24 May 1989

15th plenary meeting

World social situation

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling General Assembly resolution 40/100 of 13 December 1985 and Economic and Social Council resolutions 1987/40 and 1987/52 of 28 May 1987,

Bearing in mind the importance of the report on the world social situation for increasing awareness of the advances made towards the goals of social progress and better standards of living, established in the Charter of the United Nations, and of the obstacles to further progress,

Deeply concerned at the low levels of per capita income and overall reductions in the standards of living and the main indicators of social well-being in a great number of the developing countries during the 1980s,

Reaffirming the common goal of realizing, through national and international efforts, the well-being of the world's population, especially with regard to the basic indicators of social development - food, employment, housing, education and health care,

Considering that there is a need for greater efforts to study and disseminate data on the existing world social situation, particularly the situation in developing countries,

Bearing in mind the importance of the report on the world social situation for the preparation of the international development strategy for the fourth United Nations development decade,

Stressing the need for a comprehensive and integrated view of the interrelationships between economic and social problems,

1. Reaffirms that, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 40/100 and Economic and Social Council resolutions 1987/40 and 1987/52, the 1989 report on the world social situation will be submitted to the Assembly at its forty-fourth session;

2. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its forty-fifth session, through the Economic and Social Council at its first regular session of 1990, an expanded version of the 1989 report on the world social situation, which should include:

(a) A special chapter devoted to a comprehensive overview of the general trends in the main indicators of the social situation and standards of living world wide, particularly in developing countries, giving special attention to those cases, at the national and regional levels, in which there have been negative trends and low levels of per capita income during the 1980s;

(b) A special chapter on an analysis of the relationship between trends in the world economy and trends in the social situation, including projections to the year 2000, with special attention to the developing countries;

(c) A chapter which, in full implementation of Economic and Social Council resolution 1987/40, studies the impact of structural adjustments and the external indebtedness of developing countries on the social situation;

(d) A chapter in which the individual conclusions of chapters dealing with specific social problems are integrated and placed in the overall context of the world economic and social situations;

3. Also requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at its forty-sixth session, through the Economic and Social Council, on the work being done within the United Nations system to improve and further develop quantitative and qualitative indicators that measure accurately the social condition and the standards of living of the world's population, particularly in developing countries;

4. Further requests the Secretary-General, in preparing the next report on the world social situation, to give high priority to an analysis of the main indicators of social progress and standards of living, and to make a comprehensive analysis of the main causes and circumstances that explain negative trends in those indicators; chapters devoted to the study of specific social problems must be related to the global economic and social situations, taking into account both national and international conditions.