10 November 1982

strengthening of the co-ordination of information systems in the

United Nations system

The Economic and Social Council,

Conscious that information is one of the most valuable resources at the disposal of the United Nations system,

Emphasizing the need for facilitating the access of developing countries to the United Nations information systems,

Recognizing the need to co-ordinate and harmonize the information systems in the United Nations system and the need to undertake this from the perspective of the needs of users at the national level,

Bearing in mind the conclusions contained in the report of the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination and the recommendations set forth in the final report of the independent experts on the strengthening of the co-ordination of information systems in the United Nations system, and stressing the need for further consideration of that report,

Recalling its resolution 1981/63 of 23 July 1981,

1. Urges that a small central mechanism in the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination for the co-ordination of information systems, whose aims would be to ensure the more efficient operation of existing or planned United Nations information systems from the perspective of users at the national level and to enhance the capacity of the United Nations system to collect, store, retrieve and disseminate information, should:

(a) Review and advise at an early stage on proposals for the creation of new information systems or for the substantial modification of existing ones, when such proposals might be of interest to more than one organization, with a view to avoiding unnecessary duplication and to ensuring compatibility of information systems in the same or related fields, and stresses that such advisory opinions should be presented to the governing bodies of organizations together with the proposals of those organizations, before decisions are taken to create new information systems or substantially modify existing ones;

(b) Give priority in its work programme to determining the needs of users, in particular those in developing countries; to identifying the areas, especially those related to operational activities, in which coherent information should be made available, especially at the level of the United Nations system; and to developing, within a year, a meaningful register of development activities;

(c) Compile, update and popularize common indexing vocabularies at the generic level and formulate standards, drawing upon the technical expertise of the appropriate organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system;

(d) Monitor the development of information technology and ensure its application in the United Nations system in an effective and co-ordinated manner;

2. Stresses the importance of associating the technical experts of the United Nations system with the suppliers and users of information in the discharge of the functions outlined in paragraph 1 above, in order to ensure that information users at the national level obtain maximum benefit from the information systems of the United Nations system;

3. Stresses further that such work should involve no costs additional to those foreseen in the estimates proposed to the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination for 1983 and that, in future years, work of this nature should be carried out with maximum cost-effectiveness;

4. Invites the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination to take appropriate action to ensure the continuation of current activities supporting the co-ordination of information systems and to strengthen and reorient them so as to achieve the above objectives;

5. Invites the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination to submit a report on the implementation of the present resolution, through the Committee for Programme and Co-ordination at its twenty-third session, to the Economic and Social Council for consideration at its second regular session of 1983.