Poverty Eradication General Assembly

The report provides a review of the progress, gaps and challenges in inclusive social development policies and programmes to address homelessness, given the socioeconomic impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The specific challenges faced by disadvantaged groups are discussed. The report shows that, while knowledge of and policies on homelessness are improving, substantial efforts are still needed. Notwithstanding homelessness concerns in developed and developing economies, the report serves to highlight global contrasts, along with the convergence of issues and strategies.   In the report, the Secretary-General proposes possible indicators for social protection and access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing in the aftermath of COVID-19. 

In the present report, the Secretary-General stresses the need to regain lost ground and strengthen national actions and international cooperation to achieve the goals and objectives of the World Summit for Social Development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He reviews the progress made since 1995, examines the current state of play and highlights global challenges to social development. In this context, the Secretary-General calls upon Member States to commit to bold and transformative actions to revive progress and outlines policies and programmes to address the rise in extreme poverty and food insecurity, the lack of access to quality education and energy and the shortage of employment and decent work around the world. He also presents the outcomes of the sixty-first session of the Commission for Social Development and concludes by identifying policy recommendations for consideration by Member States.

The report includes an analysis of the role of social inclusion and social integration in combating multidimensional poverty with a focus on specific groups, in particular children, women, youth, persons with disabilities, older persons, migrants and Indigenous Peoples. The report concludes with key recommendations for consideration by the Assembly.

Population ageing signals humankind’s extraordinary collective success in improving living conditions for billions of people around the world. The present note examines the economic and social implications of the process of population ageing and presents policy recommendations to manage this global trend equitably. The note presents the main findings of the World Social Report 2023: Leaving No One Behind in an Ageing World.

At its 3rd plenary meeting, on 16 September 2022, the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the General Committee, decided to include in the agenda of its seventy-seventh session the item entitled: “Social development: “(a) Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly; “(b) Social development, including questions relating to the world social situation and to youth, ageing, persons with disabilities and the family; “(c) Literacy for life: shaping future agendas” and to allocate it to the Third Committee.