A UNITED NATIONS General Assembly Distr. GENERAL A/RES/52/203 5 March 1998 Fifty-second session Agenda item 99 (a) RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY [on the report of the Second Committee (A/52/630)] 52/203. Operational activities for development of the United Nations The General Assembly, Recalling its resolutions 44/211 of 22 December 1989, 47/199 of 22 December 1992, 50/120 of 20 December 1995 and 50/227 of 24 May 1996, as well as Economic and Social Council resolution 1997/59 of 24 July 1997 and other relevant resolutions, Reaffirming that operational activities for development within the United Nations system have a critical and unique role to play in enabling developing countries to continue to take a lead in the management of their own development process and that the funds and programmes constitute important vehicles for advancing international development cooperation, Recalling that the General Assembly is the highest intergovernmental mechanism for the formulation and appraisal of policy matters relating to the economic, social and related fields, in accordance with Chapter IX of the Charter of the United Nations, and that the functions and powers of the Economic and Social Council are provided for in Chapters IX and X of the Charter and are elaborated in relevant Assembly resolutions, including resolutions 45/264 of 13 May 1991 and 48/162 of 20 December 1993, in which the Assembly defined the relationship between the Assembly, the Council and the executive boards of the funds and programmes, in particular the Council function of overall guidance and coordination of the operational activities for development of the United Nations system, Stressing that the fundamental characteristics of the operational activities of the United Nations system should be, inter alia, their universal, voluntary and grant nature, their neutrality and their multilateralism, as well as their ability to respond to the needs of developing countries in a flexible manner, and that the operational activities of the United Nations system are carried out for the benefit of the developing countries, at the request of those countries and in accordance with their own policies and priorities for development, Recognizing the need to take into account the individual mandates and complementarities of the organizations and bodies of the United Nations development system, and the priorities agreed upon in the executive boards of the funds and programmes, 98-77101 /...