26 July 1989

35th plenary meeting

Food and agriculture

The Economic and Social Council,

Deeply concerned that hunger, malnutrition and poverty continue to increase in large areas of the third world while the world has the capacity to provide adequate food for every human being,

Noting with concern that although the growth of world agricultural production has to some degree slowed down, tensions concerning trade in agricultural markets remain serious, notably owing to the persistence and, in some cases, intensification of agricultural protectionism and support measures, including, among other problems, import restrictions and export subsidies in some developed countries,

Taking note of the report of the World Food Council on the work of its fifteenth session and of the report of the Secretary-General on trends in the international market for agricultural and tropical products and the liberalization of international agricultural trade,

1. Welcomes the renewed international commitment to fight hunger, malnutrition and poverty expressed in the Cyprus Initiative against Hunger in the World and, more recently, in the Cairo Declaration of the World Food Council;

2. Welcomes also the Programme of Co-operative Action annexed to the Cairo Declaration, as a framework for concrete action against hunger and poverty by Governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations;

3. Urges developed countries that are in a position to do so to increase their official development assistance flows and to adopt aid strategies that focus in particular on meeting the needs of the poorest countries and peoples and on improving their food production capabilities;

4. Stresses the urgent need for substantial progress in stimulating food production in developing countries and the importance of increasing domestic food production for stimulating national economic growth and social progress in those countries and helping to resolve the problem of hunger and malnutrition in an effective way;

5. Calls upon all countries to continue to respond to food emergency situations promptly and flexibly, in conformity with the provisions of General Assembly resolution 43/131 of 8 December 1988;

6. Reaffirms that the right to food is a human right that should be guaranteed to all people and, in that context, that, as a general principle, food should not be used as an instrument of political pressure at either the national or the international level;

7. Stresses that the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations presents a unique opportunity to develop a more open, viable and durable trading system, to reverse the disquieting rise in protectionism and to bring agriculture under the strengthened and more operationally effective rules and disciplines of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in accordance with the relevant parts of the Punta del Este Declaration and the mid-term review of the Uruguay Round, taking into account the need to avoid potentially adverse effects on developing countries, especially those that import food, and bearing in mind the overall benefits of trade liberalization;

8. Urges the World Food Council, within its mandate, to continue:

(a) To assess the overall impact of structural adjustment programmes in developing countries on the nutritional levels of their populations, especially among children and low-income groups, and to suggest remedial measures, including ways of stimulating the provision of resources to eliminate the suffering of those groups;

(b) To assess the potential impact of liberalizing international trade in agricultural and tropical products on all countries, and especially on the food security and development efforts of developing countries, and in this context, to maintain an active interest in the progress and outcome of the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations;

(c) To promote activities related to food security and agricultural trade, as well as to regional and South-South co-operation in food and agriculture, within the context of economic growth and the development needs of developing countries;

(d) To stimulate progress in and contribute more actively to the full implementation of the food policy and programme components of the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990;

9. Calls upon bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental international organizations to improve the co-ordination of their activities in support of efforts to fight hunger and poverty in developing countries;

10. Requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the World Food Council, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, to prepare for the General Assembly at its forty-fifth session an updated comprehensive report on trends in the international market for agricultural and tropical products and the liberalization of international agricultural trade.