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2024 Handbook

General Assembly Second Committee (Economic and Financial)

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The General Assembly Second Committee addresses the economic development of Member States and the stability and growth of international financial and trade networks. The Second Committee deals solely with the economic development of Member States and State-to-State assistance. It does not set or discuss the budget of the United Nations, which is addressed only by the Fifth Committee. The Second Committee also does not address social issues that affect development; such issues are considered by the Third Committee. The Second Committee also adheres to the purview guidelines of the General Assembly as a whole.

Agriculture development, food security and nutrition Agriculture development, food security and nutrition

Food insecurity is an ongoing systemic issue that affects 2.4 billion people. High costs of nutritious food has resulted in over 3 billion people who are unable to afford to eat nutritiously. Despite progress being made in reducing the number of undernourished persons, economic slowdowns, armed conflicts and disease outbreaks have all contributed to the stall in global progress. With the global population expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, agrifood systems require innovative changes to improve food security and increase nutrition.

In 1945, the United Nations established the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) whose mission would be promoting economic research and technological improvement in agriculture, nutrition and food security. The next few decades saw the buildup of United Nations food and agriculture infrastructure with the founding of the World Food Programme (WFP) in 1963. Through this program, Member States can request assistance to increase food supplies and improve domestic agriculture welfare. The United Nations reaffirmed its commitment to furthering Member States’ development through the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade in 1970. The strategic plan established goals for developing countries, including the development and production of high-protein foods in order to meet nutritional needs of their population, while also encouraging developed countries to expand genetic research to attain this goal.

In 1974, the United Nations held the first World Food Conference where it adopted the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition. The declaration recognized how widening food gaps negatively impact the economic development of nations and the importance that meeting food needs has on achieving sustainable development. To further support agriculture development, the United Nations established the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) in 1976. Through this fund, the United Nations sought to expand food production systems and improve nutritional levels in developing countries. Since 1978, IFAD has provided 23.2 billion US dollars in grants and low-interest loans to Member States.

In 1992, the United Nations held the International Conference on Nutrition, where it recognized that nutrition was a necessary precondition for the development of all societies. As a result of this conference, the United Nations adopted the World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition to provide a technical framework to improve nutrition. The plan included several objectives ranging from continued access to safe, nutritious food for people to ensuring the development of programs and policies to improve food security for both current and future generations. In 1995 the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) revisited the issue, including the role of sustainable agricultural development for the first time. Through negotiations at the 1996 World Food Summit and the Millennium Declaration, the international community set a new goal: to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger (Target 1C).

By 2014, undernourishment decreased from 23.2 percent in 1990 to 12.9 percent in developing countries. As the initial time frame to achieve the MDGs came to an end, the United Nations introduced the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an urgent call to action for both developed and developing countries to achieve peace and prosperity under a shared blueprint. Amongst these goals, SDG 2 sets out to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. Target indicators in achieving SDG 2 include ending malnutrition, increasing food production and developing infrastructure in rural areas to diversify plant and livestock products.

Despite progress made under the MDGs, the number of people facing acute food insecurity has since increased year after year, nearly doubling between 2016 and 2023. The 2024 Global Report on Food Crises attributes this increase to conflicts—primarily in Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen and the Gaza Strip—extreme weather and economic shocks. Acute malnutrition in food-crisis countries also worsened in 2023 compared to 2022, with displaced populations experiencing the worst impacts due to lack of access to nutritious food, if any at all.

Continued increases in the number of undernourished people in the world have practically eroded any progress made in eliminating world hunger from the preceding decade. With this backdrop, the FAO believes it is necessary to make a reinvigorated commitment to have any chance of achieving SDG 2 by 2030. The Sahel Integrated Resilience Program has seen localized success through land restoration and building community infrastructure. The well-being and productivity of small-scale farmers, who produce upwards of 70 percent of the food supply in regions of concern but continue to see low incomes and high gender inequality, also forms an important facet of this issue (Target 2.3). The protracted nature of food insecurity requires long-term solutions. FAO recommends Member States adopt holistic agrifood policies and establish effective food regulations, but historic funding shortfalls have forced the United Nations to scale back efforts.
Questions to consider from your country’s perspective:

  • How can Member States improve global food security?
  • What is the relationship between agriculture development, conflict and climate change?
  • What can Member States do to support small-scale farmers and their communities?

Bibliography Bibliography

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Development cooperation with middle-income countries Development cooperation with middle-income countries

A middle-income country (MIC) is a country with a gross national income ranging from $1,136 to $13,845 per capita. As of 1 July 2023, there are currently 108 MICs, which represent one-third of the global gross domestic product and are home to 75 percent of the global population, but are also home to 62 percent of the world’s poor. Countries classified as MICs also often overlap with other country classifications, including least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries and small island developing states. Since MICs are categorized based on their income, countries often move in and out of this classification with 25 MICs transitioning into a high-income country and 39 low-income countries becoming MICs between 2000 and 2023. However, when countries experience rapid economic growth through cheap labor, basic technology catch-up and reallocating labor from low productivity to high productivity sectors, MICs can become entangled in the middle-income trap and experience economic stagnation unless new sources of economic growth are found.

From its conception, the United Nations Charter emphasized promoting economic development and international cooperation as a necessary function of the United Nations. Recognizing the need to support the economic development of less developed countries, the United Nations General Assembly declared the 1960s as the United Nations Development Decade. Through this declaration, the United Nations encouraged Member States to create opportunities for developing countries in the global market while promoting self-sustaining economic development through industrialization and diversification in less developed countries. During the first year of the United Nations Development Decade, developing countries wrote the Cairo Declaration of Developing Countries to express their concerns with current development policies, mainly the negative effects of trade and the lasting impact of colonization, but at the same time urging the United Nations to integrate the aims of the Development Decade with national plans of programs of participating countries.

In 1978, the United Nations shifted focus and emphasized development cooperation between developing nations through the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (BAPA). The goals of this plan were to strengthen self-reliance of developing countries, but also increase communications between developing countries to help bring more awareness to the common problems developing countries face. However, certain countries’ economic growth stagnated and in some cases decreased, leading the United Nations to hold the first of two Conferences on Least Developed Countries (LDCs). While Member States were generally supportive of increased funding and focus on countries that needed more support, several developed countries pointed out that responding to the developmental needs of developed countries required a diversified, not a global solution. By 1994, the Secretary-General affirmed the need for an open trading system between developed and developing countries to encourage rapid economic growth, but cautioned Member States that the United Nations can only facilitate growth and that long-term commitment from Member States is necessary to achieve sustained economic development.

At the turn of the millennium, the United Nations established the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through the United Nations Millennium Declaration. Among other things, the United Nations resolved to eliminate poverty through mobilizing resources to developing nations and resolving the debt of low and middle income countries by 2015. In 2013, the High-Level Conference of Middle-Income Countries met to discuss the specific needs of middle-income countries. This meeting culminated in the creation of the Challenges for Sustainable Development and International Cooperation in Middle-Income Countries: The Role of Networks for Prosperity, a declaration that strived to give MICs the ability to participate in global decision making and challenged the United Nations to create a robust framework that recognizes the diversity in middle-income countries and the unique problems each middle-income country faces.

Despite progress in supporting the development of middle-income countries, the COVID-19 pandemic upended the global economy, leading the United Nations to launch the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund to aid recovery in middle-income countries. By 2020, the fund helped middle-income countries by establishing enterprises, creating new market outlets for vendors, and providing equipment to small and medium enterprises to increase production of personal protective equipment. In 2024, the High-Level Ministerial Conference on Middle-Income Countries met and established the Rabat Declaration on Middle-Income Countries which prioritized establishing a specific inter-agency comprehensive system-wide plan to address the multidimensional challenges of middle-income countries. This system utilizes a Development in Transition approach that views development as a gradual process that does not end when a country reaches a certain level of income, allowing middle-income countries to continue to receive financial support that they otherwise would not qualify for.

Middle-income countries continue to face a litany of challenges from natural disasters, conflict and economic hardship, slowing economic growth. Long-term financing programs like the SDG Stimulus have the potential to improve middle-income countries’ access to investments. By tackling the high cost of debt, scaling up the affordability of long term financing for development and providing contingency financing for countries in need, the SDG Stimulus aims to target both the short term and long term needs of developing countries. While GDP remains a popular measure of progress, Comprehensive Wealth Measures provide a clearer picture of a country’s development by looking at its portfolio of assets. Comprehensive Wealth Measures can predict future economic declines and reveal whether a country is using its natural and human capital effectively to generate the most wealth.
Questions to consider from your country’s perspective:

  • How can the United Nations support the development of middle-income countries while recognizing the diverse challenges faced by each middle-income country?
  • What can Member States do to increase cooperation with middle-income countries and encourage sustainable development?
  • Does utilizing a Development in Transition approach require the United Nations to redefine a middle-income country? Would switching to a Comprehensive Wealth Measure eliminate middle-income countries as a category?

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Bibliography Bibliography

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United Nations Documents United Nations Documents

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