Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volumes VII, VIII, IX, Arms Control; National Security Policy; Foreign Economic Policy, Microfiche Supplement

375. “Report of the Development Assistance Panel,” President’s Science Advisory Committee, May 18¹

May 18, 1961

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
IN THE NEW DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

I—INTRODUCTION

Since the end of World War II it has been the policy of the United States to stand ready with financial assistance for those foreign countries where resources were insufficient to meet pressing needs. Initially, this assistance was directed to the rehabilitation of the devastated areas of Western Europe and, when this task was well in hand, to their economic recovery. Later, emphasis was placed upon the ability of those nations, and others, to defend themselves against aggression. But in recent years, as the industrialized nations have achieved and surpassed their pre-war capabilities, the focus of attention has become fixed upon the less developed nations of Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It is clear that in the future American foreign aid, augmented now by those nations which were themselves its recipients only a few years back, will be directed predominantly to the complex task of assisting in the economic and social development of nations, new and old, in the less developed areas of the world.

The development assistance program that is now being shaped is intended to meet these new responsibilities. They differ both in kind and in scope from those of the past. The fundamental problems with which the new agency will deal are not problems which will be resolved in one year, or five, or ten. The task is not to rebuild, but to build; not to restore economies but to create them. The needs are urgent. The United States must not only manage its own effort, but must coordinate its activities with those of the other industrialized nations which are joining in the task, and must help provide leadership for the less developed countries themselves as they strive to further their own ambitions. These are new dimensions in foreign aid programs, necessitating profound re-examination of means and mechanisms.

The people of the United States have come to realize that freedom at home is affected by the fate of freedom in the rest of the world, and that human misery and social chaos anywhere in the world imperil free men everywhere. Both our present concern for the state of the world and our historic commitments to human dignity and freedom justify our continuing attention to the grave problems facing less developed countries.

In doing this, we associate ourselves with men of understanding and good will wherever they may be. We do not see this as a matter of an advanced nation helping less advanced nations—we have by no means solved all our own problems. Nor do we see it as a matter of a big nation helping smaller nations. It is a matter of men of conscience, here and everywhere—men concerned with the state of the world and the condition of man—joining hands in the ancient battle against the afflictions of mankind.

Our goals are these:

1. To assist in the growth of social orders responsive to the needs of the individual.

2. To bring about a steadily rising level of living in the less developed nations.

3. To help the developing nations learn the difficult art of accomplishing change within a framework of order.

4. To help create an international order that will serve the maintenance and the improvement of mutual security.

There is a faith that goals such as these can be met by means of a development assistance program, but there is also an awareness that we will encounter difficulties along the way. Earlier tasks of rehabilitation, of economic recovery and of military assistance could be approached confidently and expertly. The problems encountered were those to which we are accustomed in our own society, and the solutions were as familiar to those who needed our aid as to those who brought it to bear. Indeed, it was often the foreign country itself which identified its problem and suggested the form that aid should take. This is no longer the case. The economies, the customs, the political structures and the resources of the less developed countries have little or nothing in common with our own. Each of these nations has special problems which the industrialized nations, in their evolution into modern societies, were never called upon to face; their economic, cultural and social differences rule out any single, simple solution. Rarely can we rely upon basic resources which normally we take for granted, such as minimal public health standards or widespread literacy. Before we can hope to see answers, we must wage our own intellectual struggle to recognize the questions in their proper perspective.

No development assistance program can hope to be effective unless it is built firmly upon two broad foundations. The first of these is the organization of skilled inquiry to define the needs of the nation we hope to assist; to develop techniques by means of which the process of inquiry itself may be made more efficient; to establish the knowledge that can be brought to bear on these needs and the framework within which that knowledge can be applied; to discover means of stimulating the flow of human resources, here and in the less developed nations, into the stream of development assistance. The second broad foundation is the detailed and imaginative engineering of each proposed solution in terms of its actual application in the field, and the education and training of those who will be called upon to apply it.

SUMMARY OF REPORT

DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE PANEL

PRESIDENT’S SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Estimates of the scope, pace and long-term efforts required to meet the explosive problems of the emerging nations and regions are rising rapidly. Imaginative programs to meet this challenge call for the effective mobilization of diverse talents and resources—public and private, national and international. The private business and academic communities, in particular, must be more fully tapped as a source of study, knowledge and experience as well as a source of qualified personnel. A Research and Development Unit to serve the pending consolidated U.S. Development Assistance Program is needed to help bring about such a mobilization of effort and to ensure that the aims of the new Program will be efficiently met and the huge investments involved protected.

The R & D Unit would have as its tasks to improve developmental planning, to identify requirements and priorities, and to define the most effective forms and channels of external assistance to the emerging countries; to help generate new knowledge and techniques to meet the problems of the emerging nations; to conduct appropriate experiments and pilot projects in the less developed areas; to assist in the transition from pilot program to operation; in doing so, to utilize existing institutions and to help them to provide the necessary trained personnel; to create, where necessary, new institutional resources; to coordinate relevant R & D activities outside the Development Assistance Program and to serve as a unifying factor among the elements of the assistance program and to ensure that the entire effort is responsive to our foreign policy objectives.

The areas in which the Unit may expect to be active include the natural sciences, and intimately involve the full range of social, political and cultural sciences. It must deal particularly in the identification of those forces which mold a society, with the adaptation of existing technology, with the pursuit of problems that were by-passed in the evolution of our own society but which are nevertheless central to less developed societies, and to a limited degree in basic research. Its primary criterion must be the needs of the operational programs in the field.

The Unit itself is envisaged as small and compact, with a director of high eminence, a small professional staff and a large body of able and energetic consultants. Special steps should be taken to ensure the participation of individuals from private industry.

The Unit should lay great stress upon the promotion of international cooperative activities and the creation of joint institutions with other industrialized nations and the emerging countries. It should employ the services of academic institutions by means of grants and contracts designed to maintain and strengthen those institutions, should work with industrial firms, particularly in the area of adaptive engineering, and should enter into joint ventures with private foundations, international agencies and other governmental institutions. It should promote action-oriented conferences and studies, and design ambitious field activities around consultant teams.

The budget may be expected to attain a level of approximately $95 million in four or five years; the Panel recommends a first-year budget on the order of $50 million.

1. Research and development unit to help manage the U.S. development assistance program recommended. Official Use Only. 5 pp. Washington National Records Center, RG 286, AID Administrator Files: FRC 65 A 481, White House, FY 1962.