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

328. Paper Prepared in the International Development Cooperation Agency¹

Washington, undated

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION AGENCY

1980 Development Policy Statement

1980 will be another harsh year for poor people in the poor countries of the world. Rising petroleum prices, combined with inflation and recession in industrial nations, assure that it will be more difficult than ever for the people of developing countries to obtain food, jobs, and adequate housing. In the current economic climate, all industrialized countries will be hard pressed to maintain development assistance at levels commensurate with increased need and their long-term interest.

The response of the United States under these circumstances will have a major influence on our industrial partners and on the North-South “global negotiations” starting in mid-1980. Some of our industrialized allies have decided to sustain higher growth rates in development aid budgets than we, despite severe budget deficits. Japan will have doubled its aid in the years 1978–80 and is projecting further increases in 1981. Germany will increase its aid budget 12.5% in 1980 and the Netherlands, France and Sweden are also planning increases in their aid contributions.

We no longer question that the development of the Third World is important to the United States. This importance relates to our moral values and our economic, political, and strategic self-interest. A combination of these factors has impelled us to promote development for the last three decades. An interdependent world, made ever smaller by increasing trade and sophisticated communications and transportation, demands that we carry on this work.

In the years ahead, to be true to our values and to achieve our national interests, at a minimum we must:

1. Accelerate the Attack on Global Poverty

—Major changes should be set in motion to carry out the recommendations of the Hunger Commission² by increasing the attention devoted to agricultural development and food security by international institutions as well as by our own bilateral programs.

—We will increase our population and health programs, and will give priority to countries with a demonstrated commitment in these areas to help meet their objectives.

—We will take the lead in encouraging the design of development plans and programs that explicitly recognize the crucial role of women.

2. Manage Economic Interdependence with Developing Countries for Mutual Prosperity

—Programs are being designed to increase the amount of energy available to developing countries from their own resources.

—The United States should cooperate with other countries and international institutions to forestall debt problems in developing countries and to respond to financing problems promptly, and with adequate resources to promote adjustment without political upheaval and economic stagnation.

—The United States should remain open to the exports of developing countries so that the developing countries may earn more of the capital required for development through trade.

—OPIC’s capacity to stimulate private U.S. investment in developing countries will be enhanced, and AID’s program to increase opportunities for U.S. companies abroad will be expanded.

3. Focus Special Development Efforts on Regions and Countries of Highest Concern to the United States

—A program will be prepared to accelerate the development of countries in the Caribbean Basin.

—The United States will cooperate more closely with other aid-providing countries and development institutions in dealing with the extraordinarily complex development tasks facing the governments of sub-Saharan Africa.

—The United States will give preference in its assistance allocations to countries that respect human rights as fundamental for achieving equitable development.

4. Design a Development Strategy to Meet the Challenges of the 1980s

—The United States will participate actively and creatively in designing the global agenda for the Third Development Decade which is to be adopted in 1980³ and in the UN’s consideration of a round of global negotiations on international economic issues.

—With U.S. support, the United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development called for the creation of a special interim fund for science and technology, to be administered by the UN Development Program (UNDP).⁴ Your initiative in proposing the new Institute for Scientific and Technological Cooperation (ISTC)⁵ will enable the United States to maintain its leadership in fostering research and development of knowledge and skills for peaceful and humanitarian purposes.

—IDCA will review the allocation of resources for the various development assistance programs that the United States now supports in order to prepare a U.S. development assistance policy for the 1980s.

5. Increased Efficiency and Effectiveness

—In the case of AID, an increased assistance program will be carried out with reduced staff by improving the efficiency of AID’s efforts.

The International Development Cooperation Agency was created in order to construct and coordinate national policies that promote the development prospects of the poorer countries.⁶ As discussed in the remainder of this statement, the programs and policies recommended here address the most challenging problems we face. They are our agenda for 1980.

DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES

Developing a country is an extraordinarily complex social, economic, and political task. The major responsibility for the task falls on a country’s people and government. Foreign donors have a limited, though important, role to play. Assisting a country’s development requires patience and varied techniques and talents. The United States has supported development efforts through the United Nations’ specialized agencies, the multilateral development banks, and our own bilateral assistance.

This document does not review and analyze those programs. Rather, it highlights our emphases and priorities for the year ahead.

1. Accelerate the Attack on Global Poverty

Agriculture

—Major changes should be set in motion to carry out the recommendations of the Hunger Commission by increasing the attention devoted to agricultural development and food security by international institutions as well as by our own bilateral programs.

In the face of rapidly increasing population and widespread malnutrition, attaining minimal levels of food production and consumption spells the difference between starvation and survival in developing countries. Millions of children die annually of starvation and a billion people suffer from chronic undernourishment. A sufficient food supply supported by a distribution of income which, at a minimum, supports food consumption is not only a developmental but also a moral imperative. The recommendations of the Hunger Commission can be carried out, but only by intense efforts.

Three major types of actions will be required in the next decade. First, food production in developing countries, especially where hunger is most severe, must be increased. Second, the earnings of the poor must be increased to permit them to increase consumption of needed food. Third, the United States must not only maintain its status as a food surplus nation, but also must continue to provide financial resources to help transfer food where it is needed and to increase production.

These actions will require a variety of specific commitments by both developed and developing nations. Developing countries must accord higher priority to agriculture and food. Three-quarters of the poor people in developing countries are engaged in agriculture. Many countries must transform their economic structures to permit broader access to productive resources, especially land and water. These nations must also increase the political participation of their people. The United States should support these efforts.

In recent years, we have increased the emphasis in our bilateral AID program on agriculture, nutrition and rural development. The level of funding has grown from $474 million in 1977 to a level of $758 million requested in 1981. In international discussions on a new food aid convention, the United States pledged to contribute not less than 4.47 million tons of grain per year for food aid.⁷ Should domestic grain prices continue to rise, a larger financial commitment for food aid will be required to maintain this volume.

The lending record of the multilateral development banks also shows a substantial concentration of resources in this sector over the past three years. From 1977 to 1979 the World Bank Group, for example, devoted more than $8 billion to projects in agriculture and rural development. About one-third of the Bank’s concessional resources were used for these purposes in fiscal year 1979. Within the sector, there has also been a greater emphasis by all the banks on lending that assists small farmers, helping them to increase their productivity and incomes.

We are encouraging the multilateral development banks and the specialized agencies of the UN to expand even further their agricultural programs. Of particular interest is the future of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which will soon need its first replenishment of funds. IFAD’s initial resources came 56% from OECD countries and 43% from OPEC countries. Its lending has concentrated on expanding food production by and for the rural poor in countries with the more serious food deficits. IFAD represents a very promising prototype of OECD/OPEC/other LDC cooperation for development. Assuming continued effective performance and OPEC assistance, the United States should participate in the replenishment of IFAD’s resources.

Population and Health

We will increase our population and health programs, and will give priority to countries with a demonstrated commitment in these areas to help meet their objectives.

Development continues to be frustrated by rapid population growth. If recent trends continue, the two-child family will not become the average world-wide until 2020, and the world’s population will not stabilize until 2090—at 10 billion compared to today’s 4.3 billion.

Population is a global problem, but the effects are suffered first and most by the poor in poor countries. Reduced population growth enhances the possibility for increased investment in productive employment opportunities and reduces the demands on food, housing, health care, and educational facilities.

The United States must do more to encourage and support voluntary family planning. Requests for family planning assistance are being made by the governments of most Third World countries, representing many faiths and cultures. The United States should continue to respond favorably to their requests. Development policies and programs must be designed to make smaller families a more attractive option.

We should provide assistance not only through our bilateral programs, which have particular strengths in the improvement of family planning techniques and in service-delivery systems, but also through other donors, such as the World Bank and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.

World Bank President McNamara recently identified population growth as the most critical of all developmental problems.⁸ He called on member governments to undertake effective family planning services and to alter the economic and social environments that tend to promote population increases. World Bank Group lending expressly for population and nutrition in 1979 amounted to more than $114 million, an almost threefold increase over the level of $47 million achieved in 1977. In addition, the World Bank now incorporates family planning components into some of their other lending programs including those for health and rural development. The regional development banks intend to do the same.

In health we are carrying forward your commitment, first announced in May 1978 and reiterated by Mrs. Carter at the World Health Organization in May 1979, to promote health in the Third World.⁹ Drawing on your Statement of Principles,¹⁰ we are expanding support for primary health care and clean water/sanitation, and for control of major diseases such as malaria. Last year the World Bank group mounted a massive effort to provide much needed assistance for water supply and sewerage. From a base of $300 million in fiscal year 1977, its lending for these purposes tripled to more than $1.0 billion in 1979.

In primary health care, we have joined other nations in a major commitment at the UN Conference at Alma Ata,¹¹ to extend basic health, nutrition and family planning services as the essential first step in a campaign to improve the health of the poor. Our bilateral aid for such programs is expanding from $125 million in 1978 to $180 million in 1980. In water/sanitation we are also working on an international effort—the UN Water Decade—and aim at providing much of the U.S. assistance through an organizational structure led by the United Nations and the World Bank.¹²

Women in Development

—We will take the lead in encouraging the design of development plans and programs that explicitly recognize the crucial role of women.

On grounds of both human rights and efficacious development, women must receive better access to economic opportunities, education, and health care.

The United States must put greater weight behind its own commitment to women-in-development and urge others to do so as well. In 1975, at the International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico, virtually all nations joined in a major effort to promote women’s opportunities in the “International Women’s Decade” of 1976–1985, taking as themes “equality, development, and peace.”¹³ Preparations are underway for a mid-term World Conference in Copenhagen next July to assist progress and discuss opportunities for action in three areas: employment, health, and education.¹⁴ IDCA will help in developing a U.S. position for this Conference, and will encourage the pioneering efforts of AID in the women-in-development field.

Women-in-development is not a sector, such as energy or agriculture; it is a subject that cuts across all sectors. IDCA will work to ensure that development projects are designed to benefit women. We shall continue to help focus more attention on women in the Development Assistance Committee of OECD and the multilateral development banks. There must be universal recognition that equitable development requires the vigorous participation of women, and that this participation must be an objective at the level of project design throughout the development field.

2. Manage Economic Interdependence with Developing Countries for Mutual Prosperity

Energy

—Programs are being designed to increase the amount of energy available to developing countries from their own resources.

Solutions to the energy problem are as crucial to the developing countries as they are to us. Those countries can not bear indefinitely the increasing financial burdens of importing their needed energy.

In our bilateral assistance programs we plan to increase the amount of funds spent in the energy field. In particular, we plan to begin a program for training engineers, geologists, chemists, and other scientists from developing countries to enable them to accelerate their own exploration and production. Our target is to have students enrolled in the program here by September 1981. At a recent DAC High Level Meeting, the United States urged our OECD colleagues to initiate similar programs. We will also work with the multilateral development banks and the UN specialized agencies in this area, urging that they increase the amount of funds devoted to training in the energy sector.

All of the multilateral development banks are now placing more emphasis on lending programs to expand and diversify sources of energy in non-OPEC developing countries. Over the next five years, World Bank lending for fossil fuel development is projected to reach $5.6 billion, and to support projects totalling $18.6 billion. This volume of lending is expected to result in the production of energy equivalent to two million barrels of oil a day. When hydroelectric power projects are included, about 15 percent of overall Bank lending during the next five years will be for energy purposes.

The Inter-American Development Bank will be devoting a large proportion of its lending to develop geothermal, hydroelectric, and other energy potential in Latin America over the next several years, and the Asian Development Bank has embarked on a large lending program to finance the production of primary energy fuels. These Bank funds, moreover, should encourage additional private investment in this critical area, thus improving the oil supply situation for the world as a whole.

An interagency task force has been created under IDCA’s leadership to identify additional techniques for channeling private resources into exploration and development of new energy sources in the Third World. It will help obtain the most workable solutions from all agencies of our government and the business community in solving energy problems.

Financing

—The United States should cooperate with other countries and international institutions to forestall debt problems in developing countries and to respond to financing problems promptly, and with adequate resources to promote adjustment without political upheaval and economic stagnation.

Financial problems in developing nations have the potential to reduce world trade, impede adequate development, and bring instability to the private financial sector. From the development standpoint, no strict lines can be drawn between financial and other problems; when a developing country suffers a balance of payments crisis the price is paid in reduced growth.

Trends in the global economy in the 1970s have resulted in major attention being given to the issue of “debt” within the context of the adequacy and direction of financial flows to developing countries. Various actions have already been taken to help these countries. Further efforts to prevent or alleviate debt problems must recognize that crises can result from overborrowing or misuse of funds, as well as from insufficient foreign exchange receipts due to changes in patterns of trade and payments. Moreover, the solutions to the financing problems of the poorest countries, which are heavily dependent on concessional assistance, are different from those of middle-income countries, which are heavily indebted to private creditors. IDCA will give special attention to the range of financial and so-called debt issues which are in the forefront of international discussions.

We will support stepped-up efforts to conclude studies and implement decisions regarding increased co-financing with private markets, program lending, and further cooperation between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Additionally, further study is required on how best to relate public and private credit flows to the development plans of individual countries in order to prevent financial crises from occurring.

Dependable and predictable total financial flows to finance development should be sought. This has long been a goal on the public side. Donor countries must be assured that their assistance will be used to support efficient development efforts in which private capital plays an increasing role; developing countries should consider and plan their private borrowings in order to minimize unpredictable fluctuations in the financing available for their development.

Early efforts in this direction have been unsuccessful, although great strides have been made in collecting necessary information. IDCA will support a renewed effort in an appropriate forum, such as the IMF/World Bank Development Committee, to study and agree on means to achieve this goal.

Trade

—The United States should remain open to the exports of developing countries so that the developing countries may earn more of the capital required for development through trade.

The growth of the world economy is tied to the growth of world trade. Developing country prosperity fosters our prosperity. As their economies grow they are able to buy more of our goods, and exports built on their comparative advantages lessen our own inflationary pressures. Moreover, debt crises are unavoidable—even worse, unresolvable—if developing countries cannot at least bring into greater balance their import and export accounts. In fact, the North-South dialogue emerged from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. You have determined that development issues will be considered in the framing of our trade policy, and we intend to be constructive in this domain. The review of the Generalized System of Preferences and the implementation of the codes of the MTN are two opportunities for the United States to demonstrate our enlightened commitment to interdependence.

IDCA will raise for government-wide consideration the possibility of establishing a trade alert system, so that developed countries can anticipate and plan for evolutions in product cycles that require adjustment assistance to the minority of workers and owners who might lose out for the benefit of the country as a whole.

Investment

—OPIC’s capacity to stimulate private U.S. investment in developing countries will be enhanced, and AID’s program to increase opportunities for U.S. companies abroad will be expanded.

The creation of productive employment and the ability of a nation to export are both essential to development. One of the most important means to achieve these objectives is through increased private sector investment in the developing nations. We will work to expand OPIC’s abilities to stimulate increased investment in all the developing nations. Special efforts will be made to develop energy and other natural resources in these nations. In conjunction with the U.S. Trade Representative, we intend to review and seek to resolve legal and other obstacles to sound investment relationships.

Investment abroad often means exports for U.S. industry, and other benefits as the investment reaches a productive stage. In accordance with OPIC’s mandate, we will pursue investments for the benefit of poorer countries with concern for the domestic U.S. effects. Additionally, we will make a special effort to maximize the benefits for U.S. business of AID’s reimbursable development assistance program.

3. Focus Special Development Efforts on Regions and Countries of Highest Concern to the United States

Caribbean Basin

—A program will be prepared to accelerate the development of countries in the Caribbean Basin.

We will help design an overall U.S. strategy for accelerating development throughout the Caribbean Basin. This program will be aimed at ameliorating social and economic difficulties, as well as at strengthening the democratic institutions of our neighbors to the South. This program will emphasize development assistance aimed at long-term economic development, as well as funds for meeting short-term needs in both public and private sectors. The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank are also committed to supporting effective development in this region. This effort will have to be coordinated carefully with policies outside the assistance field, particularly those related to trade.

We believe that a serious effort should be made to help the Caribbean nations achieve the kinds of societies that meet the aspirations of their people.

Sub-Saharan Africa

—The United States will cooperate more closely with other aid-providing countries and development institutions in dealing with the extraordinarily complex development tasks facing the governments of sub-Saharan Africa.

This region provides some of the most complex development and coordination challenges that the world has faced. The number of donors and the difficulty of the problems requires that we work closely with the other countries and institutions that are determined to assist with the development of this very poor area. As a result of decisions already taken by you, we have begun the required consultative process. Very shortly, we will involve representatives of the recipient countries in planning a coordinated attack on their poverty problems.

Human Rights

—The United States will give preference in its assistance allocations to countries that respect human rights as fundamental for achieving equitable development.

The United States must continue to lead in seeking equitable development that includes protection of human rights and the growth of democratic institutions. The United States has no long-term national interest in increasing the economic strength of countries with brutal repressive political systems. Our own institutions will flourish best in a world with a growing number of countries that allow their citizens to exercise human rights.

It is, therefore, vital to the national interests of the United States to continue our efforts to protect the human rights of the citizens of the developing countries, and to encourage the creation and nurturing of democratic institutions that permit the participation of all of the people in questions involving political and economic power.

We must lead the way in stressing the fundamental concept that the basic needs of a population are met best, not by the benevolent decisions of a dictator, but by political institutions that respond to the needs of the people when they are free to express themselves. Finding solutions to the extraordinarily complex problems inherent in equitable development requires a free and open society stimulating the most inventive and flexible approach to problem-solving.

4. Design a Development Strategy to Meet the Challenges of the 1980s

Third Development Decade

—The United States will participate actively and creatively in designing the global agenda for the Third Development Decade which is to be adopted in 1980 and in the UN’s consideration of a round of global negotiations on international economic issues.

In the months ahead the United States will be faced with extensive negotiations on development issues in the United Nations. We will be preparing for a new round of global negotiations which are likely to be launched by a Special Session of the General Assembly in August 1980¹⁵ and which will deal with the full range of subjects connected to the economic health of the developing countries. We will also be participating in the drafting of a strategy for the Third Development Decade which is to be adopted by the Special Session.

It is important that the United States not view these negotiations as an unnecessary irritant, but rather as an opportunity to present our views on how the world should deal with questions concerning raw materials, energy, trade, development, technology, and finance in the decade of the 1980s. IDCA will work with other interested parts of our government to assure that on each development issue the United States will have a constructive position on how it would like to see the world economy function in the years ahead.

An important element in this effort is the design of a U.S. development strategy for the 1980s—another task of IDCA. There is no escaping the fact that, though great strides have already been taken to help developing countries, other steps will be needed in the years ahead if significant progress is to be made in reducing world poverty.

Of one thing we can be sure—the world will not be the same when the next decade ends. The question before us is how constructive a role we play in helping to shape the outcome.

Scientific and Technological Cooperation

—With U.S. support, the United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development called for the creation of a special interim fund for science and technology, to be administered by the UN Development Program (UNDP). Your initiative in proposing the new Institute for Scientific and Technological Cooperation (ISTC) will enable the United States to maintain its leadership in fostering research and development of knowledge and skills for peaceful and humanitarian purposes.

The UN Conference on Science and Technology, held in Vienna in August 1979, set a target goal of $250 million for the UN Interim Fund for Science and Technology. The Fund, which is to begin implementing the program of the UNCSTD Plan of Action recommendations in 1980, will have a two-fold purpose: to utilize the scientific and technological resources of the developed world to help developing countries solve urgent problems, and to help these countries develop the indigenous scientific and technological capability to solve their own problems over the long run. The Fund will coordinate its activities with those of other bilateral and multilateral programs to avoid duplication. The United States should be prepared to contribute to the Fund.

At the UN Conference on Science and Technology for Development, developing countries’ representatives hailed your initiative in proposing ISTC. They saw it as a signal of recognition by the United States of the importance attached by developing countries to building the capability to solve their own problems, and of the mutual benefits to be gained from a cooperative approach to the solution of global problems.

ISTC was authorized by Congress last year. As this report is submitted, however, Congress has not yet approved funding for the Institute in 1980. Assuming that funding is available, 1980 will obviously be a year of crucial importance for the Institute. ISTC’s purpose will be to promote close relations with individuals and institutions in developing countries concerned with science and technology. Up to one-third of the members of the ISTC Council, which will advise the Director on broad policy and program matters, will be drawn from developing countries.

Scientific and technological talent is one of this country’s greatest strengths. ISTC should take the lead in mobilizing this talent for the benefit of developing countries. ISTC should be the focal point in the U.S. Government for assessing scientific research of relevance to development, and identifying for high priority topics of mutual interest that are most urgent to developing countries. In this regard, one of the first undertakings envisioned for it is a study of ongoing research activities in the U.S. Government, and an information system to keep this inventory accurate. ISTC should stimulate and assist U.S. nongovernmental scientific and technological institutions to give more emphasis to building up the scientific competence of developing countries, through joint research activities, improved training of their students, and assistance to their research institutions.

More and more countries in the developing world are reaching the “middle-income” level at which AID assistance is no longer appropriate. ISTC, with its problem-focus, could supplement the work of the multilateral development banks, and undertake cooperative work with these developing countries to deal with the development problems that remain.

Allocation of Resources

—IDCA will review the allocation of resources for the various development assistance programs that the United States now supports in order to prepare a U.S. development assistance policy for the 1980s.

The 1980 budget request calls for 35 percent of our development assistance to support multilateral efforts, with the remaining 65 percent to support our bilateral program. The 1970s have seen the creation of several new and worthwhile international funds. Donor countries have maintained their commitment to growth by their support of international development banks and institutions.

Although our bilateral program has grown, our commitment to multilateral efforts has been even greater. Regionally, also, there have been changes in the allocations of bilateral and multilateral donors—from the relatively wealthier to the poorer developing countries.

The complexity of the development task, the size of the capital requirements, and your commitment to cooperate and consult with Congress in the design and implementation of our development programs, mean that we must review now the patterns of assistance that we will implement in the 1980s.

Fundamental to these allocation questions—and to the credibility of our efforts to help alleviate Third World poverty—is the amount of development assistance we provide. In the 1950s and 1960s, we led the world and urged and cajoled the other industrial nations to follow our aid example; they rose to the challenge while our assistance efforts flagged. At 0.2 percent of GNP, our development assistance is near the bottom among the industrialized democracies. In real terms, it is lower now than in 1971. As you have pledged on earlier occasions, we must renew our efforts to reverse this decline.

5. Increased Efficiency and Effectiveness

—In the case of AID, an increased assistance program will be carried out with reduced staff by improving the efficiency of AID’s efforts.

By studying the most effective techniques used for providing assistance to countries at different stages of development, we will be able to increase the amount of assistance provided without increasing our staff. Additionally, by modifying the procedures now used in AID, it should be possible to carry out our programs more rapidly.

IDCA is preparing Development Assistance Strategies for key countries. This will enable assistance to be provided in a more rational and coordinated fashion.

Working closely with the Treasury Department and the Agency for International Development, we are reshaping an early-warning system in order to enable U.S. overseas personnel to react to the projects of the multilateral development banks well in advance of their presentation to their boards of directors. This will enable the United States to make its views known at a time and in a manner likely to be most effective.

To achieve these results will require understanding that the most effective assistance techniques depend upon the level of development and the particular problems in each country. Careful program design will insure that maximum use will be made of the private sector, both profit and non-profit, and of our own employees.

A final word about IDCA’s responsibilities—under your Reorganization Plan—to speak to the American public, as well as to Congress. It is commonly urged that development assistance should be given in spite of public opinion that is indifferent at best and hostile at worst. Although many Americans certainly share this view, we believe that an effective public case can and should be made for financial support to developing countries.

This case is partially rooted in humanitarian concerns for poor people in those countries. The public and Congressional responses to your leadership in increasing U.S. aid to Kampuchean refugees¹⁶ show how deep is the compassion of the American people, and how effectively it can be channeled into action. But as I vividly saw¹⁷ on a recent trip to South Asia, the seldom-reported plight of millions of poor people in Dacca and elsewhere is fully as grim as that facing the refugees. If the tragedy of their lives is honestly presented, public support for increased assistance should also grow.

It is sometimes argued that Americans oppose help to developing countries because “charity begins at home.” But development assistance serves basic United States economic and political interests, as well as charitable concerns. As you well know, our international trade and investment, our energy outlook, our security concerns in many areas, and our overall objectives on scores of different fronts, all depend on our relations with developing nations. We should make clear the direct benefits to the United States of development help. Your initiative in establishing the International Development Cooperation Agency will help the United States be a constructive and creative leader in the dialogue on development at home and abroad.

The programs and policies recommended here were selected not only because they address important and challenging issues of concern to developing countries but also because they are feasible. They will be on IDCA’s agenda for 1980 and beyond.

1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Agency File, Boxes 9–10, International Development Cooperation Agency: 2–7/80. No classification marking. Ehrlich sent the paper to the President under a December 31, 1979, letter, noting that the paper “attempts to lay the groundwork of a sound development strategy for the United States in the next decade.” (Ibid.) Owen forwarded both the paper and Ehrlich’s letter to the President under a February 22, 1980, covering memorandum, which Brzezinski initialed, recommending that the President sign an attached memorandum to Ehrlich, dated February 26, requesting that Ehrlich take the lead in several areas relating to development assistance. The President signed the memorandum and added the following handwritten note: “Tom—You are the boss. Act boldly re bureaucratic coordination and efficiency. I’ll back you up. Keep me informed re problems & progress. J.” (Ibid.) Lake summarized the major goals of the IDCA policy statement in a January 9, 1980, memorandum to Vance, noting that the policy statement “is a good one.” (National Archives, RG 59, Policy and Planning Staff—Office of the Director, Records of Anthony Lake, 1977–1981, Lot 82D298, Box 6, TL 1/1–15/ 1980)
2. Probable reference to the preliminary recommendations issued by the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in December 1979; see Document 263.
3. See footnote 5, Document 263. The UN General Assembly adopted an International Development Strategy for the Third Development Decade on December 5, 1980, in Resolution A/RES/35/56.
4. See footnote 6, Document 234.
5. Title IV of the International Development Cooperation Act of 1979 (P.L. 96–53), which the President signed into law on August 14, 1979, authorized the President to establish an Institute for Scientific and Technological Cooperation.
6. See footnote 17, Document 245. In a March 7, 1979, message to Congress proposing IDCA’s creation, the President indicated that the IDCA’s Director would “report both to me and to the Secretary of State, and would serve as our principal international development adviser.” After outlining the various responsibilities accruing to IDCA, the President noted: “I believe these steps will substantially strengthen the coordination of U.S. policies affecting the developing world, and will lead to a more coherent strategy of development and the more effective use of the various bilateral and multilateral instruments by which the U.S. can encourage the growth of developing economies. I am pleased that these actions and proposals are similar to those proposed last year by the late Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. I look forward to joining with you to put them into operation.” (Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, March 12, 1979, pp. 395–396) Carter issued Executive Order 12163 on September 29, 1979, formally establishing IDCA, which began its operations on October 1, 1979. (Public Papers: Carter, 1979, Book II, pp. 1792–1800)
7. See Document 243.
8. The World Bank met in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, October 2–5, 1979; McNamara addressed the World Bank on October 2 and described population growth as the “gravest issue” for the upcoming decades. See Eric Bourne, “A McNamara plea for third world,” The Christian Science Monitor, October 3, 1979, p. 11 and Clyde H. Farnsworth, “U.S. May Increase Gold Sales: Plans to Help Dollar Studied at Belgrade,” The New York Times, October 3, 1979, p. D–1.
9. First Lady Rosalynn Carter was scheduled to address the World Health Organization on May 7 and attend the WHO’s annual assembly on May 8. She and Amy Carter were then scheduled to fly to Rome for an audience with Pope John Paul II and a meeting with Italian President Sandro Pertini. (“Mrs. Carter, in Geneva, Calls Good Health a ‘Basic Right’” The New York Times, May 7, 1979, p. A–8)
10. See Document 313.
11. See Document 317.
12. See Documents 316, 319, 330, 332 and 335.
13. See footnote 4, Document 310.
14. See Document 342.
15. See footnote 6, Document 348. The 11th Special Session of the UN General Assembly was held August 25–September 15.
16. See Document 261.
17. The reference is to Ehrlich.