The Preparatory Committee for the special session of the General Assembly entitled "World Summit for Social Development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing world", at its first session, requested the Secretary-General to report to it at its second session on the impact of globalization on social development. The present report has been prepared in response to that request. It traces the main features and the experiences of globalization for broad categories of countries and society, highlights salient features of its impact on social development as a result of developments in trade, technology and finance, and concludes with some observations aimed at a closer integration of economic and social objectives in a global market economy.