Pattern of conferences
A/RES/69/250
thereon to the Assembly at its seventieth session through the Committee on
Conferences;
29. Notes with concern the recurring underutilization of the conference
centre of the Economic Commission for Africa, specifically given the ongoing
renovation of its facilities, recognizes the continuing promotional efforts and
initiatives of the Commission, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon
to the General Assembly at its seventieth session through the Committee on
Conferences;
30. Welcomes the efforts undertaken to improve the conference facilities at
the Economic Commission for Africa, and in this regard encourages the SecretaryGeneral to ensure that the ongoing work on the improvement of the remaining
facilities, in particular Africa Hall, is completed in a timely manner;
31. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to explore additional means
to increase the utilization of the conference centre of the Economic Commission for
Africa, including with its partners such as the African Union, and to report thereon,
including on the impact of the initiatives of the Commission, to the General
Assembly at its seventieth session;
32. Also requests the Secretary-General to encourage the heads of entities of
the United Nations system to use as a matter of priority, when applicable, the
conference centre of the Economic Commission for Africa to ensure greater
utilization of the conference facilities;
33. Recalls section II.A, paragraph 26, of its resolution 68/251, reiterates its
request that the Secretary-General formulate a competitive pricing structure and an
appropriate marketing strategy for the conference centre of the Economic
Commission for Africa, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the
General Assembly at its seventieth session;
34. Recognizes the proactive efforts of the Secretary-General to identify
ways to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in conference services;
35. Requests the Secretary-General to propose, at the seventieth session of
the General Assembly, a comprehensive review of conference servicing,
highlighting any duplication or redundancy, with a view to identifying innovative
ideas, potential synergies and other cost-saving measures, without compromising the
quality of the services;
36. Reiterates its request to the Committee on Conferences that it consult
those bodies that have consistently utilized less than the applicable benchmark of
their allocated resources for the past three years, with a view to making appropriate
recommendations in order to achieve the optimum utilization of conferenceservicing resources, and urges the secretariats and bureaux of bodies that
underutilize their conference-servicing resources to work more closely with the
Department for General Assembly and Conference Management of the Secretariat
and to consider changes to their programmes of work, as appropriate, including
adjustments based on previous patterns of recurring agenda items, with a view to
making improvements in their utilization factors;
37. Requests the Chair of the Committee on Conferences to address a letter
to the presiding officers of intergovernmental bodies based at duty stations other
than New York if their utilization factor falls below the benchmark of 80 per cent;
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