Attachment
UNITED NATIONS FOOD FOR ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
1. The amount that has been suggested for the multilateral program
through the UN is $400 million.
Whatever portion of this amount is assumed by the U.S. should be
outright without any conditions attached. This would permit the
program to get underway without undue delay.
2. This is not intended to operate on an annual basis. It is a
special stimulant to the UN in
connection with the UN Development
Decade proposed by the President.
3. As will be illustrated in the next paragraph, the food transfer
portion of the program would be bilateral with the U.S. determining
those countries to which its food shall go.
[Typeset Page 1644]
4. In a typical case it is suggested that the procedure would be as
follows:
(a) Country X would apply to the Special Fund of the UN for a combination food-economic
development program.
(b) The Special Fund and the FAO
would make two related and simultaneous determinations. The
FAO would discharge its
normal function of determining the amount and kind of food that
could move into the applicant country without disturbing normal
market functioning. The Special Fund would determine the
practicability of the utilization of the counterpart for
economic development programs as later defined. If the Special
Fund and FAO concur, the
country application would then be submitted to the U.S. and/or
any other contributing country for acceptance or rejection as to
the food program.
(c) In the event a given application is accepted, the food would
be transferred in the same fashion as under a bilateral program.
The counterpart would be made available to the Special Fund for
such programs and projects.
(d) In the Special Fund utilization of the counterpart its
customary practice would be applied of assigning to specialized
agencies and others the execution of its programs. For example,
FAO could conceivably play
two roles: (i) its basic role of making the finding; and (ii) in
the execution of an agricultural development project in the
country.
5. It has been suggested that the total counterpart made available
shall be limited in its use by the Special Fund to its present
program of pre-investment projects, i.e. surveys, training, etc.
While such a condition is acceptable, yet it would seem desirable to
permit the utilization of some portion of the counterpart for
limited number of labor-intensive development projects particularly
where the executing agency is able to provide additional funds.
