ECOSOC

The Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC - coordinates the economic and social
work of the United Nations and the specialized agencies and institutions, as well as their
functional commissions and five regional commissions known as "the United Nations
family" of organizations.
Most people associate the United Nations with the maintenance of peace and security.
However, most of the organization's resources are spent on

promotion of higher standards of living

full employment

economic and social progress as formulated in the UN Charter.

Functions
Functions and powers of ECOSOC are:

to serve a the central forum for discussions on international economic and

social issues

to promote higher standards of living, full employment and economic and social
progress

to find solutions of international economic , social, health and related

problems, and international cultural and educational cooperation

to encourage universal respect for and observance of human rights and

fundamental freedoms

to assist the organization of major international conferences in the field of

economic and social and related fields

to make or initiate studies and reports with respect to international economic

and social matters

to prepare draft conventions for submission to the General Assembly

to coordinate the work of the specialized agencies and programmes
and their functional commissions and five regional commissions.

to make arrangements for consultations with non-governmental

organizations

Structure
ECOSOC has 54 members elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term.
Every year 18 new members are elected according to a geographical distribution.
ECOSOC has no permanent members, but a country can be reelected immediately. The
political and economic superpowers are elected every year, and, consequently, they are
"permanent" members.

AMR and DCF

ECOSOC administrates two segments called the Annual Ministerial Reviews (AMR) and
the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF). The AMR takes place annually and DCF
every two years. AMR was created to stimulate the work of the Millennium Development
Goals and DCF aims to streamline development cooperation.