2nd World Food Congress and on freedom from hunger in the world

Recommendation 668 (1972)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 26 January 1972 (25th Sitting) (see Doc. 3073, report of the Committee on Agriculture). Text adopted by the Assembly on 26 January 1972 (25th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Having regard to the report by its Committee on Agriculture concerning the Second World Food Congress (Doc. 3073) ;

2. Noting the inadequate results of the First United Nations Development Decade ;

3. Believing that freedom hunger in the world should continue to be one of the foremost connectives for the seventies ;

4. Noting that the sums allocated in the worlds to economic development programmes, including food aid programmes, are very small compared with expenditures on armaments and luxuries ;

5. Considering that the great achievements of advanced technology in recent years in the space, nuclear, military and other fields have made it possible to devise research methods and programmes that are capable of solving large-scale problems, provided that the necessary funds and manpower are allocated to them ;

6. Believing that a genuine sacrifice by the European nations for the benefit of the third world countries would be a practical way of giving credibility to Europe's political resolve to contribute towards the development of those countries, and would align their effort to the United Nations objective of devoting 1 % of the gross national product to public and private development aid ;

7. Welcoming the recent statements of the President of the French Republic on the obligations of the rich countries to the poor countries and the proposal of the Belgian Foreign Minister to launch "a vast European Marshall Plan" in favour of the developing countries ;

8. Taking note of the recent decision of the Intergovernmental Committee of the World Food Programme to create a Food Bank for urgent world needs ;

9. Conscious that Europe, by virtue of its cultural role and economic capacity, should provide convincing evidence of its political determination to solve the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the world,

10. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers call on member governments :

10.1 over and above the measures already taken, to set up a European Freedom from Hunger Fund to be financed by the budgets of member States and non-taxable voluntary contributions ;

10.2 to use a substantial portion of the resources of this Fund for the recruitment and training of teachers and agricultural technicians to be made available to developing countries ;

10.3 to establish a European Food Reserve for immediate relief in the event of shortages due to disasters of climatic, telluric or human origin ;

10.4 to co-ordinate the efforts of European governments in this field with the recent initiatives taken by the World Food Programme ;

10.5 to guarantee fair payment for exports of developing countries by overhauling the system of world prices, in particular for agricultural products ;

10.6 to define criteria for the granting of food aid, bearing in mind the efforts made by the receiving countries themselves in the field of agriculture.