States and, as appropriate, the relevant entities of the United Nations system and international and regional organizations, within their respective mandates, as well as civil society, the private sector, employer organizations, trade unions, the media and other relevant actors, to continue to develop and strengthen policies, strategies and programmes to enhance, in particular, the employability of women and youth and to ensure their access to full and productive employment and decent work for all, including by improving access to formal and non‑formal education, skills development and vocational training, lifelong learning and retraining and long-distance education, inter alia, in information and communications technology and entrepreneurial skills, particularly in developing countries, including with a view to supporting the economic empowerment of women in the different stages of their lives;

Reaffirms the New Urban Agenda,²⁶ which envisages cities and human settlements that fulfil their social function, including the social and ecological function of land, with a view to progressively achieving the full realization of the right to adequate housing, as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, without discrimination, universal access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation, as well as equal access for all to public goods and quality services in areas such as food security and nutrition, health, education, infrastructure, mobility and transportation, energy, air quality and livelihoods, and further encourages the implementation of comprehensive housing policies and investment in safe, affordable, adequate and accessible housing to reduce financial pressures on low-income households and improve health, education and employment outcomes;

²⁶Resolution 71/256, annex.

Stresses the importance of stepping up efforts to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, including through enhanced international cooperation to assist developing countries to, inter alia, ensure access to electricity through increased financing and by promoting decentralized solutions for expanding access in rural areas, including mini-grids and stand-alone systems, and considering measures to facilitate access to sustainable energy, particularly for low-income households;

Recognizes that the negative effects of climate change and environmental disasters have differential impacts, with people in vulnerable situations, poor and rural communities and low-income countries being disproportionately exposed to floods, droughts and other natural disasters, and that they have a lower capacity and assets to recover from such external shocks, and expresses concern that climate change may cause high and volatile food and commodity prices and hit them hardest;

Acknowledges the important nexus between international migration and social development, and stresses the importance of effectively enforcing labour laws with regard to labour relations and working conditions of migrant workers, inter alia, those related to their remuneration and conditions of health, safety at work and the right to freedom of association;

Reaffirms that social development requires the active involvement of all actors in the development process, including civil society organizations, corporations, the public sector and small businesses, and that partnerships among all relevant actors within countries are increasingly becoming part of national and international cooperation for social development, also reaffirms that, within countries, partnerships among the Government, civil society and the private sector can contribute effectively to the achievement of social development goals, and acknowledges the role of the public and private sectors as employers and enablers for the effective generation of new investments, full and productive employment and decent work for all, including through partnerships with the United Nations system, civil society and academia;

Stresses the importance of the policy space and leadership of national Governments for implementing policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development, while remaining consistent with relevant international rules and commitments, in particular in the areas of human rights, social expenditure and social protection programmes, and calls upon international financial institutions and donors to support developing countries in achieving their social development, in line with their national priorities and strategies, by, among other things, providing debt relief within the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda;

Underlines the responsibility of the private sector, at both the national and the international levels, including small and large companies and transnational corporations, regarding not only the economic and financial implications, but also the development, social, gender and environmental implications of their activities, their obligations towards their workers and their contributions to achieving sustainable development, including social development, emphasizes that transnational corporations and other business enterprises have a responsibility to respect human rights, applicable laws and international principles and standards, to operate transparently, in a socially and environmentally responsible manner, and to refrain from affecting the well-being of peoples, and also emphasizes the need to take further concrete actions on corporate responsibility and accountability, including through the participation of all relevant stakeholders, inter alia, for the prevention or prosecution of corruption, and to prevent human rights abuses;

Reaffirms the necessity of improving availability, affordability and efficiency of health products by increasing transparency of prices of medicines, vaccines, medical devices, diagnostics, assistive products, cell- and gene-based therapies and other health technologies across the value chain, including through improved regulations and building constructive engagement and a stronger partnership with relevant stakeholders, including industries, the private sector and civil society, in accordance with national and regional legal frameworks and contexts, to address the global concern about the high prices of some health products, and in this regard encourages the World Health Organization to continue its efforts to biennially convene the Fair Pricing Forum with Member States and all relevant stakeholders to discuss the affordability and transparency of prices and costs relating to health products;

Recognizes that health is an investment in human capital and social and economic development, towards the full realization of human potential, and significantly contributes to the promotion and protection of human rights and dignity as well as the empowerment of all people;

Welcomes the renewed commitment in the political declaration of the high-level meeting on universal health coverage to achieve universal health coverage, which implies that all people have access, without discrimination, to nationally determined sets of the needed promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative essential health services, and essential, safe, affordable, effective and quality medicines and vaccines, while ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the users to financial hardship, with a special emphasis on those who are marginalized;

Reaffirms that achieving universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential healthcare services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all, is essential to eradicate poverty, and reduce inequality and achieve sustainable development for all;

Acknowledges that expanding healthcare is a challenge, as well as that the rising cost of medications and health products is threatening the sustainability of health systems in many countries, and stresses the responsibility of States to ensure access for all, without discrimination of any kind, to medicines, in particular essential medicines, that are affordable, safe, effective and of quality, and encourages Member States to strengthen public health systems to achieve universal health coverage, including through using disaggregated data and impact assessments, to close gaps and ensure equity;

Expresses concern at the estimated global shortfall of 10 million health workers by 2030, primarily in low- and middle income countries, recognizes the need to train, build and retain a skilled health workforce, including nurses, midwives and community health workers, who are an important element of strong and resilient health systems, and also recognizes that increased investment in a more effective and socially accountable health workforce can unleash significant socioeconomic gains and contribute to the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, the empowerment of all women and girls and the reduction of inequality;

Calls upon States, at the international level, to take steps, individually and/or through international cooperation, in accordance with applicable international law, including international agreements, to ensure that their actions as members of international organizations take into due account the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and that the application of international agreements is supportive of public health policies that promote broad access to safe, effective and affordable medicines;

Encourages all States to apply measures and procedures for enforcing intellectual property rights in such a manner as to avoid creating barriers to the legitimate trade in medicines, and to provide for safeguards against the abuse of such measures and procedures;

Calls upon Member States to make greater investments and promote decent work in the health and social sectors, enable safe working environments and conditions, effective retention and equitable and broad distribution of the health workforce, and strengthen capacities to optimize the existing health workforce, including through expanding rural and community-based health education and training to contribute to the achievement of universal health coverage;

Encourages Governments to end all forms of malnutrition, including the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons;

Welcomes the rapid expansion in school enrolment worldwide, with literacy rates rising steadily over the past 50 years, and the improvement in the access to early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary and distance education and throughout the life course, and calls upon the international community to provide inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels so that all people may have access to lifelong learning opportunities that help them to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to exploit opportunities to participate fully in society;

Calls for mitigating the effects of school closures and cuts in national education budgets, including on learning, child nutrition and all forms of violence, by, inter alia, safely reopening schools, providing safe, non‑violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all, taking all possible actions to ensure qualified teachers, lower pupil-teacher ratios, and learners’ re-enrolment and re-engagement, learning recovery and well-being through a non‑discriminatory, accessible, integrated, multisectoral, child-sensitive and gender-responsive approach, and encourages the scaling-up of efforts for remedial, accelerated learning and catch-up strategies to mitigate learning losses, equipping children and adolescents with foundational skills, such as literacy and numeracy, and taking actions to ensure quality education and learning programmes beyond the schools for out-of-school children and youth and illiterate adults, particularly for the poorest and those in vulnerable situations;

Recognizes the limited access to and high rates of dropout from school and secondary education, the increased rates of exclusion from education with age and the existence of large disparities in school attendance and learning acquisition by region, wealth, sex, urban or rural residence and other factors such as Indigenous identity or disability, underscoring the challenges ahead, and also recognizes that poverty may affect access to quality education at the secondary and tertiary levels;

Also recognizes that factors such as poverty, residing in a rural area or having a disability all too often prevent children and adolescents from accessing quality education, especially at the secondary and tertiary levels;

Encourages all States to measure progress in the realization of the right to education, such as by developing national indicators as an important tool for the realization of the right to education and for policy formulation, impact assessment and transparency;

Encourages States to increase investments and international cooperation to allow all girls and boys to complete free, equitable, inclusive and quality early childhood, primary and secondary education, including by scaling up and strengthening initiatives, such as the Global Partnership for Education, and to explore additional innovative mechanisms based on models combining public and private resources, while ensuring that all education providers give due respect to the right to education, and by leveraging digital technologies to expand equitable access to quality education, improve learning outcomes and promote inclusion;

Urges States to support the efforts of developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, to realize progressively the right to education, including the progressive realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl through appropriate resources, including financial and technical resources, in support of country-led national education plans;

Reaffirms the right to education, and calls upon the international community to provide universal access to inclusive, equal and non‑discriminatory quality education at all levels – early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary and distance education, including technical and vocational training – as well as to promote the completion of primary and secondary education so that all people may have access to lifelong learning opportunities that help them to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to exploit opportunities to participate fully in society and contribute to sustainable development;

Recognizes that substantial and efficiently spent investments are needed to improve the quality of education and vocational training and in order to enable millions of people to acquire skills for decent work, and takes note with appreciation of the report of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity and the recommendations contained therein, as appropriate;

Urges Member States to promote and respect women’s right to education throughout the life course at all levels, especially for those who have been left furthest behind, and eliminate gender disparities in access to all areas of secondary and tertiary education, promote financial literacy and inclusion, digital literacy and entrepreneurship, ensure that women and girls have equal access to career development, training, scholarships and fellowships and adopt positive action to build women’s and girls’ leadership skills and influence, and adopt measures that promote, respect and guarantee the safety of women and girls in the school environment and that support women and girls with disabilities at all levels of education and training;

Underlines that the pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital transformation and accentuated its central role in recovering better and achieving the 2030 Agenda, and in this regard encourages Member States to promote multi‑stakeholder partnerships, including with science, technology and innovation communities, academia, civil society, the private sector and intergovernmental institutions, including the United Nations, to close the digital divides, achieve universal, meaningful and affordable Internet connectivity and promote responsible and inclusive Internet governance;

Urges States to continue to take action to bridge the digital divides and spread the benefits of digitalization, expand participation of all countries, in particular developing countries, in the digital economy, including by enhancing their digital infrastructure connectivity, building their capacities and access to technological innovations through stronger partnerships and improving digital literacy, leverage digital technology to expand the foundations on which to strengthen social protection systems, build capacities for inclusive participation in the digital economy and strong partnerships to bring technological innovations to all countries, and reaffirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online;

Urges Member States to scale up international cooperation and financing for digital capacity development in developing countries in order to bridge all digital divides within and between countries and ensure that all States can safely and securely seize the benefits of digital technologies;

Encourages Member States and other stakeholders, in particular the private sector, to establish strong partnerships and increase investments in developing countries in order to close all digital divides, within and between countries, and promote digital inclusion by promoting universal and meaningful digital connectivity and addressing the challenges of coverage, affordability, awareness, relevance and digital skills, with a particular emphasis on connecting people living in poverty and bridging the gender digital divide;

Recognizes that advancing digital inclusion requires a predictable and transparent enabling environment that encompasses policy, legal and regulatory frameworks that support innovation, protect consumer rights, nurture digital talent and skills, promote fair competition and digital entrepreneurship, and enhance consumer confidence and trust in the digital economy;

Urges Member States, when considering whether to integrate information and communications technology, including digital technologies, into the design and implementation of social policies, to consider the benefits, harms, acceptability, feasibility, use of resources and equity of the social policies, and to analyse the costs and benefits in relation to efficiency, effectiveness, inclusiveness, safety and security, and the impact on the environment;

Encourages Member States, in articulating a digital strategy for integrating information and communications technologies, including digital technologies, into the design and implementation of social policies, to ensure inclusivity, equality and social justice, to complement digital access to social programmes with non‑digital means to ensure that no one is left behind, and to allocate adequate financing and sufficient resources for integrating information and digital technologies into social policies;

Invites the United Nations system to continue to support Member States in their pursuit of socially just transitions towards sustainable development and facilitate international cooperation in the field of digital technologies for developing countries, upon their request, with the aim of achieving the 2030 Agenda for the common future of present and coming generations, and close the digital divides which are exacerbating existing inequalities globally, especially during and after the pandemic, and stresses the commitment of Member States to reinvigorating and strengthening multilateralism to collectively address global challenges and to support countries in need in their efforts to enable an inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery, including through mobilizing all means to strengthen their education, healthcare and social protection systems and mitigate and adapt to the negative effects of climate change;

Reaffirms that international cooperation has an essential role in assisting developing countries, including the least developed and middle-income countries, in strengthening their human, institutional and technological capacity;

Underlines that South-South cooperation is an important element of international cooperation for development as a complement to, not a substitute for, North-South cooperation, recognizes its increased importance, different history and particularities, and stresses that it should be seen as an expression of solidarity among peoples and countries of the South, based on their shared experiences and objectives, and that it should continue to be guided by the principles of respect for national sovereignty, national ownership and independence, equality, non‑conditionality, non‑interference in domestic affairs and mutual benefit;

Emphasizes that international public finance plays an important role in complementing the efforts of countries to mobilize public resources domestically, especially in the poorest and the most vulnerable countries with limited domestic resources, and that an important use of international public finance, including official development assistance, is to catalyse the mobilization of additional resources from other public and private sources, and notes that official development assistance providers have reaffirmed their respective commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.2 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to the least developed countries;

Welcomes the increase in the volume of official development assistance since the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus, expresses its concern that many countries still fall short of their official development assistance commitments, reiterates that the fulfilment of all official development assistance commitments remains crucial, commends those few countries that have met or surpassed their commitment to 0.7 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance and the target of 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to the least developed countries, urges all other countries to step up efforts to increase their official development assistance and to make additional concrete efforts towards the official development assistance targets, welcomes the decision by the European Union reaffirming its collective commitment to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance within the time frame of the 2030 Agenda and undertaking to meet collectively the target of 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to the least developed countries in the short term and to reach 0.20 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to the least developed countries within the time frame of the 2030 Agenda, and encourages official development assistance providers to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to the least developed countries;

Expresses concern that global challenges have strained developing countries’ fiscal space and reversed trends in official development assistance, reaffirms the importance of official development assistance as a key component of international development cooperation in helping developing countries to achieve sustainable development, stresses the essential role that official development assistance plays in complementing, leveraging and sustaining financing for development efforts in developing countries and in facilitating the achievement of development objectives, including the internationally agreed development goals, in particular the Sustainable Development Goals, and welcomes steps to improve the effectiveness and quality of aid based on the fundamental principles of national ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for results and mutual accountability;

Welcomes the contribution to the mobilization of resources for social development by the initiatives taken on a voluntary basis by groups of Member States based on innovative financing mechanisms, including those that aim to provide further access to drugs at affordable prices to developing countries on a sustainable and predictable basis, such as the International Drug Purchase Facility, Unitaid, as well as other initiatives such as the International Finance Facility for Immunization and the Advance Market Commitment for Vaccines;

Emphasizes that a coordinated global response is critical to assisting countries in preserving or increasing social protection systems, including by strengthening international solidarity, multilateralism, international cooperation and global partnerships among all stakeholders, in order to achieve the objectives of the World Summit for Social Development and the 2030 Agenda, while leaving no one behind, with an endeavour to reach the furthest behind first;

Encourages Governments to support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and non‑communicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all;

Stresses that the international community shall enhance its efforts to create an enabling environment for social development and poverty eradication through increasing market access for developing countries, technology transfer on mutually agreed terms, financial aid and a comprehensive solution to the external debt problem;

Reaffirms that each country has the primary responsibility for its own economic and social development and that the role of national policies and development strategies cannot be overemphasized, including their importance in safeguarding and increasing social spending to fully implement the 2030 Agenda, and underlines the importance of adopting effective measures, including new financial mechanisms, as appropriate, to support the efforts of developing countries to achieve sustained economic growth, sustainable development, poverty eradication and the strengthening of their democratic systems;

Stresses that the international community should support national commitments to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions with the goal to ensure that no one is left behind, and recognizes the need for greater international cooperation to further reduce inequality between and within countries and increase capacity-building support to countries with the most constrained resources to ensure that social expenditures meet certain targets;

Reconfirms the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Sevilla Commitment, and recognizes the need to take steps to significantly increase investment to close resource gaps, including through the mobilization of financial resources from all sources, including public, private, domestic and international resource mobilization and allocation;

Reaffirms the commitments made at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development and in its outcome document to take concrete actions to enhance fiscal space, address debt challenges of developing countries and lower the cost of capital and to provide and mobilize additional, innovative, adequate, affordable, predictable and accessible financing from all sources, recognizing the comparative advantages of public and private finance;

Stresses the importance of strengthening multilateral cooperation to enhance fiscal space for social spending and supporting developing countries in ensuring predictable, adequate and uninterrupted funding of social protection and other essential social spending to overcome challenges, especially those related to global shocks and crises;

Calls upon Member States to adopt coordinated policies that harness globalization, technology, demographic and economic shifts and other trends to achieve social development, while reducing inequality, including through increasing investments in social protection systems, inclusive quality education, healthcare, and housing;

Recognizes that informal employment is linked to economic insecurity, and encourages States to adopt, as appropriate, strategies to formalize work, extend social protection, expand tailored support to informal and formal workers, and implement labour market policies, to ensure productive employment and decent work, with particular attention to youth, women, and persons with disabilities;

Reaffirms that the Commission for Social Development, as a functional commission of the Economic and Social Council, in promoting the integrated treatment of social development issues in the United Nations system, shall review, on a periodic basis, issues related to the follow-up to and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and the Programme of Action, in a manner consistent with the functions and contributions of the relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, and shall advise the Council thereon;

Also reaffirms that the Commission for Social Development continues to have the primary responsibility for the follow-up to and review of the World Summit for Social Development and the outcome of the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly, and that it serves as the main United Nations forum for an intensified global dialogue on social development issues, and calls upon Member States, the relevant specialized agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system and civil society to enhance their support for its work;

Further reaffirms the mandate of the Commission for Social Development and that social development is a cross-cutting element in discussions surrounding the 2030 Agenda, and calls upon Member States, the relevant specialized agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system, civil society and relevant stakeholders to enhance their support for the high-level political forum on sustainable development as it builds upon the work of the functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council, including the Commission, while reflecting the integrated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals as well as the interlinkages between them;

Requests the United Nations funds, programmes and agencies to continue to support national efforts of Member States to achieve inclusive social development in a coherent and coordinated manner, to mainstream the goal of full and productive employment and decent work for all into their policies, programmes and activities, as well as to support efforts of Member States aimed at achieving this objective, and invites financial institutions to support efforts in this regard;

Invites the Secretary-General, the Economic and Social Council, the regional commissions, the relevant specialized agencies, the funds and programmes of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental forums, within their respective mandates, to continue to integrate into their work programmes and give priority attention to the Copenhagen commitments and the Declaration on the tenth anniversary of the World Summit for Social Development,²⁷ to continue to be actively involved in their follow‑up and to monitor the achievement of those commitments and undertakings;

²⁷See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 6 (E/2005/26), chap. I, sect. A; see also Economic and Social Council decision 2005/234.

Calls upon the Commission for Social Development to continue to address inequality in all its dimensions, in the context of the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and the Programme of Action, as well as the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and invites the Commission to emphasize the increased exchange of national, regional and international experiences, the focused and interactive dialogues among experts and practitioners and the sharing of best practices and lessons learned;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue engaging with Member States to sustain and further strengthen the political momentum on health-related issues, including the realization of universal health coverage and, in close collaboration with relevant United Nations agencies and other stakeholders, including regional organizations, to strengthen existing initiatives that are led and coordinated by the World Health Organization to provide assistance to Member States, upon their request, towards the achievement of universal health coverage and all health-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals;

Calls upon the international community to provide inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels throughout the life course – early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary and distance education, including technical and vocational training – so that all people, particularly those in vulnerable situations, may have access to lifelong learning opportunities that help them to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to exploit opportunities to participate fully in society and contribute to sustainable development;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its eighty-first session, under the item entitled “Social development”, the sub-item entitled “Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly”, with a particular focus on translating the commitments made in the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action into concrete action, including the identification of best practices, and means to catalyse the implementation of the Doha Political Declaration towards the achievement of social development for all, and requests the Secretary-General to submit a report on the question to the General Assembly at that session.

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