26 May 1983

Unified approach to development analysis and planning in the field of social integration through popular participation

The Economic and Social Council,

Mindful of the pledge of Member States to take joint and separate action in co-operation with the United Nations to promote higher standards of living for all segments of the population and to ensure full employment and conditions of economic and social progress for the achievement of social justice and social equality,

Bearing in mind the fact that the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, contained in General Assembly resolution 2542 (XXIV) of 11 December 1969, stressed the interdependence of economic and social development in the wider process of growth and change,

Bearing in mind also the fact that in article 2 of the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, the Assembly proclaimed the necessity for the elimination of all forms of inequality, exploitation of peoples and individuals, colonialism and racism, including nazism and apartheid, and other policies and ideologies opposed to the purposes and principles of the United Nations,

Recognizing that social progress and development require the full utilization of human resources, including, in particular, the active participation of all elements of society in defining and achieving the common goals of development, as well as the assurance to disadvantaged population groups of equal opportunities for social and economic advancement in order to achieve an effectively integrated society,

Conscious of the importance of the unified approach to development in the field of social integration through popular participation for the achievement of the social goals proclaimed in the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, as well as in the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade, contained in the annex to General Assembly resolution 35/56 of 5 December 1980,

Convinced that the basic orientation of the activities of the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Department of International Economic and Social Affairs, which fell under the mandate of the Commission as the concept of "social integration", must be prolonged and reinforced,

1. Reaffirms the importance for social progress and development to secure for the less advantaged population groups in society full access to their country's social and economic institutions on the basis of full equality;

2. Believes that the application of a unified approach in the field of social integration is connected with social and economic structural changes;

3. Emphasizes the role of the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs in the study of popular participation of the specific groups within the broader framework of social development strategies and policies at the international, national and regional levels;

4. Considers that strategies and policies for social integration may be regarded as methods and instruments of social change which are aimed at eliminating obstacles and creating the necessary conditions for people, including less integrated population groups, to participate fully in development and to benefit therefrom;

5. Requests the Secretary-General, in co-operation with Governments and within the limits of existing resources, to arrange a study on the role of popular participation in the formulation and implementation of strategies and policies for social integration, in order to analyse and compare regional and national experience in this area and make those activities more effective;

6. Invites the Secretary-General to inform the Commission for Social Development on the results of those studies;

7. Requests the Commission for Social Development, at its twenty-ninth session, to consider recent trends in strategies and policies for the social integration of the less-advantaged population groups in developing countries.