17 December 1981

Report of the World Food Council

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 3201 (S-VI) and 3202 (S-VI) of 1 May 1974, containing the Declaration and the Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, 3281 (XXIX) of 12 December 1974, containing the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, and 3362 (S-VII) of 16 September 1975 on development and international economic co-operation,

Recalling also its resolution 35/56 of 5 December 1980, containing the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade,

Recalling further its resolutions 34/110 of 14 December 1979, 35/68 of 5 December 1980 on the report of the World Food Council and 35/69 of 5 December 1980 on the situation of food and agriculture in Africa,

Recalling also the Declaration of Principles and the Programme of Action, as adopted by the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development,

Bearing in mind Economic and Social Council resolution 1981/71 of 24 July 1981 on food and agriculture,

Expressing its appreciation to the Government and people of Yugoslavia for the excellent facilities and generous hospitality provided to the World Food Council at its seventh ministerial session,

Noting that the World Food Council emphasized the need to adopt, according to priorities identified in the field of food, comprehensive national and international measures with a view to realizing the aims and objectives of the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade in the promotion of food and agricultural development in the developing countries,

Recognizing that a substantial increase in the export earnings of developing countries is essential for adequate financing of their over-all economic development and their imports of food and agricultural inputs,

Expressing concern that trade barriers constitute a serious handicap to the efforts of developing countries, in particular, to realize their economic potential and of the international community to overcome recession and inflation and expand over-all productivity,

Noting in that context the need for adoption by all countries of policies designed to avoid disruption of international trade and to facilitate access to international markets of agricultural exports, particularly from developing countries,

Noting with great concern that the food situation remains extremely precarious for many developing countries despite significant increases in production and improved distribution in some countries in the past year,

Noting also with great concern the growing hunger and malnutrition in many developing countries, especially in the least developed countries, particularly those in Africa,

Expressing its deep concern at the fact that a substantial part of world resources, material as well as human, continues to be diverted to armaments with a detrimental effect on international security and on efforts to achieve the new international economic order, including the solution of food problems, and calling upon Governments to take effective measures in the field of real disarmament that would increase the possibilities of allocation of the resources now being used for military purposes to economic and social development, especially development of developing countries, and to upgrading their food conditions,

1. Welcomes the conclusions and recommendations of the World Food Council as adopted at its seventh ministerial session, and calls upon all Governments and appropriate international organizations to give earnest attention to their implementation;

2. Expresses its concern at the critical deterioration of the food outlook for many developing countries in the 1980s, especially in the least developed countries and particularly those in Africa, and affirms that international efforts should be intensified to support improved production of food in developing countries;

3. Recognizes that the long-term solution to the problems of food and agriculture in the developing countries depends on increased self-sufficiency in food as part of the over-all development of those countries within the framework of structural changes in international economic relations;

4. Reaffirms the strong commitment of the international community to overcoming hunger and malnutrition and, in that context, the need for more effective international action to support agricultural development and food production and distribution in developing countries, particularly in low-income countries with food deficits;

5. Calls upon the Governments concerned to implement agrarian reform and rural development within the framework of their national plans and objectives and in accordance with the recommendations as adopted by the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development;

6. Notes with deep concern that only limited progress has been achieved towards the solution of the long-standing problems of international trade in agricultural products, including access to international markets of agricultural exports, which adversely affect production in and exports, particularly of developing countries, and whose solution could make an important contribution to improving over-all food production in the world;

7. Calls for urgent action in the different negotiating forums to move towards the approval and implementation of proposals to bring about the reduction and elimination of barriers to trade in agricultural products, in particular in relation to those of export interest to developing countries, and thus to facilitate, inter alia, more efficient patterns of production;

8. Urges developed countries to make their best efforts to adjust those sectors of their agricultural and manufacturing economies which require protection against exports from developing countries, thus facilitating access to the markets of food and agricultural products;

9. Recommends that the generalized system of preferences should be expanded to cover a wider range of processed and semi-processed products and, whenever possible, agricultural commodities, and that the system of information on using the generalized system of preferences, providing technical assistance - including assistance in the field of research, development and marketing - should be enlarged and improved to enable developing countries to take full advantage of such preferences;

10. Reaffirms that food is a universal human right which Governments endeavour to guarantee their people and, in that context, stresses its belief in the general principle that food should not be used as an instrument of political pressure;

11. Reaffirms that developing countries, in the context of their national development plans and priorities, firmly supported by the international community, should take all necessary measures to accelerate food and agricultural production in order to improve national and collective self-sufficiency as early as possible;

12. Calls upon the international community to support the national efforts of developing countries to increase their food and agricultural production by increased technical and capital assistance, in particular for the food-sector strategies that have already been adopted by interested developing countries, within the context of national plans and policies, and the recognition that food strategies and policies remain the concern of the countries adopting them;

13. Reiterates its belief that food aid for the least developed countries should be provided, in so far as possible, in the form of grants or on highly concessional terms and that donors should consider paying relevant transport costs;

14. Expresses its satisfaction at the growing number of countries that are adopting a more integrated approach to food policy, including food-sector strategies, as one of the means for interested developing countries to translate their own priorities into effective action and to mobilize, within the context of their national plans and priorities, increased technical and financial resources and co-operation from international development assistance agencies;

15. Reaffirms that, in the context of national development plans and priorities, effective policies and incentives should continue to be pursued and invigorated with a view to accelerating food and agricultural development;

16. Takes note of the renewal of the Food Aid Convention, and calls upon existing and new donor countries to achieve without delay the minimum target of the 1974 World Food Conference of 10 million tons of cereal aid, as agreed upon by the General Assembly in relevant decisions;

17. Takes note of the attainment of the minimum target of 500,000 tons of grain for the International Emergency Food Reserve in 1981 and expresses its appreciation to those countries whose contributions have made this possible;

18. Welcomes the decision of the Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes to carry out a review of food aid requirements in the 1980s, in the context of paragraph 88 of the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade, which calls for urgent consideration to be given to a revision of the target of the Food Aid Convention, taking into account the estimated requirements of 17 to 18.5 million tons of cereals, which provides a useful indicator of the over-all requirement of food aid by 1985, as agreed in the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade;

19. Urges developed countries, international institutions and others able to provide development assistance to increase external assistance to the food sector, for which the estimated necessary element of external assistance is $US 8.3 billion, growing to $US 12.5 billion by 1990 (both figures in 1975 prices), to take urgent steps for the adequate and equitable replenishment of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, to conclude the sixth replenishment of the International Development Association, and to grant increased development assistance to the developing countries in order to help them become self-sufficient at the national or regional level in food production;

20. Requests the World Food Council to give further consideration to a series of feasible measures which, taken together, comprise a world food security net to ensure international market stability and continuity of world food supplies, especially for developing countries, at reasonable prices and on conditions they can afford, and to make recommendations thereon;

21. Calls upon all countries to consider strengthening their national food security within the framework of their national priorities;

22. Urges the conclusion, as soon as possible, of a new international wheat agreement that includes substantial economic provisions for safeguarding the interests of both exporters and importers and that recognizes the need for special provisions for developing countries;

23. Welcomes the decision of the International Monetary Fund to integrate compensation for excesses in the costs of cereal imports with that for shortfalls in receipts from exports under the Fund's compensatory financing facility;

24. Calls upon the international community to encourage and accord high priority to support for the efforts of developing countries to strengthen and supplement their programmes of mutual co-operation in the field of food and agriculture;

25. Urges the World Food Council, in accordance with its programme of work and within available resources, to continue to support meetings requested by interested Governments at the national and regional levels in order to facilitate the exchange of experience in the food sector;

26. Urges the World Food Council, within the context of its mandate, to mobilize and sustain greater efforts in the struggle to overcome hunger, to continue to review and report on major problems and policy issues and the steps being taken or proposed to resolve them, and to continue to serve as a co-ordinating mechanism to provide over-all integrated and continuing attention for the successful co-ordination and follow-up of policies concerning food production, nutrition, food security, food trade, food aid and other related matters, by all organizations and bodies of the United Nations system;

27. Urges the international community, in adopting multilateral measures in the food sector, to take particularly into account the problems and interests of food-producing and food-exporting developing countries.