17 December 1981

Expansion of the conference facilities of the Economic Commission for Africa at Addis Ababa

The General Assembly,

Recalling Economic and Social Council resolution 1981/65 of 24 July 1981,

Recalling also that the Economic Commission for Africa was established at Addis Ababa in 1958 and that its conference facilities, which were donated to the United Nations by the Government of Ethiopia, were designed to service the limited number of African countries that were States Members of the United Nations in the late 1950s and early 1960s,

Noting with satisfaction the increase in the number of independent States in Africa as a result of decolonization,

Noting further that there are at present 50 African States Members of the United Nations and that there is the prospect that more will be admitted to membership in the United Nations,

Mindful of the heavy responsibilities entrusted to the Economic Commission for Africa as the main centre for the promotion of the economic development of Africa in general and for the implementation of the Lagos Plan of Action for the Implementation of the Monrovia Strategy for the Economic Development of Africa, in particular, in the present decade,

Noting that the present conference facilities at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Africa are believed to be inadequate in relation to the needs of the large number of African States that have become members of the Commission since its establishment and the growing number of international, intergovernmental and regional organizations participating in conferences there,

1. Requests the Secretary-General to undertake, as a matter of urgency a study of the adequacy of the conference facilities at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Africa to meet the demands thereon as a result of the enlarged membership and increased activities of the Commission;

2. Further requests the Secretary-General to report the findings of the study together with his suggestions, through the Economic Commission for Africa at its seventeenth session and the Economic and Social Council at its second regular session of 1982, to the General Assembly at its thirty-seventh session.