17 December 1981

Assistance to the Comoros

The General Assembly,

Recalling its previous resolutions on assistance to the Comoros, particularly resolution 31/42 of 1 December 1976, in which it urgently appealed to the international community to assist the Comoros in an effective and continuous manner so as to enable it to face successfully the critical situation resulting from the economic difficulties experienced by that newly independent country,

Having examined the report of the Secretary-General, to which was annexed the report of the review mission which he sent to the Comoros,

Taking note of the special problems confronting the Comoros as a developing island country and as one of the least developed among the developing countries,

Noting the priority which the Government of the Comoros has assigned to the questions of infrastructure, transport and telecommunications,

Noting further the grave budgetary and balance-of-payments problems facing the Comoros,

Recalling its resolution 35/97 of 5 December 1980, in which it reiterated its appeal to the international community to assist the Comoros in overcoming its financial and economic difficulties,

1. Expresses its appreciation to the Secretary-General for the steps he has taken to mobilize assistance for the Comoros;

2. Notes with satisfaction the response by various Member States and organizations to its appeal and that of the Secretary-General for assistance to finance, in whole or in part, a number of projects identified in the annex to the report of the Secretary-General of 3 November 1977 and in subsequent reports;

3. Notes with concern, however, that the assistance thus provided continues to fall short of the country's urgent requirements and that a substantial amount of assistance is still urgently required to carry out the projects identified in the annexes to the reports of the Secretary-General;

4. Reiterates its appeal to Member States, regional and interregional organizations and other intergovernmental bodies to provide effective and continuous financial, material and technical assistance to the Comoros to help it overcome its financial and economic difficulties, in particular its budgetary and balance-of-payments deficits;

5. Urges Member States to give special consideration to the inclusion of the Comoros in their bilateral and multilateral programmes of development assistance and, in cases where assistance programmes for the Comoros are already in force, to expand them, wherever possible;

6. Also urges the international community to take fully into account, in providing assistance, the priority which the Comoros gives to projects in the fields of infrastructure, transport and telecommunications;

7. Invites the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development to bring to the attention of their governing bodies, for their consideration, the special needs of the Comoros, and to report the decisions of those bodies to the Secretary-General by 15 July 1982;

8. Appeals to the international community to contribute to the special account which was established at United Nations Headquarters by the Secretary-General, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 32/92 of 13 December 1977, for the purpose of facilitating the channelling of contributions to the Comoros;

9. Requests the appropriate organizations and programmes of the United Nations system to increase their current programmes of assistance to the Comoros, to co-operate closely with the Secretary-General in organizing an effective international programme of assistance and to report periodically to him on the steps they have taken and the resources they have made available to assist that country;

10. Requests the Secretary-General:

(a) To continue his efforts to mobilize the necessary resources for an effective programme of financial, technical and material assistance to the Comoros;

(b) To keep the situation in the Comoros under constant review, to maintain close contact with Member States, regional and other intergovernmental organizations, the specialized agencies and international financial institutions concerned and to apprise the Economic and Social Council, at its second regular session of 1982, of the current status of the special economic assistance programme for the Comoros;

(c) To arrange for a review of the economic situation of the Comoros and the progress made in organizing and implementing the special economic assistance programme for that country in time for the matter to be considered by the General Assembly at its thirty-seventh session.