Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume II, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs

257. Paper Prepared by the Presidential Commission on World Hunger¹

Washington, June 8, 1979

RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING HUNGER FOR THE PRESIDENT’S USE AT THE TOKYO SUMMIT

I. Introduction

The countries meeting at the Tokyo Summit² have the ability to do something about world hunger. Despite impressive increases in world food production, the total number of people who are chronically malnourished is greater today than a decade ago. Most of the world’s hungriest people live near the site of the Summit and in sub-Saharan Africa. Severe hunger also exists in Latin America and the Middle East, and even our own country is not immune to malnutrition.

The Commission believes that by placing issues of food and agriculture high on the Summit agenda, the participating nations have correctly accorded priority to what is perhaps the single most important task now facing mankind. Of all the challenges facing the world today, agreement on the joint actions of all countries necessary to eliminate world hunger may be the most important, and may also provide the most solid basis for other international actions to assure world peace.

After extensive study and review, the Commission’s major findings with regard to world hunger and malnutrition are:

• that the world food problem is less a matter of periodic famine than of chronic and increasing malnutrition;

• that hunger is primarily a problem of poverty rather than of food supply, at present;

• that massive increases in food production will be required in coming years, as incomes rise and the world population continues to grow;

• that hunger is a political problem as much as a scientific and technical problem;

• that hunger has extremely complex and interrelated global causes and consequences but that its elimination is not beyond the available technical and financial resources of the world community;

• that the attainment of long-term solutions will depend on firm commitments by the countries attending the Summit, by other donor countries, by international agencies, and by the food-deficit countries themselves.

The Commission believes it is particularly fitting that issues dealing with hunger are now being addressed at the Summit by those nations whose own resources enable them to offer assistance to others.

II. The Major Focus: Strengthening the Commitment of the United States and Others to Overcome Hunger

The U.S. commitment to overcoming hunger is based upon the belief that this problem represents the most fundamental issue of human rights and that it also represents one of the greatest potential threats to international peace and stability. This commitment includes the following elements:

• Current U.S. foreign assistance programs and other relationships with developing countries have a number of important—but sometimes conflicting—objectives, emphases and motivations. The Commission recommends that the President announce that he is prepared to make the elimination of world hunger the first priority of America’s interactions with developing countries for the decade of the 1980s. The Commission considers such an approach to be a major investment in national and international security and recommends that the other Summit nations also give first priority to this same goal. In particular, this priority can be reflected both in design and funding of foreign assistance programs as well as in the broad range of political and commercial relationships between the developed and developing countries.

• The establishment of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger is evidence of this government’s resolve to strengthen and accelerate its own efforts to assure an adequate diet for all. The Commission is examining U.S. policies and actions to determine which of those activities enhance efforts to overcome hunger, and which may, in fact, inhibit the progress of such efforts. The U.S. believes that global endeavors to combat hunger would be significantly enhanced if other countries attending the Summit were to conduct similar self-evaluations of their own policies, domestic and international.

III. Actions for Summit Attention: Food Security and Increased Production

The Commission believes that the President should call the following issues to the attention of other countries attending the Tokyo Summit:

A. World Food Security

An effective program of global food security must be put into place. The Commission believes this goal will involve the following actions on the part of the Summit nations:

1. An International Wheat Agreement. Although negotiations to establish a new agreement were broken off in February, these negotiations should be resumed and, this time, with greater attention to the needs of the food-deficit countries.³ The abundant harvests of the past several years, and correspondingly low prices for wheat and other grains, provide an unusual opportunity for the international community to establish a truly effective system of reserves at this time. With reduced food production and reserves projected for the next crop year, finalizing a revised and effective Wheat Agreement is of utmost urgency. The negotiation of a new agreement will require additional flexibility by all participating governments, but the objective is well worth the effort.

2. A New Food Aid Convention. While it is important that negotiations on an international system of food reserves be resumed, a more immediately attainable goal is to conclude a new Food Aid Convention. The U.S. has already taken the lead on this issue, by stating that it would be prepared to make available at least 5 million tons out of a 10 million ton target for the Food Aid Convention. While previous attempts to negotiate the FAC have been tied to an overall reserve negotiation, this link is not intrinsically necessary. The Commission believes that a separate Food Aid Convention can be agreed upon relatively quickly, given the cooperation of the Summit nations.

B. Assistance to Increased Food Production

1. Research. One of the most effective uses of the resources of the Summit countries and other donors is in research activity directly related to food production problems, particularly those problems of special importance for the Indian Subcontinent and sub-Saharan Africa. At present, both the international research system and the national adaptive research networks need reaffirmed support and additional resources. The payoff on such investments has so far been very impressive; however, past success should not diminish further efforts to press still harder in the direction of scientific and technical advances.

Two ways to increase resources for research on the food needs of developing countries are: a) to double present levels of funding for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and b) to reorient the current priorities which now prevail within the major research institutions of the Summit nations.

2. Water Resources. Water resource development and management is a particularly central issue in those regions of the world where hunger is most severe. Better water management will involve several related needs: extensive, long-term capital investments (as a recent Trilateral Report has pointed out);⁴ increased emphasis on developing new water management techniques at the local level; and international cooperation and agreement on water resource problems that affect more than one country.

3. Fertilizer. An international commitment to assure the availability of fertilizer—beginning with the Summit nations and eventually including the OPEC countries—would represent a major contribution to the food needs of developing countries. As with the case of food, fertilizer is presently available for those nations that can afford it. However, the shortage of foreign exchange constitutes a major constraint on fertilizer purchases for developing countries, particularly because fertilizer has been subject to extreme price fluctuations since 1973. Summit nations can facilitate fertilizer purchases by making substantially more concessional aid or soft money available for this purpose.

4. Developing Country Institutional Capabilities and Program Coordination. Frequent complaints are raised by donor countries and international agencies regarding the lack of institutional capabilities within developing countries to design and implement food production projects. Therefore, expanded international efforts are required—drawing upon private as well as public resources for management, coordination, marketing and project design—to increase local capabilities to prepare and implement projects in the agriculture sector. Donors and recipients can then design together (in countries where this has not already been done) a series of careful plans and targets for using their combined resources to most efficiently produce more food of the sorts most needed to meet nutritional deficiencies. The World Food Council at its upcoming meetings in July and September should be asked to coordinate such programs, and to provide the staff required for this plan of action.

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P790087–2107. No classification marking. Transmitted under cover of a June 15 memorandum from Linowitz to Vance and a June 8 memorandum from Linowitz to Carter. (Ibid.) Another copy is in the Carter Library, RG 220, Presidential Commission on World Hunger, Subject File, 1978–1980, Box 16, Tokyo Summit File, 1979.
2. The G–7 industrialized nations met in Tokyo June 28–29. A declaration released at the conclusion of the Summit reads in part: “We will place more emphasis on cooperation with developing countries in overcoming hunger and malnutrition. We will urge multilateral organizations to help these countries to develop effective food sector strategies and to build up the storage capacity needed for strong national food reserves. Increased bilateral and multilateral aid for agricultural research will be particularly important. In these and other ways we will step up our efforts to help these countries develop their human resources, through technical cooperation adapted to local conditions.” The full text of the Tokyo Declaration is printed in Department of State Bulletin, August 1979, pp. 8–9. For documentation on the Tokyo Summit, see Foreign Relations, 1977–1980, volume III, Foreign Economic Policy.
3. See footnote 6, Document 255.
4. Presumably a reference to the 1978 report by the Trilateral Commission entitled “Reducing Malnutrition in Developing Countries: Increasing Rice Production in South and Southeast Asia.” Established in 1973, the Trilateral Commission comprises leaders from the private sector in Japan, Europe, and North America.