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Economic Co-operation Under UN Auspices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Robert E. Asher
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Extract

The economic programs of the United Nations have been jogging along for some time now. The pace, one fears, is not quite fast enough to get anywhere by sundown. Moreover, the road map, if it ever existed, has been mislaid and a thick growth of underbrush has sprung up to obscure the pathway.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , Summer 1958 , pp. 288 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1958

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References

1 By “United Nations system” and “United Nations framework”, is meant not only the United Nations and its councils, commissions, and subsidiary units, but also the group of autonomous specialized agencies related to the United Nations by formal agreement.

2 Economic and Social Council Official Records (1st session), First Meeting, 01 23, 1946, p. 14Google Scholar.

3 Vital Speeches, 03 15, 1946 (Vol. 12, No. 11), p. 331Google Scholar.

4 For further discussion of the Economic and Social Council see, inter alia: Loveday, A., “Suggestions for the Reform of the United Nations Economic and Social Machinery,” International Organization, 08 1953 (Vol. 7, No. 3)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lubin, Isador and Murden, Forrest, “ECOSOC: Concept Versus Practice”, Journal of International Affairs, 1955 (Vol. 9, No. 2)Google Scholar; Asher, Robert E., Kotschnig, Walter M., and others, The United Nations and Promotion of the General Welfare, Washington, Brookings Institution, 1957, Chapter IIIGoogle Scholar; Report of the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace, Strengthening the UN, New York, Harper & Bros., 1957, p. 185–186, 191–199Google Scholar.

5 For a more extensive discussion, see The United Nations and Promotion of the General Welfare, especially Part V, from which the author borrowed for this section and for portions of the next section of this article.

6 Ibid., p. 1050.

7 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Loans at Work, 03 31, 1958Google Scholar.

8 “The Bank should set itself to reach, within five years, some such target as an annual rate of lending of not less than $1 billion to the underdeveloped countries. If it shows no signs of approaching this target, the whole question of the proper international organization for the provision of adequate amounts of loan capital to the underdeveloped countries should be reviewed by the United Nations.” Measures for the Economic Development of Underdeveloped Countries, Report by a Group of Experts Appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Document E/1986, 05 3, 1951, p. 83–84Google Scholar.

9 The proposal involves enlargement of the present Expanded Program of Technical Assistance from a level of about $30 million per year to $;50 million and the creation of a separate Special Fund of $50 million to finance intensive surveys of water, mineral and potential power resources, the establishment of training institutes in public administration, statistics and technology, and the setting up of agricultural and industrial research and productivity centers.

10 Wglter H. Judd, Statement of November 27, 1957, in the Economic and Financial Committee of the General Assembly, United States Delegation Press Release 2824.

11 Department of State, Department of Defense, and International Cooperation Adminstration, The Mutual Security Program, Fiscal Year 1959, A Summary Presentation, 02 1958, p. 45Google Scholar.

12 See The United Nations and Promotion of the General Welfare, especially p. 552–364.

13 Total financial assistance (drawings plus outstanding stand-by arrangements) provided by the Fund from its inception to April 1958 amounted to $3.9 billion, two-thirds of which had been made available within the preceding twenty-four months. If the transactions represented by unused stand-by arrangements are excluded, the amount obtained by European countries came to $1.65 billion and the amount obtained by other member countries to $1.32 billion. (International Monetary Fund, International financial News Survey, 04 18, 1958, p. 323, 325–26)Google Scholar.

14 US Participation in the UN, Report by the President to the Congress for the year 1956, Washington, Government Printing Office, 12 1957, p. 180Google Scholar.

15 The United Nations and Promotion of the General Welfare, p. 1079.

16 Ibid., p. 1053.

17 Important as it is, the main goal should not become the sole goal. Other useful activities of the UN—and there are many—must, of course, be continued and new activities, where appropriate, must be undertaken.

18 Greater reliance on multilateral machinery does not mean exclusive reliance. For some time to come, situations will arise in which the United States will wish to favor some of its friends more than others. In aid, as in trade, however, discriminatory treatment has serious disadvantages and the long-term trend is surely toward uniform ground rules and more equitable treatment for those prepared to observe the agreed rules.