The question of enlargement of the Security Council attracted intense interest throughout the period under review, as a possible means of making more efficient and democratic the work of the Organization in the field of peace and security. The Working Group has held 21 meetings and a number of informal consultations and has addressed two clusters of issues, the first covering the size and composition of the Council, including permanent, non-permanent and new categories of membership, and the second the Council's working methods and procedures, its efficiency and effectiveness, and its relationship with other United Nations organs. The Assembly has increasingly adopted the informal, open-ended working group as an effective instrument in seeking solutions to major problems relating to the efficient working of the Organization. The activities of these working groups, their interrelated mandates, the depth and complexity of their deliberations and the frequency of their meetings pose a challenge to the capacity of the Secretariat to provide the required substantive and technical support from within already scarce resources. This results from the consolidation of related items and the decision to discuss some of them only every second or third year.
Further rationalization seems possible.
Broadly worded agenda items allow flexibility to examine several topics or aspects of a question under a single item. There are also 10 items that have not been considered at all for several years. An issue closely related to the number of items on the agenda is the number and periodicity of reports requested by the Assembly. The difficulties and expense involved in producing so many reports in a timely manner are evident, given the frequency with which the Assembly and other principal and subsidiary organs now meet. Streamlining and cost-cutting efforts cannot ultimately succeed unless the number of reports requested is significantly reduced.