Reply to the 5th report on the activities of the World Food Programme of the United Nations (FAO)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 4 May 1976 (2nd and 3rd Sittings) (see Doc. 3765 report of the Committee on Agriculture). Text adopted by the Assembly on 4 May 1976 (3rd Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Having taken note of the 5th report on the activities of the World Food Programme of the United Nations/FAO (
Doc. 3710), covering the period between November 1971 and October 1975, and of the report of its Committee on Agriculture giving a reply thereto (
Doc. 3765) ;
3. Welcoming the considerable increase in the commitment rate from the biennium 1963-65 to 1975-76 from 84 million dollars to 600 million dollars, bringing the total amount of the committed programme resources it had pledged up to 31 December 1975 to 2 227 million dollars ;
4. Recalling Resolution XVIII adopted by the World Food Conference, which calls for the acceptance and implementation by donor countries of the concept of : a. forward planning of food aid, so as to ensure, in physical terms, the annual availability of at least 10 million tons of grain, together with adequate quantities of other food commodities for use as food aid, and of b. the channelling of a more significant proportion of food aid through the World Food Programme ;
5. Noting with satisfaction that the governing body of the World Food Programme, the Intergovernmental Committee, has been reconstituted into a Committee for Food Aid Policies and Programmes, and has been entrusted with the task of formulating proposals for more effective co-ordination of multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental food aid programmes, and of coordinating emergency food aid ;
6. Expressing the hope that the implementation of
Resolution 3362, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations at its 7th Special Session, setting the stage for a new era of economic partnership between developed and developing countries, will definitely improve the situation of food availability throughout the world ;
7. Welcoming the creation of a Non-food Items Unit at the WFP headquarters, which is a useful complement for the implementation of the Programme, in particular in the most seriously affected areas ;
8. Recalling its proposal, made in
Resolution 525 (1972), urging inter alia governments of member states to make more generous financial contributions, thus enabling WFP to provide not only the commodities, but also the necessary infrastructure for their proper use ;
9. Observing that only 5 % of the projects assisted by WFP in the field of social and economic development are devoted to European countries ;
10. Considering that more than 460 million people suffer from malnutrition ;
11. Being concerned by the fact that the world stocks of basic food supplies have considerably fallen in the last years to an alarming level, and remain almost entirely dependent on weather and its effects on a single year's harvest as well as on one single geographical region ;
12. Considering that food production has become an important factor of political power, likely to be abused for short-term nationalistic aims ;
13. Observing that the developed countries still largely control the conditions of international trade- with the exception of oil- and that trade liberalisation has moved even more slowly for agricultural products than for others ;
14. Considering that during 1970-74 food production of developing countries increased by only 1.4 % per year, insufficient to meet even the demand from population growth (2.5 %) and far below the Development Decade II target,
15. Believes that the unforeseen massive sales of cereals to the USSR prevent the stocking up of sufficient reserves and aggravate the supply position of the deprived countries by pushing up prices ;
16. Expresses its concern at the fact that, due to higher production costs, prices for agricultural products increase, although the income of farmers is decreasing, which will discourage farmers from producing bigger quantities ;
17. Stresses the importance of the incentives to be given to farmers through appropriate structures which will guarantee to the farmer fair returns for the labour input ;
18. Proposes that the world reserve stocks of food be earmarked with priority for the most seriously affected countries who should be encouraged to increase their own efforts in order to become more independent from food aid and be given special economic and technical aid to increase their water reserves, without which they cannot develop their agriculture or make optimum use of food supplied to them as part of the World Food Programme ;
19. Recalls that all developing countries should make a greater effort to promote their own agriculture, instead of directing their aim to highly capital intensive industries ;
20. Is of the opinion that all member states of FAO should call on the USSR to join as early as possible that organisation, in order to co-operate fully in the world food strategy, and in particular to disclose the necessary agricultural statistics, in order to avoid sudden shortages causing imbalance on the world food market ;
21. Calls on all its members to urge national parliaments and their governments :
a to make more generous financial contributions than in the past, thus enabling the World Food Programme to buy agricultural produce from food exporting developing countries, and pay for the transport and supply of foodstuffs ;
b to contribute generously to the setting up of an emergency reserve of food to be channelled through WFP as a follow-up to the UN General Assembly
Resolution 3362 (S-VII) of 16 September 1975 ;
c to take all necessary steps to put European know-how at the disposal of all those who are in need, and to help build up a world in which starvation will be mainly an historical feature ;
d to recognise before it is too late the need to curb population growth unless the world is to starve.
