World Food Council

MAC/WFY

Page-208

0230_553559_21_cha17

208

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

While most agencies were engaged in some food security related activity, only

a few of them were found to `focus sharply' on hunger and poverty alleviation,
including IFAD, UNICEF and WFP, which concentrated their assistance on small
farmers, the rural poor, and nutritionally vulnerable groups, and humanitarian
assistance agencies such as UNDRO and UNHCR. Agency priorities were gener-
ally widely set, reflecting different interests within their governing bodies. The
review found that hunger-alleviation and food security objectives were not well
integrated into agencies' overall activities. There was need for more effective
internal co-ordination within agencies, particularly the larger ones. And given the
dispersion of priorities, many institutions spread their limited resources over a
wide range of activities, generating large numbers of small-scale projects, endan-
gering the quality of the agencies' work and their impact on hunger and poverty
reduction.

Given the multi-institutional structure and `sectorization' of the UN system,

efforts had been made to ensure co-ordination among the system's institutions.
At the intergovernmental level, ECOSOC was charged with co-ordinating the
economic and social work of the UN system. At the inter-secretariat level, ACC
was created as a mechanism through which, under the chairmanship of the
UN secretary-general, the activities of the UN bodies could be co-ordinated. To
foster co-operation at the technical level, the ACC established a number of sub-
committees and task forces in such areas as rural development, long-term devel-
opment objectives, and information systems. An ACC Subcommittee on Nutrition
(SCN) was established in 1977. WFC worked closely with, and through, the SCN
in its attempts to harmonize the UN agencies' perceptions of the nature and
causes of hunger problems and feasible policy responses. With the encourage-
ment of the Council, the SCN had increased its efforts to improve the informa-
tion base of the magnitude of malnutrition and stimulated the development of
strategies to eliminate nutritional-deficiency diseases. Over the years, a number
of co-ordination-related organs had been added to the UN system's machinery
including: an Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions
(established in 1962); a Committee on Programme and Co-ordination (1964); a
Joint Inspection Unit (1968); an Office for Programme Planning and Co-ordination
(1977); a Consultative Committee on Substantive Questions (1977); and a Director-
General for Development and International Economic Co-operation (1977). At the
developing country level, UNDP was expected to play a co-ordinating role for
UN operational activities. It was to serve as a central funding and programming
agency, under the leadership of a UN resident co-ordinator, to ensure system-wide
co-ordination in the country context. To facilitate policy dialogue and co-ordinate
aid programmes among donors at the country level, the World Bank instituted
the practice of chairing `consultative groups' in the early 1960s and the UNDP
initiated a process of `round table' discussions in the 1970s.

Despite the various co-ordination arrangements, extensive reviews had found

co-ordination within the UN system to be deficient. The UN agencies were
perceived to compete excessively, and joint programming of their operational
activities remained `mostly inadequate' (UN, 1987c). The general conclusion of

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Useful links	World Food Council MAC/WFY Page-208 0230_553559_21_cha17 208 197090. The World Food Crisis of the 1970s and its Aftermath While most agencies were engaged in some food security related activity, only a few of them were found to `focus sharply' on hunger and poverty alleviation, including IFAD, UNICEF and WFP, which concentrated their assistance on small farmers, the rural poor, and nutritionally vulnerable groups, and humanitarian assistance agencies such as UNDRO and UNHCR. Agency priorities were gener- ally widely set, reflecting different interests within their governing bodies. The review found that hunger-alleviation and food security objectives were not well integrated into agencies' overall activities. There was need for more effective internal co-ordination within agencies, particularly the larger ones. And given the dispersion of priorities, many institutions spread their limited resources over a wide range of activities, generating large numbers of small-scale projects, endan- gering the quality of the agencies' work and their impact on hunger and poverty reduction. Given the multi-institutional structure and `sectorization' of the UN system, efforts had been made to ensure co-ordination among the system's institutions. At the intergovernmental level, ECOSOC was charged with co-ordinating the economic and social work of the UN system. At the inter-secretariat level, ACC was created as a mechanism through which, under the chairmanship of the UN secretary-general, the activities of the UN bodies could be co-ordinated. To foster co-operation at the technical level, the ACC established a number of sub- committees and task forces in such areas as rural development, long-term devel- opment objectives, and information systems. An ACC Subcommittee on Nutrition (SCN) was established in 1977. WFC worked closely with, and through, the SCN in its attempts to harmonize the UN agencies' perceptions of the nature and causes of hunger problems and feasible policy responses. With the encourage- ment of the Council, the SCN had increased its efforts to improve the informa- tion base of the magnitude of malnutrition and stimulated the development of strategies to eliminate nutritional-deficiency diseases. Over the years, a number of co-ordination-related organs had been added to the UN system's machinery including: an Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (established in 1962); a Committee on Programme and Co-ordination (1964); a Joint Inspection Unit (1968); an Office for Programme Planning and Co-ordination (1977); a Consultative Committee on Substantive Questions (1977); and a Director- General for Development and International Economic Co-operation (1977). At the developing country level, UNDP was expected to play a co-ordinating role for UN operational activities. It was to serve as a central funding and programming agency, under the leadership of a UN resident co-ordinator, to ensure system-wide co-ordination in the country context. To facilitate policy dialogue and co-ordinate aid programmes among donors at the country level, the World Bank instituted the practice of chairing `consultative groups' in the early 1960s and the UNDP initiated a process of `round table' discussions in the 1970s. Despite the various co-ordination arrangements, extensive reviews had found co-ordination within the UN system to be deficient. The UN agencies were perceived to compete excessively, and joint programming of their operational activities remained `mostly inadequate' (UN, 1987c). The general conclusion of back to top Next page
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