Development co-operation

Resolution 567 (1974)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 10 May 1974 (6th Sitting) (see Doc. 3415, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 10 May 1974 (6th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Taking note of the report on development cooperation (Doc. 3415) of its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development and of the 1973 annual report of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of OECD (Doc. 3395) ;

2. Recalling its Recommendation 672 (1972) on development assistance and Resolution (72) 27 adopted by the Committee of Ministers in reply thereto on 19 September 1972, and reaffirming the important role that the Council of Europe member states have to play in promoting development cooperation ;

3. Expressing its grave concern at the widening gap between gross national product per capita in the industrialised and the developing countries, and at the disappointing results of development aid policies, in particular the evolution of the international development strategy for the second United Nations Development Decade, the insufficiency of official development aid which is falling far short of the target of 0.7 % of GNP, as well as the increase of the debt burden of developing countries and the relative decrease of the share of these countries in world trade ;

4. Having learned that the United Nations have declared 1974 as World Population Year in order to concentrate attention on the increase in population, the complex problems connected therewith and the, in some cases, very serious repercussions on the economic growth of numerous developing countries ;

5. Believing that effective development cooperation and a fairer world trade system will make a significant contribution to ensuring and maintaining world peace ;

6. Emphasising that the recent energy crisis has worsened the situation and will have particularly serious repercussions on the development prospects of the developing countries which have no oil resources, thus making development cooperation with them more necessary than ever before ;

7. Welcoming the proposals by certain oil-producing countries to use part of the increased revenues from oil for the financing of development projects in the non-oil-producing countries, stressing that this aid should be directed first of all to those countries which are worst hit by the recent oil price increases,

8. Expresses the hope that a substantial part of the oil revenues which cannot be used for development inside the oil-producing countries should be made available to the existing multilateral development organisations, and urges the governments of the Council of Europe member states, in the framework of the competent international organisations and in their national development policies, to pay particular attention to the problems of those developing countries which have been severely hit by the recent increases in energy, fertiliser and food prices ;

9. Urges the governments of the Council of Europe member states :

to bring pressure to bear in the current multilateral trade negotiations in the framework of GATT with a view to promoting the introduction of a common generalised system of tariff preferences in favour of developing countries to be applied by all industrialised countries ;

to strive, in the course of the monetary negotiations, towards flexible arrangements within the projected enlarged functioning of special drawing rights (SDRs), which are geared to developing countries' specific requirements and enable them to deal better with their balance-of-payments difficulties, and urges the European Community to renounce the reverse preferences which EEC exports are enjoying in the developing associated states ;

10. Urges the DAC countries to reorientate and intensify their development assistance policies on the following lines :

Official development aid must without delay meet at least the target of 0.7 % of gross national product of the donor countries as adopted in the framework of the strategy for the second United Nations Development Decade ; this aid should be channelled as much as possible through the appropriate international organisations ;

In general, development aid should be free from conditions which diminish the real value of the aid (untying of aid) ;

The markets for basic raw materials exported by the developing countries should be reorganised with a view to securing rewarding export earnings at all times ;

The developing countries should be placed in a better position to expand and diversify their exports of manufactured goods and semi-finished products through the implementation of a generalised system of preferences in their favour and the removal of quotas and non-tariff barriers ; the industrialised countries should accordingly adopt suitable assistance measures to meet thedifficulties arising from the need to restructure their own industries ;

Special attention should be given to the problems of the least developed and the land-locked developing countries, and those countries which dispose of little or no raw materials and/or are densely populated (the need principle) ;

In development cooperation more attention should be given to "country programming" rather than individual projects, taking into account the characteristics and specific needs of the developing country concerned ;

A special effort should be made to develop agriculture parallel to industry ;

Development programmes should be readapted in the light of earlier disappointing experience and should aim at the best possible use of the human and natural resources available in developing countries, in order to ensure that all sections of the population concerned take part in the development process and that benefits of growth are fairly distributed - those who work for such reforms should therefore receive special support ;

Private investment in developing countries should respect essential principles of economic and social justice, aim at the transfer of technological, economic and managerial know-how and the training of local personnel at all levels, and promote further economic and social development ;

Since labour is in most cases the principal resource of many developing countries, labour-intensive rather than capital-intensive industries should be encouraged in an effort to overcome the critical problems of unemployment and under-employment ;

Appropriate and adapted technology should be made available for the special needs of agriculture, craft and medium-sized industries, in order to develop greater employment opportunities and efficiency in these sectors ;

A solution to the problem of the ever-growing burden of debt of developing countries should be worked out in the framework of the appropriate international organisations ; in the long run, however, a further worsening of the debt situation of these countries must be avoided by the measures recommended in sub-paragraphs iii and iv above ;

Development cooperation should further be based on the principles outlined in the conclusions of the report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, Doc. 3415.