World Food Council

MAC/WFY

Page-198

0230_553559_21_cha17

198

197090. The World Food Crisis of the 1970s and its Aftermath

while intensified efforts were underway to develop an adequate food reserve
programme in appropriate international negotiations, and to ensure continuity
of supplies to countries relying on imports to feed their people, especially
poor, food-deficit countries. Other measures included: the establishment of
an international system of nationally held reserves, and adequate food aid
supplies as part of a new International Grains Arrangement with a new Food
Aid Convention by June 1978; adoption of the objectives and main elements
of the International Undertaking on World Food Security; and support to the
IEFR of 500,000 tons of cereals by the end of 1977.

· To increase and improve the use of food aid by reaching the minimum annual

level of food aid in cereals of 10 tons in 1977/78, adopting the forward planning
of food aid supplies, and developing and implementing an improved policy
framework for food aid.

· To improve human nutrition, all governments were called upon to give high

priority to reducing hunger and improve nutrition in accordance with the
appropriate resolution of the World Food Conference. Bilateral and multilateral
agencies were requested to assist developing countries develop and implement
nutrition plans, policies and programmes, and measures to monitor and eval-
uate their results.

· To improve the contribution of trade to the solution of food problems, all

countries, and particularly developed nations, were encouraged to make `serious
efforts' to stabilize, liberalize and expand world trade, and for negotiation of the
UNCTAD Integrated Programme for Commodities to be `speedily concluded'.

· To ensure that these recommendations were integrated with other development

policies and programmes to advance development and reduce poverty, and to
assure overall development consistent with the Council's food and nutrition
objectives, donors were requested to increase their ODA to reach the target of
7 per cent of GDP envisaged at the seventh special session by the UN General
Assembly by the end of the decade. Governments and international agencies
were recommended to give `major support' towards the implementation of the
`basic needs approach' endorsed by the 1976 ILO World Employment Confer-
ence (ILO, 1976).

The communique was unanimously endorsed by ECOSOC in its resolution 2114
(LXII) of 4 August 1977, and adopted in full by the UN General Assembly in its
resolution 32/52 of 8 December 1977.

Mexico Declaration of the World Food Council (WFC, 1978)

Shortly after he had become WFC executive director, in his statement to the
Second Committee of the UN General Assembly on 20 October 1978, in which
he reported on WFC's session in Mexico City, Maurice Williams stressed that
the eradication of hunger and malnutrition `must be the key elements in the
[UN] Third Development Strategy [of the 1980s] indeed, it may well be our
central preoccupation until the year 2000' (Williams, 1978). He noted that there
was `a general understanding' of the measures that had to be taken to achieve
that objective. What was needed was agreement on the precise measures that

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Useful links	World Food Council MAC/WFY Page-198 0230_553559_21_cha17 198 197090. The World Food Crisis of the 1970s and its Aftermath while intensified efforts were underway to develop an adequate food reserve programme in appropriate international negotiations, and to ensure continuity of supplies to countries relying on imports to feed their people, especially poor, food-deficit countries. Other measures included: the establishment of an international system of nationally held reserves, and adequate food aid supplies as part of a new International Grains Arrangement with a new Food Aid Convention by June 1978; adoption of the objectives and main elements of the International Undertaking on World Food Security; and support to the IEFR of 500,000 tons of cereals by the end of 1977. · To increase and improve the use of food aid by reaching the minimum annual level of food aid in cereals of 10 tons in 1977/78, adopting the forward planning of food aid supplies, and developing and implementing an improved policy framework for food aid. · To improve human nutrition, all governments were called upon to give high priority to reducing hunger and improve nutrition in accordance with the appropriate resolution of the World Food Conference. Bilateral and multilateral agencies were requested to assist developing countries develop and implement nutrition plans, policies and programmes, and measures to monitor and eval- uate their results. · To improve the contribution of trade to the solution of food problems, all countries, and particularly developed nations, were encouraged to make `serious efforts' to stabilize, liberalize and expand world trade, and for negotiation of the UNCTAD Integrated Programme for Commodities to be `speedily concluded'. · To ensure that these recommendations were integrated with other development policies and programmes to advance development and reduce poverty, and to assure overall development consistent with the Council's food and nutrition objectives, donors were requested to increase their ODA to reach the target of 7 per cent of GDP envisaged at the seventh special session by the UN General Assembly by the end of the decade. Governments and international agencies were recommended to give `major support' towards the implementation of the `basic needs approach' endorsed by the 1976 ILO World Employment Confer- ence (ILO, 1976). The communique was unanimously endorsed by ECOSOC in its resolution 2114 (LXII) of 4 August 1977, and adopted in full by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 32/52 of 8 December 1977. Mexico Declaration of the World Food Council (WFC, 1978) 32 Shortly after he had become WFC executive director, in his statement to the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly on 20 October 1978, in which he reported on WFC's session in Mexico City, Maurice Williams stressed that the eradication of hunger and malnutrition `must be the key elements in the [UN] Third Development Strategy [of the 1980s] indeed, it may well be our central preoccupation until the year 2000' (Williams, 1978). He noted that there was `a general understanding' of the measures that had to be taken to achieve that objective. What was needed was agreement on the precise measures that back to top Next page
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