TheUnited Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is one ofsix principal organs of theUnited Nations (UN), responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields of the organization, specifically in regards to thefifteen specialized agencies, the eight functional commissions, and the five regional commissions under its jurisdiction.
ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states and the United Nations System.[1] It has a rotating membership of 54 countries,[2] andover 1,600 nongovernmental organizations haveconsultative status with the Council to participate in the work of the United Nations.[3]
The members of ECOSOC are responsible for electing the executive board ofUNICEF, the council of theUnited Nations Development Programme, the committee ofUNHCR, and various commissions and other bodies under its jurisdiction. ECOSOC is also responsible for tasks such as reviewing and updating the UN list ofleast developed countries.[5][6][7]
The president of the Council is elected for a one-year term and chosen from the small or medium sized states represented on the Council at the beginning of each new session.[8] The presidency rotates among theUnited Nations Regional Groups to ensure equal representation.[9]
His Excellency Lok Bahadur Thapa was elected the President of the Economic and Social Council for the 2025-26 Session on 31 July 2025. His ExcellencyBob Rae was elected the President of the Economic and Social Council for the 2024-25 Session on 25 July 2024.Paula Narváez, Representative of Chile, was elected as the seventy-ninth president of the Council on 27 July 2023. She succeededLachezara Stoeva, who was elected as the seventy-eighth president of the Council on 25 July 2022,[10] succeedingCollen Vixen Kelapile of Botswana.[11]
The Council consists of 54 Member States, which are elected yearly by theGeneral Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. Seats on the Council are allocated ensuring equitable geographic rotation among the United Nations regional groups.[12][13] Outgoing members are eligible for immediate re-election, and some seats are held byde facto permanent members.
In 1945 when theUnited Nations Charter was originally signed, the Economic and Social Council consisted of 18 seats. The formal concept of theUnited Nations Regional Groups did not yet exist, and unlike theSecurity Council, there was no "gentlemen's agreement" between thesuperpowers to assign ECOSOC seats. Regardless, with 4 exceptions out of 102 elections (see list), a relatively stable pattern emerged and held until 1960:[14][a]
As the number of United Nations members grew withdecolonization, the pattern began to break down starting in 1961, with nations inAfrica winning elections to seats formerly held by Western Europe and theRepublic of China (Taiwan).[14][c]
In 1965, the Charter was amended to increase the size of ECOSOC to 27 seats, and the Regional Groups were formally introduced. The seat distribution became:[18]
The key goal of the regional commissions is to “raise the [regional] level of economic activity”; none of the regional commissions has in its founding mandate a reference tosustainability or to theenvironmental dimension of development.[29]
All UN regional commissions have expanded their activities to work toward achieving theSustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They increasingly include a concern for the environmental and social dimensions of development, along with their traditional economic focus. They have set standards for SDG implementation by providing (financial) support through reporting guidelines, performance indicators, and other managerial tools. However, their limited resources force them to prioritize; diverse sets of priorities in the region only partially overlap with the SDGs.[29]
The regional commissions seek to link the global ambitions of the SDGs with regional actors, contexts, and priorities. In practice, however, when it comes to agenda setting, the regional commissions mostly seek to balance the new global agenda with their regional priorities and prior agendas.[29]
The specialized agencies of the United Nations are autonomous organizations working within the United Nations System, meaning that while they report their activities to the Economic and Social Council, they are mostly free to their own devices. Some were created before the United Nations existed and were integrated into the system, others were created by the League of Nations and were integrated by its successor, while others were created by the United Nations itself to meet emerging needs.[30] Each agency must negotiate with the Council as to what their relationship will look and work like. This leads to a system where different organizations maintain different types of relationships with the Council.[31][32] For example,in the 1950s[clarify] the members of ECOSOC were responsible for granting a state admission toUNESCO,[33][34] but now this is done by the members of UNESCO themselves.
The following is a list of the specialized agencies reporting to the Council:[35]
In a report issued in early July 2011, the UN called for spending nearly US$2 trillion ongreen technologies to prevent what it termed "a major planetary catastrophe", warning that "It is rapidly expanding energy use, mainly driven byfossil fuels, that explains why humanity is on the verge of breaching planetarysustainability boundaries throughglobal warming,biodiversity loss, and disturbance of thenitrogen-cycle balance and other measures of the sustainability of theearth'secosystem".[36]
UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon added: "Rather than viewing growth and sustainability as competing goals on a collision course, we must see them as complementary and mutually supportive imperatives". The report concluded that "Business as usual is not an option".[37]
The governance of the multilateral system has historically been complex and fragmented. This has limited the capacity of ECOSOC to influence international policies in trade, finance, and investment. Reform proposals aim to enhance the relevance and contribution of the council. A major reform was approved by the2005 World Summit based on proposals submitted by secretary-generalKofi Annan.[38] The Summit aimed to establish ECOSOC as a quality platform for high-level engagement among member states and with international financial institutions, the private sector, and civil society on global trends, policies, and action. It resolved to hold biennial high-level Development Cooperation Forums at the national-leadership level, transforming the high-level segment of the Council to review trends in international development cooperation and promote greater coherence in development activities. At the Summit it was also decided to hold annual ministerial-level substantive reviews to assess progress in achieving internationally agreed on development goals (particularly theMillennium Development Goals). These "Annual Ministerial Reviews" will be replaced by the High-Level Political Forum from 2016 onwards after the new post-MDG/post-2015Sustainable Development Goals are agreed upon.[39]
Subsequent proposals by the High-Level Panel Report on System-Wide Coherence in November 2006 aimed to establish a forum within the ECOSOC as a counter-model to the exclusive clubs of theG8 andG20. The Forum was to comprise 27 heads of state (L27, corresponding to half of ECOSOC's membership) to meet annually and provide international leadership in the development area. This proposal however, was not approved by the General Assembly.[40]
The Economic and Social Council Chamber in theUnited Nations Conference Building was a gift fromSweden. It was conceived by Swedish architectSven Markelius, one of the 11 architects in the international team that designed the UN headquarters. Wood from Swedish pine trees was used in the delegates' area for the railings and doors.[41]: 6 The pipes and ducts in the ceiling above the public gallery were deliberately left exposed; the architect believed that anything useful could be left uncovered. The "unfinished" ceiling is a symbolic reminder that the economic and social work of the United Nations is never finished; there will always be something more that can be done to improve living conditions for the world's people.[41]: 7 [citation needed]
^For comparison purposes, applying the Regional Groups retroactively:
1 seat to the African Group
3 seats to the Asian Group and Taiwan
3 seats to the Eastern European Group
4 seats to the Latin American and Caribbean Group
7 seats to Western European and Others Group
(The Republic of China (Taiwan) never joined the Asian Group.[15][16][17])
^Various nonstandard, inconsistent names, including also "Near and Middle East", were used before Africa and Asia became Regional Groups. Sources published after the introduction of the Regional Groups retroactively name this group "Asia-Africa" or similar, but this name was not used at the creation of ECOSOC.[15][14][16]
^UN Document E/1981/81 Resolutions and decisions of the Economic and Social Council, organizational session for 1981, New York, 3-6 February 1981, 1st regular session of 1981, New York, 14 April - 8 May 1981. "1981/134. Elections, appointments and nominations to subsidiary and related bodies of the Council"
^UN Document A/RES/61/136 Enlargement of the Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly
^UN Document E/2007/99 Resolutions and decisions of the Economic and Social Council : organizational session for 2007, New York, 17 and 22 January, 6, 9 and 15 February, 2 and 15 March and 16 April 2007; resumed organizational session for 2007, New York, 25 and 26 April and 24 May 2007; substantive session of 2007, Geneva, 2-27 July 2007; resumed substantive session of 2007, New York, 4 and 17 October 2007 "2007/201. Elections, nominations, confirmations and appointments to subsidiary and related bodies of the Economic and Social Council"
^abcGregg, Robert W. “The Economic and Social Council: Politics of Membership.” The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 1, 1963, pp. 109–32. JSTOR,https://doi.org/10.2307/445962. Accessed 5 Mar. 2024.
^abPadelford, Norman J. “Politics and the Future of ECOSOC.” International Organization, vol. 15, no. 4, 1961, pp. 564–80. JSTOR,http://www.jstor.org/stable/2705552. Accessed 24 Mar. 2024.
^Bailey, Sydney D. “China and the United Nations.” The World Today, vol. 27, no. 9, 1971, pp. 365–72. JSTOR,http://www.jstor.org/stable/40394545. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.
^"Subsidiary Bodies of ECOSOC".United Nations Economic and Social Council. United Nations. n.d. Retrieved25 February 2019.
^abcManhire, Vanessa, ed. (2019)."United Nations Handbook 2019–20".United Nations Handbook: An Annual Guide for Those Working with and within the United Nations (57th ed.). Wellington: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand:144–198.ISSN0110-1951.
^Sharp, Walter R. “Decisionmaking in the Economic and Social Council.” International Organization, vol. 22, no. 4, 1968, pp. 881–901. JSTOR,http://www.jstor.org/stable/2705848. Accessed 14 Sept. 2024.
