N. ISLAM (Assistant Director-General, Economie and Social Policy Department): I will be very brief in my introduction. Since the Programme Committee dealt with these subjects in great detail I assume that the Chairman of the Programme Committee himself, who is here, will intervene to make a detailed presentation of the recommendations of the Committee.
Under this item of the Agenda there are two main subjects. The first concerns a Report in Response to Conference Resolution 8/77 on Nutrition, and a Report of the Second Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies, document CL 74/29. The second concerns a Report on Food Standards Matters, and the Work of the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission, document CL 74/28. Both subjects were examined by the Programme Committee in its 35th session in October. The recommendations and views of the Programme Committee are contained in its report, document CL 74/5, paragraphs 1.66 to 1.78.
First, on nutrition, action taken to date to implement resolution 8/77 includes studies to assess the nutritional impact of selected FAO programmes, studies in depth of the nutritional impact of FAO programmes in selected countries, the preparation of guidelines for the introduction of nutritional considerations into agricultural programmes and projects. The terms of reference of FAOf' internal Working Group on Rural Development have been widened to include nutritional considerations and thus provide a coordinating mechanism within the House for activities to improve nutrition. As requested by the Ad Hoc Committee, an assessment of the additional needs to meet country requests for assistance has been compiled, the details of which are contained in Annex 2 to the document CL 74/29; Annex 1 contains information on initiative taken by FAO additional to what is reported to the Ad Hoc Committee.
The Programme Committee welcomed the steps already taken by FAO to implement resolution 8/77 and expressed its appreciation of the Director-General's action in meeting part of the need for additional funds to carry out the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee, and strongly supported the Director-General's proposal to seek extra-budgetary funds. Approaches are being made to possible sources of funding at the present time.
Concerning the future of the Ad Hoc Committee, the Programme Committee considered carefully whether the wishes of the Ad Hoc Committee could be met by including nutrition within the purview of the Committee on Agriculture as suggested in document CL 74/29. The Programme Committee decided that it would await consideration at the next Session of COAG on this item before making any recommendation to the Council on what the arrangements would be and recommended that the Council postpone consideration of this matter until 1979.
Next, on food standards, the Codex Alimentarius Commission has carefully examined the matters referred to it by the Seventy-First Session of the Council. Concerning the question of the economic impact of the standards, new procedures have been adopted by the Commission for consideration by the governments and the Commission of both the economic and technical aspects of the standards. On the question of orienting the Commission's work more to the needs and concerns of developing countries, the Commission carried out a review of its activities with a view to reorientating its work to meet the wishes and priorities of developing countries. In particular, increased emphasis is being given to the work of the Codex Regional Coordinating Committee for Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The Programme Committee welcomed the policy and work orientation by the Commission and the new procedures for the assessment of the economic impact of standards. I should also draw attention to the suggestion of the Programme Committee that because of the importance of the Codex work, the Council should follow general policy trends within the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
M. TRKULJA (Chairman, Programme Committee): Mr. Chairman, may I first say how pleased I am to serve under your chairmanship. I will try to be very brief in referring, first, in response to resolution 8/77 and then I shall say only a few words on the joint FAO/WHO standard programme.
First, the Committee, considering the response to Resolution 8/77 of the Conference, considered the problem in the broader context, first of all, in the context of Resolution 5 of the World Food Conference as well as within the basic ideas contained in the Manila Communique and the Mexico Declaration of the World Food Council, as adopted by the General Assembly and, more specifically, considered all the problems within Conference Resolution 8/77. First, what the Committee wanted to emphasize was that nutrition should not be treated in isolation but rather as an important component of the overall world food problem. After all, at the World Food Conference we all called nutrition a pillar of the world food problem. The prevailing view of the Programme Committee was that the capacity of the United Nations system to respond to requests from developing countries to improve the nutritional status of both the urban and the rural poor was by far inadequate.
In the same context, the Committee emphasized that in the light of the repeatedly recognized leading role of FAO in the United Nations system in the field of nutrition, the FAO's ability in this field to respond to the requests of developing countries should be substantially expanded. The Committee recognized that Resolution 8/77 contained two explicit concerns: the first relating to the level of FAO resources for nutritional activities, and the second concerned with the integration of nutritional activities in the overall FAO Programme, both regular and field.
The Committee then expressed its satisfaction with the internal measures taken and arrangements made by the Director-General to ensure that nutritional considerations were taken into full account in agricultural and rural development in FAO's activities. The Committee commended the section of document CL 74/9 which listed the additional resources needed for carrying out recommendations of the Second Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Nutrition, and expressed its appreciation for the Director-General's efforts in meeting a part of the additional funds in 1977 from savings, and especially underlined the need for extra budgetary funds to fill the remaining gap.
Coming now to the proposal of the Second Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Nutrition concerning the establishment of a standing committee under Article V of the Constitution, I must say that the Committee devoted proper time for consideration of this study, considering all merits of the proposal of the Ad Hoc Committee as well as certain other options. The Committee considered in particular the possibility of entrusting the task to the Committee on Agriculture. The feeling of the Committee was that in this case - in the case of COAG - the nutrition is included within the purview of COAG. The two basic motives of the Ad Hoc Committee would be properly met: first, provision of reform for intergovernmental consultations on all FAO1s nutrition policies and programmes; and second, better
better integration of nutrition within FAOfs overall activities. However, I must say that after hours of debate the Committee was not in a position to suggest or recommend to the Council a firm conclusion.
The Committee suggested in its report, therefore, to consider the whole issue again at its Spring Session in 1979 in the light of the experience gained from the COAG meeting in April, and then to discuss the whole problem again and, hopefully, to come to a consensus as far as the final recommendation of the Council is concerned. One point in our deliberations and decision to be reached to suggest postponement of the whole issue was also that the Secretariat promised to prepare for the next COAG meeting a comprehensive policy document on nutrition which would, hopefully, make possible a full scale debate in the COAG next Spring.
Coming now to the point FAO/WHO standards programme, I would only say that the Committee welcomed - as has been stressed already by Mr. Islam - the policy reorientation of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in response to the request of the Council as well as of the Conference, but it considered that it should be viewed only as a first step toward greater recognition of the needs and interests of the developing countries. It also welcomed the new procedures adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission which were expected to result - as is said in the report - in full consideration by governments and the Commission, not only of the technical aspects and issues of food standards, but also of their economic impact. The Committee wanted also to stress its feeling that the new procedures adopted were intended to benefit all countries, not only developing countries. In considering some new initiatives and programmes within the Codex Alimentarius Commission the Committee took a very principled stand that the Commission should concentrate primarily on the development of international food standards for finished products rather than for raw materials. Within the same context the Committee underlined the importance of the work of developing international maximum limits for pesticide residues. It also stressed that these limits should be realistic and took particular account of agricultural practices and pest-control problems in tropical and sub-tropical countries.
Now only a word about regional coordination committees and the problem of regional standards. The Committee voiced a kind of caution in this regard and considered that regional food standards, if not confined to products solely in the inter-region of trade could possibly become barriers to worldwide trade and it recommended that Codex Alimentarius Commission should keep a close watch on the whole matter.
With regard to the code of ethics, the Committee also stressed that it should proceed cautiously, taking full account of developments in GATT, concerning the elaboration of the GATT code of conduct for preventing barriers to trade.
Now I will finish with what has already been emphasized by Professor Islam, that one of the basic conclusions of the Committee was that, having in mind, of course, the importance of Codex work within the world context of nutritional improvement of food production and trade the Council should follow closely general policy trends within the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
CHAIRMAN: We have now had an introduction to the item under review this morning. I will try to follow this procedure: I think it will be desirable that we deal with nutrition and food standards separately. I think it would cause considerable confusion if we tried to deal with them both at the same time. Nutrition is an important aspect; food quality is a different topic. We now have in front of us, in effect, to consider two issues. One is what governments themselves, through the FAO Council and the Conference, and in their own policies can do in respect to raising nutritional levels and how we plan in the Council to provide the impetus and with what kind of legislative procedure we want to do that. Then we have the other aspect which has been introduced, that is to look at the whole concept of what the FAO is doing that is what the Council is doing, and what the Secretariat is doing and how the two can mesh and work together.
RAMADHAR (India): I would like to compliment Professor Islam for his excellent introduction of the subject. I would also like to compliment the Chairman of the Programme Committee for summarizing the deliberations of the Programme Committee in a very concise and lucid manner. I would like to compliment him particularly because I had the privilege of working with him in the Programme Committee and we saw in what an able manner he conducted the deliberations of the Programme Committee.
Now coming to the item under review, my delegation has studied the documents CL 74/29 that the Director-General has submitted to the Council outlining the actions that he has already taken or which he further proposes to take in response to the Conference Resolution 8/77. My delegation considers this item as of paramount importance, it is only because the problem of poverty and malnutrition is looming large in the developing world, particularly in the countries of Asia and Africa. May I crave the indulgence of this Council for a few minutes if I quote some statistics to examine as to how grave the situation is. More than one billion people live in the low-income countries of Asia and about half of them live in absolute poverty. Four countries of Asia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Pakistan contain two thirds of the world's absolute poor. In spite of the optimistic predictions of the World Bank in its Development Report 1978 the number of absolute poor will still remain 600 million at the turn of thé century, and this will mean only a marginal decline from the present level of about 770 million people. If we look at the annual rate of growth .in per caput availability of food the picture is quite depressing. While the rate of growth in the last decade has been 0.7 percent in developing countries it has slowed down to 0.3 percent in the first six years of the present decade. Among the MSA countries there has been a negative growth. During the first six years of the present decade the per caput output of food in the MSA countries has declined by 0.4 percent. If we look at the number of people below the adopted, critical minimum energy intake limit, the picture is no better. There has been an increase of about 50 million malnourished people between the periods 1969/70/71 and 1972/74; the MSA countries alone account for 307 million malnourished people. Of the total of 455 malnourished people at the global level 297 million are in the Far East and alone.
I would like to be excused at the liberty of quoting these figures but these are not my figures, these are the figures from the Public Records of the World Bank and the FAO. My delegation feels that without these figures the entire discussion on nutrition will be out of focus. In this background the action taken by the Director-General and the reorientation in the Organization are most welcome. We welcome the initiative taken by the ACC Sub-Committee on Nutrition, particularly its efforts in the direction of history of resources assigned to the programmes to improve nutrition and to sensitize the world community to the nutritional needs.
My delegation also welcomes the action being taken within the FAO itself in nutritional adjustments. It is encouraging to note that the review of the field programme 1978-79 will contain a special section with the full impact of field activities on improving nutrition.
The question of nutrition has been considered by the second session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies and the 35th Session of the Programme. The second session of the Ad Hoc Committee has made very useful recommendations in paragraphs 67 to 71 contained in its report, document CL 74/29. These recommendations which suggest greater coverage, improved methodology and mobilization of regional resources should in our view form the basis of future actions by this Organization.
There is, however, one point contained in paragraph 1.78 of the Programme Committee's Report CL 74/5 on which I would like to say a few words. The Chairman of the Programme Committee has already dealt with this matter in his statement. This is about the future role of the Ad Hoc Committee and what arrangements should be made within the Organization to discuss this issue. The Ad Hoc Committee has recommended that there should be a standing committee of the Council to discuss nutrition. We have deliberated on this matter and at quite length in the Programme Committee and I need not reiterate what the Chairman of the Programme Committee has already said. We felt that we may defer the decision of the Programme Committee and request the Council that at this session of the Council the Council may defer the decision because of two or three important factors. The one was that the Organization was going to place a policy paper on nutrition before the next Committee of COAG. The next Committee of the COAG should discuss this matter and the Council should take a decision on this issue regarding the advisability of having a standard committee or otherwise in the Spring session of 1979. As I had participated in the discussions of the Programme Committee and as we felt that this was the most appropriate decision at this stage, I would like to support the decision of the Programme Committee.
The recommendations of the Second Session of the Ad Hoc Committee, as well as the 35th Session of the Programme Committee, points to the basic question of mobilization of additional resources. The Programme Committee had considered this matter and has recommended that the field activities, such as training programmes, assistance in food and nutritional policies, needed to be expanded, especially to assist the esatblishment and the strengthening of national infrastructures. We also welcome in this connexion the analysis given by the Director-General in document CL 74/29, Annex 2, indicating the additional resources needed, resources available, in the gap to be filled for the remainder of the 1978-79 biennium. We welcome and commend the efforts of the Director-General in seeking extra-budgetary of funds for these activities. We also hope that the field activities in nutrition, which are so vital for the developing countries, will get their fair and equitable share in the Programme of Work and Budget for the next biennium both from regular as well as extra-budgetary resources.
MAURIA (Finland): My delegation has thoroughly studied the Director-General's report in response to Conference Resolution 8/77 presented to the Council as document CL 79/29, which also contained the response of the Secretariat to the report of the second session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies held in March of this year.
In agreement with the other Nordic countries I would like to comment only on one issue discussed in this document which we find crucial to all the others raised, that is the future of the Ad Hoc Committee. This concerns the possible mechanics through which Member Governments will be able to continue to participate in the debate on how nutritional objectives can become part of FAO's activities.
Since the World Food Conference we have seen an increasing interest in nutrition among Member Governments parallel to the renewed and intensified attention given to nutrition as part of development problems at large. This attention is now both of a different nature and on a different scale than only a few years ago when nutritional problems were considered by many as merely technical problems that could be solved with more knowledge and technology. Nutrition has become a complex issue to deal with. The complexity and the challenge it presents, both for the analysis, planning and implementation of nutrition-oriented programmes, is recognized by the ACC Sub-Committee for Nutrition of which FAO is a member. Several papers discussed at the Sub-Committee's last meeting in New York in October reflected this, and no one seems to deny that there are many problems still to be solved before it can be said that we really know what it will take to integrate nutritional objectives in agriculture and other development projects or how to evaluate the nutritional effects of various programmes.
Applied to practical matters, this philosophy would imply the continuation of the only mechanism whereby FAO's member countries today can follow the nutritional trends and give their inputs to their development, that is, the Ad Hoc Committee on Food Aid and Nutrition Policies. Those present at the Committee's Second Session in March of this year appreciated the opportunity to discuss nutritional matters at a high level, professionally as well as policy-wise. We feel that this opportunity must be safeguarded as long as we need it. The Committee recommended in paragraph 72 of its report before us that the Council change its status from that of an ad hoc body to a Standing Committee of the Council under Article V.6 of the FAO Constitution, with the title "Committee on Food and Nutrition", and that it should have the opportunity to meet before the Conference Session in 1979. However, the Programme Committee at its last meeting recommended that the Council postpone its consideration of the matter until 1979. It has also been suggested that nutrition, instead of being dealt with in a separate committee, should be included in the terms of reference to the Committee on Agriculture. We see this alternative proposal as a response to the philosophy put forward in FAO and elsewhere in recent years, that nutritional problems should not be seen in isolation but as an integrated part of development programmes and projects in agriculture, health and rural development.
I should add that the Nordic countries have been among the strongest advocates for this philosophy, and we would definitely support any proposal to the effect that the various other FAO committees should have nutrition on their agendas. For this reason we welcome the inclusion of nutrition in the competency of COAG. However, before nutrition can be integrated into individual sectors, we must have a clear picture of what exactly we want to integrate. We would hope that at some time in the future there will be no need for a separate Committee on Nutrition as a result of a development whereby nutritional objectives will automatically form part of development objectives in general and the necessary methodologies for incorporating and evaluating nutrition have been developed. For the time being, however, we do not think that we can do without the only FAO body offering an opportunity to contribute towards this development.
My delegation shares the concerns of FAO with respect to establishing new statutory bodies, as expressed in paragraph 18 and 20 of document CL 74/29. However, if the Committee on Agriculture could become the main FAO body responsible for nutrition, there is a definite risk that nutrition will not receive the full attention that it deserves. This would be all the more regrettable in view of the fact that FAO has recently been designated the lead agency in nutrition for the whole UN development system. I would therefore like to put forward the following compromise proposal: the Committee on Food Aid and Nutrition Policies should continue for the time being as an ad hoc committee and its future status should be left open, as also suggested by the Programme Committee. However, the date for its next session should be fixed already now. We realize that it may be difficult to have a session before the Conference; it may be just as useful to hold a session after the Conference. By that time, the Committee will be in a position to consider a number of activities or elements for future discussion on nutritional aspects in other FAO bodies, such as the announced discussion on a nutritional policy before the COAG meeting in April 1979, the World Food Council's annual meeting, the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, the UN Conference on Science and Technology, and the FAO Conference as well as several meetings of the ACC Sub-Committee for Nutrition, which will by that time undoubtedly have progressed with the developement of several as yet undecided areas of relevance for nutrition policy and planning.
In the view of the Nordic delegations, FAO should endeavour to maximize its efforts so as to be able to contribute in the best possible way to the challenges facing the ACC Sub-Committee on Nutrition. A good interaction between alert and interested member countries and a strong future secretariat core in the nutrition field in FAO will be supportive of these efforts. To keep the Ad Hoc Committee on Nutrition as a mechanism for integrated technical and policy discussions in FAO would also be in line with the FAO' s and the UN's own recommendation to Member Governments that they establish a focal point for nutrition within the government machinery, although the aim should always be to make nutrition an integrated part of nutritional developments.
B. de AZEVEDO BRITO (brazil) : Mr. Chairman, as indicated earlier before we started our meeting, at 10.30 I will have to go to the Director-General's office to discuss, as the Council agreed upon, the issues which were left behind yesterday, and therefore I would like with your indulgence and that of the Council to be able to speak on both aspects. Unfortunately, I have no written text, so if you agree I would like to speak on both items.
CHAIRMAN : Yes, I agree, as long as you understand that we will stop the discussion on Codex after your intervention and go back to nutrition again.
B. de AZEVEDO BRITO (Brazil): Thank you, sir. My delegation is always very pleased to take part in the discussions on nutrition in FAO, and we have repeatedly indicated that we feel that programmes dealing with nutrition in FAO should be strengthened. We indicated this point of view quite clearly at the time of the Nineteenth Session of the FAO Conference. In fact, at that time we indicated that if resources were available we would indeed have favoured an increased budgetary allocation for nutrition. We feel that nutrition is a necessary and indispensable component of a social approach to development, and in fact by emphasizing nutrition we are helping those really in need. My Government has been devoted fully in line with this policy and has taken a national approach to nutrition, to start with, by a very well-known survey on nutrition on which plans and policies are being based, policies and plans in which nutrition is fully integrated with an overall production effort, the aim being, of course, to promote production so as to cause the improvement of nutritional conditions of all strata of the population.
That being said, my delegation would like to indicate that it is quite pleased with the manner in which resolution 8/77 has been implemented. We see that the Director-General is, within the limits of the resources available, making whatever efforts are possible to strengthen and accelerate programmes of nutrition. We concur with the Director-General's observations that an extra-budgetary reserve should be set for further improved nutritional programmes within the Organization.
Coming now to the question of the institutional aspects in the future, my delegation is fully in agreement with the recommendation of the Programme Committee. We feel that the position taken by the Programme Committee at the Thirty-Fifth Session was a reasonable one because it allows an experience Lo take place on the treatment of the issue at COAG early next year and the Programme Committee again to review matters and the Council to take a final decision. We feel that this approach does not preclude any final arrangement in a different direction. In principle, therefore, we very much favour this manner to settle the question of institutional aspects for nutrition. Of course, as I said, the fact that we favour an experience with COAG dealing with this matter does not in any manner detract from our utmost interest in nutrition.
Coming now to the question of the Codex Alimentarius Commission programme, I would like to offer to the Council a few observations. I will try to comment on two aspects, first, the question of the impact of food standards on the economic interests of Member States, in particular developing countries, and second, on the re-orientation work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The first issue, the impact of standards, in an issue which our Council has debated at length in the past. As we all know, the last session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission examined the issue in depth, and we have now before us a report of the Director-General indicating the trends of discussion within the Codex Alimentarius Commission. We feel that the Codex Alimentarius Commission took a pragmatic and correct approach to this question. The Codex Alimentarius did not pass judgment on the actual cases which were evoked to indicate an impact positive or negative, for the food standards. The Codex Alimentarius Commission, within its effort to promote the interests of developing countries in particular, decided to amend its procedures for adoption of standards so as to provide at two stapes an effective consideration of the economic impact of food standards. I must say there was no substantive evaluation of the observations presented by different delegations; what happened therefore was an action on procedure, and as the Programme Committee has indicated very clearly, a way to implement the changes introduced in the procedures of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
The importance at this stage is to ensure that observations of governments presented when standards are being prepared - and those observations will be made at two stages - are properly dealt with by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Programme Committee rightly points out the paramount importance of the recommendations that the Committee on General Principles will make next year to the Codex Alimentarius Commission on the manner of dealing with those comments.
Developing countries speak in the Commission with the support of other countries that in principle favour the special machinery of the Commission, and we felt it could be extremely difficult for the Commission to go in depth into the analysis of the economic impact on specific standards. But this is a matter that the Codex Committee on General Principles will study, and we concur with the comments of the Programme Committee that this matter is very important and it is of paramount significance that an actual and effective arrangement should be made so that those comments on economic impacts are analyzed.
May I add that the preoccupation of developing countries with economic impact should in fact be recognized by all of us, as in order that the standards should be adopted it is important that we should all feel the standards are serving - as they should do - the functions they are supposed to perform, first of all the health of the consumer and second, the facilities of trade; these are two paramount considerations embodied in the constitution of the Codex.
Just to conclude on that point we feel the Codex Commission acted correctly and we hope very much that the changes made in procedures will prove effective in their operation.
Coming now to the reorientation of the Codex Commission work. We feel that prompted by the last session of the Conference the Codex Commission has made worthwhile progress in updating and reorientating the Codex work so that the issue at the present time is most relevant. This is not a question of developing or developed countries, it is for all of us. There are no two sides to that. The Codex Commission has not frozen or put in abeyance some commodity committees which had basically performed their work. On the other hand, the Codex Commission embarked on, or took measures to start work on, two very important new fields: first on cereals and cereal Codex. We concur fully with the comments of the Programme Committee that in principle food standards should continue to be made primarily for processed finished products - the products which are actually consumed. We feel it is very important that food standards should primarily be geared to those finished products. It would not be appropriate, in our view, to embark on qualification from the Codex point of view and the food standards point of view, to the raw material, although the Codex Commission allows for the possibility in principle. It is a question of priorities.
The second area of work which the Commission started, or took measures for the work to be started, is also very important. It is the work on food standards for vegetable proteins. Here again, my delegation fully concurs with the comments of the Programme Committee. It was stressed in the Committee, and the Committee adopted as its position, that care should be taken in fully taking into account in developing food standards for vegetable proteins the technological changes which are taking place. This is an extremely important standardization of work and it is an area where changes are still taking place. It is very important especially for those countries which are gaining and developing experience in vegetable proteins to be fully in a condition to participate in the work of standardization in this special and very important sector. It is not a negative word, it is a word of caution to take into account one aspect of the problem.
Still on the actual work of the Food Standards Commission, here is not a new area of work and activities, it is a traditional one. We would like in that area to offer a few brief comments. It is a question of pesticide residues. The Programme Committee rightly underlined the importance of this work. At the same time we feel that the observation of the Programme Committee that in developing food standards, maximum pesticide residue limits, the Food Standards Commission should take special care to take fully into account the agricultural practices for pest control in tropical and subtropical countries. It is necessary for the Council to take this into account, since our Council is primarily concerned with food production, and therefore we must be careful to avoid the efforts of developing countries to increase food production being unduly hampered.
On regional standards, here again there is a very important area which perhaps this Council should take note of. The observation of the Programme Committee that in principle we should always endeavour to have universal standards is the right one. We fully realize that in very special cases there might be products which are exclusively traded within one single region. For these special cases regional standards might be in order, but in principle we should endeavour to look at and favour universal standards, as those universal standards are the ones best fitted to answer the basic objectives of the food standards work: the health and the protection of the consumer on the one hand, and on the other side facilitation of international trade in food.
A final word on the role of our Council and the Programme Committee. It is very important, as the Programme Committee indicated, that the Council follow closely the general policy trends of the work of the Food Standards Programme. I want to dispel any doubt that might arise our of this language; it is not a question of standards A, B and C. Not at all. The language of the Programme Committee is quite a profitable one. These are general policy trends, related of course to food production impacts. This close examination by the Council should not be seen as a negative examination - on the contrary, it should be seen as a positive one. The Council can help the standards work. This is the way my delegation seen the spirit in which the clause can be seen.
I am sorry I have taken up a little time of the Council on this specific item, but as you know, we take a very great interest in this area of the developing countries. We have shown considerable interest in the Codex work being attuned to our needs, not of particular countries but all countries, and all interest of food should be taken into account.
M. S. ZEHNI (Libya) (Interpretation from Arabic): I wish first of all to express our pleasure at seeing Mr. Shefrin chairing the meeting of the Council, and all those who have followed closely the participation of Mr. Shefrin in previous sessions have noted that in addition to his light hearted remarks he always adds substance to our discussions. As a sign of appreciation, I shall abide by the indications he gave to us at the beginning of this session - namely, that we should first deal with nutrition, and I shall be as brief as possible.
I wish first to express my appreciation on the excellent introduction by Dr. Islam to the subject, also my appreciation of the clarity and precision in which the Chairman of the Programme Committee has made his introduction.
Secondly, we want to express our satisfaction for the steps taken by the Director-General and the Secretariat in responding to the Resolution of the Council at its Nineteenth Session.
In view of the shortage of time I shall confine myself to dealing with one point only, namely the recommendation of the Committee on Food Aid Policies in the sense of giving the Ad Hoc Committee permanent status. It has been customary for us always to express our reserve in connexion with the creation of new organs that may add to the complexity of our Organization. Naturally there could be special and very exceptional circumstances which would call for new organs which would strengthen the work of the Organization, but in the specific case on hand we feel that there is not a real need for the setting up of such a new organ. Here we find ourselves in line' with the proposal of the Programme Committee as we have it in document CL 74/29. In line with that proposal we could ask COAG to do the work of nutrition in order to avoid duplication and perhaps also to be clear about the terms of reference of every Commission. I do not believe that in so doing we would be prejudicing or affecting any matter that could have any bearing on the objectives of the Organization or of the Commission, particularly when we speak of the possibility of representatives of member countries participating in discussions on nutrition and making nutrition one of the main subjects of the Organization in the sense that when they are discussed by COAG they will not be discussed in isolation Of the overall view on nutrition. However, I would say that if in the future there are new data or considerations that would require us to reconsider our view, we will do so very willingly.
CHAIRMAN: Before I give the floor to Pakistan I would like to remind the Council that there is also a Committee on Fisheries. I have been told that fish is an excellent protein food. If you are discussing nutrition in COAG, which is agriculture, you must bear in mind that the Committee on Fisheries should also be considered. Also, to maintain our balance may I say that nutrition is not only an agricultural issue, it is also a consumer issue. So in looking at this issue we must be careful not to become too narrow in our approach.
P. MASUD (Pakistan): May I say that it is always a pleasure' to see a flexible chairman in the chair. We have read document CL 74/18, which is the report of the Second Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies, with interest, and are gratified to see that nutrition is~finally gaining recognition which is long overdue to it.
To be brief I will restrict myself to addressing only three issues. The first is the recommendations contained in paragraph 67 (a) of this report. We fully concur and support the view expressed therein, which suggests that FAO should assume a leading role within the United Nations system in the efforts to advance practical approaches to nutrition programme design and implementation.
The second issue on which we should like to speak is whether or not we agree with the suggestion of the Programme Committee to postpone a decision on the status of the Committee.
Also I would like to speak on the recommendation contained in paragraph 67(g). This talks about increased financial resources for nutrition and also about the availability of extra-budgetary financing being explored. This is very important. If we are genuinely supporting the cause of nutrition we feel that there should be some clear indications that increased financial resources will be made available to nutrition, otherwise we will be constrained to come to the conclusion that all this talk about supporting nutrition is merely lip service to what is a very deserving cause.
With regard to the proposal of the Programme Committee, we are not happy with the compromise solution which suggests that nutrition and agriculture should be considered together. We are unhappy with this because, as is always the case, people are always unhappy with compromise solutions. Both subjects are of paramount importance. There would be an obvious conflict of interest. The agriculturist would insist on greater attention to agriculture, and the nutritionist, quite justifiably so, would insist on greater attention to nutrition. We fear that neither party will be satisfied with this arrangement. On the other hand, we must also take into consideration the fact that we should not accord standing committe status to this ad hoc body just for the sake of doing so. There must be a strong indication that there is a commitment to support the cause of nutrition before such a decision is taken. Therefore,we feel that more work needs tobe done before we take a final decision on the subject. We would therefore go along either with the proposal of the Programme Committee or the proposal put forward by the delegate of Finland.
S. PADMANAGARA (Indonesia): On behalf of my delegation I wish to express my appreciation of the report of the Second Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies. Until today increase in food production has always been a subject which has received the highest priority. Food is the main problem and needs great attention. Without entering into details, my delegation would like to emphasize the significance of training in the field of nutrition in the sense that national personnel be given greater opportunities for training in food and nutritional planning and that regional and national workshpos and seminars on food and nutrition policies should be organized, which would offer a good opportunity for the exchange of practical experiences among the participants coming from countries with similar climatic conditions.
With regard to the future role of the Ad Hoc Committee, my delegation is in favor of the recommendation that its status should be changed to that of a standing committee of the Council.
A. ZALAMEA (Colombia): Gracias, Sr. Presidente, quiero decirle en primer término que sus palabras da saludo matutino me han llenado de alivio. El anuncio de que en esta sesión tenemos brújula y que esta sesión puede ser una balsa de aceite después de la movida e incierta navegación de ayer, resulta tranquilizador. Seré, pues, informativo y espero aprovechar su benevolencia y esta pausa en el ritmo bastante acelerado del Presidente titular para decir algo sobre lo que hace mi Gobierno respecto a los problemas de nutrición, siguiendo su explícita invitación de hace un momento.
Seré, pues, breve, pero no telegráfico.
En el punto 15 de la Declaración de México, el Consejo Mundial de la Alimentación afirma que el sistema de las Naciones Unidas debería hacer de la eliminación del hambre y de la malnutrición un objetivo principal e incluir en los programas operativos del sistema objetivos específicos relacionados con la nutrición.
Este es un llamamiento moral que sin duda todos compartimos. Al respecto, deseo informar concisamente al Consejo sobre la forma en que mi país está enfrentando ese problema y los programas operativos que está llevando a cabo; tal vez sirvan para ilustrar nuestros esfuerzos y nuestras dificultades.
La agricultura tiene una función primordial en la economía colombiana; es la fuente más importante de divisas, produce aproximadamente una cuarta parte de los ingresos del país y proporciona una tercera parte de los puestos de trabajo totales.
En el sector agrícola el café, principal cultivo de exportación, es el producto más importante, pues representa dos terceras partes de las divisas del país y una décima parte del total de las fuerzas de trabajo.
La influencia del sector externo, dominado por el café en el ritmo y funcionamiento de la economía colombiana, sobre todo del desarrollo agrícola y rural, es considerable. Tan solo pueden obtenerse precios elevados e ingresos de exportación estables mediante la adopción de medidas internacionales como los Acuerdos sobre productos básicos y los planes de financiación compensatoria.
Por ello Colombia está muy interesada en que progresen rápidamente los convenios internacionales que puedan desarrollar el comercio de productos agrícolas y estabilizar y aumentar sus precios reales. La experiencia reciente es un ejemplo, tanto de los problemas como de las oportunidades que presenta la tarea de dirigir una economía como la colombiana, que depende en gran medida del sector externo.
Colombia no sólo debe aumentar al máximo los beneficios obtenidos de su dependencia predominante de las exportaciones de café, sino que también tiene que proteger su economía de los efectos desestabilizadores de la economía mundial. Por ejemplo, los altos precios del café y el aumento de las divisas han dado lugar a una tendencia ascendente de los precios internos durante los últimos años. A fin de contrarrestar esta tendencia, tenemos que movilizar los recursos obtenidos gracias al aumento de las exportaciones y destinarlos a inversiones productivas y a satisfacer las necesidades inmediatas de las clases marginales. Para ello es preciso eliminar, naturalmente, muchos obstáculos internos.
Visto a más largo plazo, el índice de aumento de la producción agrícola total ha sido similar al del crecimiento demográfico; sin embargo, el índice de aumento disminuyó de hecho en 1976 y 1977 debido a una pertinaz sequía. La reciente reducción del aumento de la producción agrícola de resultas de la sequía ha agravado las presiones inflacionarias internas; pero es el sector moderno, consistente en cultivos comerciales de exportación, el que ha registrado un índice de aumento considerablemente mayor que el sector tradicional, orientado principalmente hacia la producción de alimentos.
El progreso agrícola y el desarrollo rural no sólo constituyen, pues, la clave para el crecimiento constante de nuestra economía, sino que también son de importancia crucial para reducir las desigualdades, aumentar los puestos de trabajo y eliminar la deficiencia nutricional de una parte considerable de la población.
El Plan Cuatrienal de Desarrollo, iniciado en 1975 tiene como objetivo conseguir un aumento más equilibrado del sector agrícola; es decir, entre el sector tradicional de producción alimentaria y el sector de exportaciones comerciales.
También se intenta lograr el desarrollo integrado de las economías rural y urbana. El desarrollo rural y el progreso agrícola tienen una gran prioridad en nuestros planes políticos a fin de poder ampliar las oportunidades de empleo en zonas rurales mediante proyectos que exigen mucha mano de obra y aumentar la producción de alimentos para que corresponda al creciente nivel de los ingresos. Se insiste así en las necesidades de la familia de menores recursos de las zonas rurales y en las políticas destinadas a fomentar el incremento de la productividad del pequeño agricultor.
Nuestro Gobierno atribuye considerable importancia a los dos componentes esenciales del Plan: el Plan Nacional de Alimentación y Nutrición y el Programa de Desarrollo Rural Integral.
El Plan de Alimentación y Nutrición entraña una inversión sustancial de recursos para aumentar los ingresos y los puestos de trabajo de las familias con bajo nivel de ingresos. Los objetivos centrales del Plan son: aumentar la producción de los alimentos conducentes a acrecentar el nivel nutricional de la mayoría de la población y mejorar los sistemas de comercialización y distribución, incluida la distribución subvencionada de alimentos.
Igualmente importantes son los programas de educación nutricional y de mejoramiento de la elaboración de alimentos, las industrias agrícolas y la mejor utilización de alimentos para el consumo.
Se insiste igualmente en la investigación de nuevas variedades con objeto de aumentar la productividad y diversificar los alimentos que se consumen.
Estrechamente vinculado con el Plan Nacional de Alimentación y Nutrición está el Programa de Desarrollo Rural Integrado. Este programa está concebido para promover la agricultura y la integración de los campesinos en el sistema de mercado mediante el mejoramiento de los sistemas tradicionales del pequeño cultivador.
La agricultura de las pequeñas explotaciones no solo abarca a la mayoría de las familias campesinas, sino que produce la mayor parte de los alimentos destinados al consumo masivo; por consiguiente, el incremento de la productividad de este tipo de agricultura constituye la clave para reducir la pobreza por una parte y mejorar el abastecimiento alimentario y disminuir la malnutrición por otra.
Entre los componentes del programa figura un aumento del credito, actividad de extension y servicio de comercialización, así como el desarrollo de infraestructuras básicas, incluidos los servicios docentes y sanitarios.
El programa beneficiará a 500 000 pequeños agricultores en 5 millones y medio de hectáreas. Para aumentar la productividad y reducir la pobreza en las zonas rurales no solo se requiere un gran incremento y de la afluencia de recursos, especialmente en los sectores de los pequeños agricultores, sino que también hay que efectuar cambios en las instituciones de organizaciones rurales y fomentar la participación de la población campesina.
No menos importantes son las medidas de macro-política, como la concesión de incentivos adecuados, de precios para la agricultura y los mecanismos fiscales para la movilización de recursos en las zonas rurales.
El esfuerzo agrícola de nuestro país hoy puede sintetizarse, tal vez, en una iniciativa del Gobernador de Cesar, uno de los Departamentos agrícolas más importantes de Colombia. Esta iniciativa abarca la fundación de una universidad campesina basada en el criterio de dar educación a grandes masas sin la exigencia de certificado de estudios y utilizando los más modernos sistemas audiovisuales.
Volviendo al documento que estamos analizando, quisiera decir que nos parece acertada la nueva orientación que se ha dado a la Dirección de Política Alimentaria y Nutrición. La delegación de Colombia apoya el párrafo 52 del informe del Comité sobre la necesidad de insistir al respecto.
Dentro de ese orden de ideas la delegación de Colombia apoya igualmente la propuesta del Director General sobre medidas complementarias.
Sería deseable encontrar fondos extrapresupuestarios para poner en práctica tales medidas.
Nuestra delegación está igualmente de acuerdo con el párrafo 52 acerca de la necesidad de que los gobiernos concedan mayor prioridad a las actividades en favor del mejoramiento de la nutrición.
Atención especial nos merece el apartado (a) del párrafo 67 del informe del Comité. Estamos de acuerdo en que la función primordial de la FAO en materia de nutrición debe ser la de prestar asistencia a los países en desarrollo para que planifiquen y ejecuten programas de alimentación y nutrición.
En el párrafo 6° del informe se señalan adecuadamente los factores que impiden el mejoramiento de la nutrición en los países en desarrollo no obstante el ligero aumento de la producción.
Creemos que conviene subrayarlos en nuestro informe a la atención de todos los Gobiernos:
La distribución equitativa de los ingresos que aumentará el poder adquisitivo de la población, más empleo, mejores salarios, derecho a la tierra, política de precios de alimentos e información suficiente sobre la necesidad de seleccionar los alimentos.
Estos y muchos otros aspectos contribuirán a elaborar adecuadas políticas de alimentación y nutrición necesarias para eliminar el hambre y la malnutrición en el mundo, como se dice al final del párrafo 12 " del informe del Comité.
Sobre el futuro del Comité, finalmente, se presentan dos posibilidades: convertirlo en Comité Permanente en virtud del Artículo V.6 de la Constitución de la FAO, con el nombre de Comité de Alimentación y Nutrición, según se recomienda en el párrafo 72 del informe; o incluir la nutrición en el mandato del Comité de Agricultura de la FAO de acuerdo con la alternativa que se plantea en el párrafo 20 del documento CL 74/29.
Nuestra delegación está dispuesta a estudiar las dos posibilidades, aunque veríamos con simpatía que los esfuerzos no se dupliquen ni den pretexto a la creación de comités paralelos. En este sentido nos parece muy estimulante la propuesta de nuestro distinguido colega de Finlandia. En todo caso, consideramos que lo esencial es lograr que la nutrición sea estimada y analizada a su debida altura en los órganos de la FAO.
CHAIRMAN: I must remind the Council that we are running short of time and we must find a half-way measure between interventions in telegraphic form and in the form of bulletins. I would appreciate it if delegates would speak more pertinently to the point. In view of the lateness of the hour I feel I must make this appeal.
W.A.F. GRABISCH (Germany, Federal Republic of): My delegation also would like to thank the Secretariat for documents CL 74/18 and CL 74/29 which were submitted for this agenda item, and for the introductions given to us. Let me say at the outset that the Federal Republic of Germany took an active part in the discussions at the Second Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies, as we attach great importance to the questions which were dealt with in that body.
With regard to the improvement of nutrition, the first agenda sub-item, my Government's position can be given very briefly as follows. The basic requirement for concrete measures of aid is an analysis of the situation in developing countries. The first step of the governments of these countries is to identify the main ecological, sociological and economic criteria which are decisive for the unfavourable development in individual food sectors or in certain local areas; specific individual analysis as well as the evaluation of existing data on the kind, extent and causes of undernutrition or malnutrition will provide the necessary information. Such investigation should be undertaken in close relationship with rural or other development projects. On the basis of this analysis the activities for nutrition planning and surveillance must be formulated by the governments at country level, assisted by FAO.
My Government holds the view that greater attention than so far should be given to the nutrition aspects in the technical assistance projects. This will, however, only be possible with the widespread effect desired if the requirements mentioned have been met. We welcome the step*3 taken by FAO, as set out in document CL 74/29, paragraphs 4-10, aiming at including nutrition aspects to a greater extent in future in the technical assistance projects.
With regard to the statements in paragraphs 14-17 on the additional necessary funds, I should like to make the following remarks. The Ad Hoc Committee had recommended the elaboration of a Programme of Work in which the necessary resources should be seen in relation to the task of FAO in this area. The main concern of the Committee was to improve the capacities of FAO with a view to' advising the Governments of developing countries on the setting up of nutrition programmes and.the formulation of adequate policies. However, it is rather difficult to assess the supplementary proposals for the biennium 1978-79 because the result of the considerations is only described in the form of an enumeration of project activities, manpower requirements, available and uncovered resources. With regard to the planning for the next biennium to which paragraph 16 refers, my delegation would therefore suggest that detailed information should be given allowing us to assess the individual activities with . regard to their priority."
As regards the question of whether the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies should be transformed into a standing committee of the Council, or the food questions should be included in the terms of reference of the FAO Committee on Agriculture, my delegation shares the view of the Programme Committee. We also feel it could be advisable to take no decision at the present moment. The Committee on Agriculture should first deal with that question at its next session and with the consequences which may result therefrom. We are also open to the establishment of a standing committee on food and nutrition if the majority of the Member States of the Organization consider it necessary.
My delegation feels that the interim proposal which has just been put forward by the delegate of Finland and supported by Pakistan also merits careful consideration in this context. Which institutional decisions will be taken is, to my delegation, of rather secondary importance. What matters most is that in future food and nutritional issues will be dealt with in an adequate way in FAO, the leading agency within the UN family for this vital area.
J. ABEYAGOONASEKERA (Sri Lanka): I would wish to begin my remarks by thanking India for a very comprehensive coverage on the subject. I fully agree with her very lucid presentation of the subject. I would also like to thank my Nordic friends, because it was in the last FAO Conference that Norway introduced the resolution asking FAO to do more for nutrition and we supported that motion.
Coming to the paper under discussion, the report of the second session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutritional Policies, we agreed with the view that attention must be given to factors which affect food conumption, such as distribution of income, better employment towards improved wages, access to land, food price policies and dissemination of knowledge that would bead to better food selection.
We are for increased activity by FAO in the field of nutrition. The FAO should have more up-to-date statistics on food supplies, food consumption and nutritional studies, as was suggested by the Committee. The FAO should also finalize and distribute to member countries the guidelines for the evaluation of nutrition programmes. It should also develop a more comprehensive programme of work and estimate both the resources available within the Organization and the additional external resources needed. The FAO should work in close association with thw World Food Council, as in other fields, in developing her programme of nutrition.
Like the Programme Committee, we hope the Committee on Agriculture in April will examine more closely nutrition activities within FAO and make more specific recommendations, including the question whether there should be a standing committe on nutrition.
D.F. SMITH (United Kingdom): Perhaps I could first thank the delegate of Venezuela for his kind cooperation in enabling me to make this statement.
My Government recognizes the importance of nutrition and the kind of problems which were so graphically illustrated by the delegate of India. We welcome, therefore, the emphasis being given to nutrition by FAO. We hope that it will soon be possible to appoint a director of the Nutrition Division and that the staff of the division can be brought up to strength.
We welcome the measures taken by FAO to assess the nutritional impact of FAO programmes in selected countries. Much can be achieved by the application of existing knowledge about nutrition to the early stages of project selection and design. We think, however, there are many aspects of this work which require research. We hope that the Nutrition Division, in collaboration with other institutions and agencies, notably the WHO, will consider defining and organizing a programme of medium- to long-term research. This could, we suggest, be based on a number of case studies; of communities and areas, and would aim to describe the changes in the nutrition and health status of different sections of the population in relation to the impact of agricultural or infrastructure development projects and to elucidate the direct and indirect causes of change.
Two important topics for research are, we suggest, first the study of statistical services and information analysis in relation to policy choice, planning and administration, and secondly the study.of administrative structures and responses to food and nutrition issues. The amounts of money needed for such research would, we think, be relatively small. We would be interested to hear the views of the Nutrition Division on this subject. On the wider issues, we fully agree with those other speakers who have expressed the view that nutrition should not be treated in isolation. It must-we think, be treated as part of a complex of problems covering the production of food, consumption and the provision of the necessary economic means to enable nutritionally sound consumption patterns to be developed.
We note the Director-General's intention to integrate nutrition in FAO's other activities. We would support such integration in principle and would be interested to know what implications, if any, this will have for the Nutrition Division's budget.
We have noted the suggestion in paragraph 20 of CL 74/29 that nutrition should be included in the terms of reference of the Committee on Agriculture and we have noted also the views of the Programme Committee on this subject. As nutrition is a developing science there may be a case for continuing a separate committee. As I have already indicated, however, we recognize, the heed, to avoid dealing with nutrition in isolation. If it is to be included in the terms of reference of the Committee on Agriculture we hope that nutrition matters will be fully reflected in the agenda and in the time available for discussion and that the appropriate nutritional expertise will be available to and represented on the Committee.
Finally, I would like to mention that my Government has undertaken to consider financing from bilateral funds various projects identified by the Nutrition Division and which comprise part of the additional resources required by paragraph 17 of CL 74/29.
CHAIRMAN: The last part of your statement was a very practical, useful one.
P. HALIMI (France): Mon gouvernement prend acte avec satisfaction des mesures prises par le Comité ad hoc des politiques alimentaires et nutritionnelles pour donner suite à la résolution 8/77, et qui consiste en études sur dossier en vue d'évaluer l'effet nutritionnel de certains programmes de la FAO dans des pays déterminés, en études approfondies de l'effet nutritionnel des programmes de la FAO, notamment au Bangladesh et en Tunisie, dans la préparation de directives en vue d'introduire des considérations nutritionnelles dans les programmes et projets agricoles, et enfin par la mise en place d'un mécanisme de coordination au sein de la FAO.
Je dois, Monsieur le Président, exprimer ma franche préoccupation de voir l'étude des problèmes nutri-tionnels dépendre éventuellement de ressources extra-budgétaires. La nutrition est une des bases de l'action de la FAO. Sur ce point, d'autres délégués sont intervenus avant moi, je citerai notamment le délégué de la Finlande, le délégué du Brésil et le délégué du Pakistan, et il me paraît paradoxal de voir que les activités de la FAO dans ce domaine ne relèvent pas comme elles le devraient du budget ordinaire de l'Organisation.
Une telle tendance, contraire aux buts fondamentaux de la FAO, devrait être renversée. Il serait plus naturel que la nutrition occupe, une part importante du programme ordinaire de la FAO, et que ce soit d'autres activités moins immédiatement liées à la malnutrition qui soient financées par des ressources extra-budgétaires.
Nous remarquons à cet égard que si les travaux du Comité ad hoc des politiques alimentaires et nutritionnelles, en juin 1975, furent essentiellement consacrés aux incidences de la résolution 5 de la Conférence mondiale réunie en état de crise, par contre, la deuxième session du Comité ad hoc a procédé au recensement des éléments d'une action systématique dans le domaine de la planification nutritionnelle, avec ses conséquences en matière de formation des cadres locaux et d'éducation.
Il s'agit là, à mon sens, d'un tournant majeur dans la recherche des solutions des problèmes nutrition-nels dont l'ampleur et l'urgence ont été maintes fois soulignées par la plupart des délégations.
On constate que les chiffres globaux présentés par la FAO font apparaître que bien que la production alimentaire mondiale se soit améliorée ces dernières années, le nombre de personnes mal nourries s'est lui aussi accru, particulièrement en Afrique, au cours de ces deux dernières années.
Pour ces motifs, l'assistance alimentaire ne doit pas être mise en oeuvre isolément. Ne s'attaquant pas aux causes de la malnutrition, elle est sans intérêt à terme. Il faut viser à ce que les Etats qui en sont les bénéficiaires deviennent autosuffisants.
Il est donc nécessaire que ces Etats soient aidés par le biais de la formation, par le biais de la création de laboratoires, pour qu'ils puissent définir eux-mêmes leurs stratégies en matière de planification nutritionnelle. On peut donc se féliciter qu'un large consensus soit apparu pour estimer absolument nécessaire:
1. Que les plans de développement prennent en compte et intègrent le problème nutritionnel;
2. Que les plans comportent une évaluation des retombées sociales, et en particulier nutritionnelles, établie au départ avec l'aide de la population locale;
3. Que chaque Etat définisse sa politique nutritionnelle nationale.
On notera à ce sujet que les Etats-Unis offrent de partager expériences et experts formés grâce à la mise en oeuvre du plan de lutte contre la faim.
Sur ce plan, le contrôle sanitaire et qualitatif des aliments est d'une importance fondamentale pour assurer la protection du consommateur et sauvegarder les disponibilités nationales. Il doit faire partie intégrante des politiques alimentaires et nutritionnelles dans tous les pays, quel que soit leur niveau de développement économique.
J'en viens maintenant à la transformation proposée du Comité ad hoc en Comité permanent sous le nom de Comité de l'alimentation et de la nutrition. Cette transformation pose une question de principe. Le Conseil est habituellement très réservé quant à la création dé nouveaux comités et il a même précédemment souhaité une réduction du nombre de ces comités. De ce fait deux formules peuvent être envisagées, soit de reconduire le Comité ad hoc, ainsi que nous l'a proposé le délégué de la Finlande et certain nombre de délégations, comme tel, sans prévoir de périodicité de ses réunions, soit d'inclure la nutrition dans le mandat du Comité de l'agriculture, comme le suggère le Comité du Programme. Chacune de ces formules a ses inconvénients.
Dans le premier cas, les dépenses entraînées par la réunion du Comité ad hoc sont peu différentes de celles supportées par un comité permanent. Dans le second cas, on risque de surcharger le travail déjà lourd du Comité de l'agriculture et de prolonger la durée de ses sessions.
J'ai noté la préoccupation exprimée par une délégation du fait qu'il faudrait, si le Comité de l'agriculture était chargé de la nutrition, veiller à ce que des experts de haut niveau en matière de nutrition assistent, eux aussi, aux réunions du Comité de l'agriculture. Dans quel cadre institutionnel devrait-on donc traiter à l'avenir le problème de nutrition ?
Le Comité du Programme estime que le cadre institutionnel dans lequel devrait se poursuivre les travaux des gouvernements en matière de nutrition pourrait difficilement être le Comité de l'agriculture et il suggère à notre Conseil de ne pas trancher sur ce problème avant la prochaine réunion du COAG.
Ma délégation appuie bien volontiers la suggestion du Comité du Programme et pense que le prochain COAG pourrait avoir ce point du cadre institutionnel à l'ordre du jour de ses travaux. Ainsi, la soixante-quinzième session du Conseil pourrait-elle statuer en toute connaissance de cause, compte tenu des débats qui auraient lieu au COAG sur cette question. Ces débats, cela va de soi, quel que soit leur résultat, n'ôteraient rien à l'intérêt profond que nous portons au problème de la nutrition.
H. CARANDANG (Philippines): Four years ago the international community made a solemn pledge to eradicate hunger and malnutrition. Four years after we are nowhere near the fulfilment of this resolution. I shall not repeat the facts here which have been repeated over and over about the growing number of hungry people, but I should like to state that at this point we need a dispassionate analysis of what happened to efforts taken to make good the pledge that was made four years ago.
At this point I would like to share with you the points that have been the results of the soul searching of the Group of 77 in this matter. I should like to. refer to the- paper which has been prepared by the Group of 77 in Rome for the Committee of the Whole of New York but which has never been presented because that Committee never took up substantive matters. That paper, a very short paper, makes just one general consideration, an identification of three bottlenecks and three short recommendations.
The general comment made by their paper is that - and 1 quote - "The efforts to increase food production and ensure food security become meaningful only when supplemented by efforts in the field of nutrition by measures designed to improve the quantity and the quality of food available to the hungry through such measures as more equitable distribution of food and income, nutrition education, quality control, nutritional programmes to reach the nutritionally vulnerable group". This was the first general observation made by that paper.
The three bottlenecks that were pointed out were these: first, there is a lack of effective leadership in the UN system in assisting governments, and second was the insufficiency of resources allocated for specific nutrition action, and third, a lack of systematic and concerted effort by the international community. The first bottleneck, therefore, was pointed out to be, and I quote: ''that the United Nations system is not moving fast enough. The ACC's effort and its Sub-Committee's efforts to establish an effective interagency action mechanism still have to produce satisfactory results. The action plan required by Resolution 5, paragraph 2, of the World Food Conference which would represent the core of a long-term plan of action on Resolution 5 is still in an inchoate stage. Attempts of agencies to resolve operational issues associated with the approach to planning nutrition intervention programmes and implementation have not been altogether successful. Emphasis is still being placed on further research requirements rather than practical action that governments can take. There is likewise a lack of forceful leadership by the United Nations system to stimulate government action, both developed and developing countries. Agencies have tended to limit their efforts to responding to specific government requests and have been asked to initiate discussion with governments leading to a broad attack on a national nutrition problem. Furthermore, United Nations agencies have limited capacity to respond to governments' requests. A glance at the staffing patterns of FAO, WHO and Unesco would confirm this limited capacity for effective assistance''.
The second bottleneck that was pointed out was the lack of flow of resources. They say - and I quote - ''There has not been a significant flow of resources, and technical help for nutrition programmes in donor countries in spite of the avowed commitment to the eradiction of hunger and malnutrition within a decade.'' No wonder some of the developing countries are asking how serious this commitment really is.
The third and final bottleneck was that of lack of concerted action, and 1 read the paragraph: "More and more governments of developing countries have been giving priority to nutrition and are setting up sensible nutrition programmes. It is clear, however, at this point, that more government commitments to specific nutrition goals and means to reach these goals are an indispensable element for the success of a concerted attack on hunger and malnutrition. The primary responsibility which lies with the developing countries themselves cannot be substituted by anybody else. The governments of these countries must take on a priority basis all the political, economic and financial decisions necessary for the attainment of these objectives. Without such actions, support from the United Nations agencies and resources and donor countries would not achieve the desired impact." And after that we have the three draft resolutions saying first, that the international community should establish specific operational goals for the reduction of hunger and malnutrition and incorporate these into development plans and projects. They should include an all-out effort to eradicate vitamin A deficiency and endemic goitre within a decade. Second, developed countries and others in a position to do so should increase substantially and initiate major financial and technical assistance to achieve these goals, and third, the United Nations system should improve its capacity to providé governments with comprehensive assistance to nutrition planning and programme execution to implement the relevant resolutions on nutrition.
On the more specific action that is now being considered under document CL 74/29, the Philippine delegation would like to make the following comments. The initial actions outlined in paragraph 4 up to paragraph 10 of that document are very encouraging steps towards the implementation of Resolution 8/77. We would like to commend FAO very strongly for this initiative. Given the budgetary and personnel restraints of the division, I would not hesitate to say that much has been accomplished within the limited resources. However, without an interim report on the specific results achieved to date, we find it difficult to appraise the actual progress made within the 12 months since the adoption of Resolution 8/77. The joint ESN, ESP methodology paper that was supposed to have been finalized in October, as referred to in paragraph 7 of that report, I think is in an inchoate stage. It gives us a first-stage analysis of the methodology, but we believe that further steps would be required within this in the future biennia. Then the Council's ability to appraise the adequacy of action now underway is also impaired by the limitation to the present biennium of the steps and of the resources given in CL 74/29. Based on the budgetary allocations shown under Annex 2, we have the impression that methodologies to meet the needs of a wide range and of different country situations and various agricultural and rural development type projects can be achieved. A much more comprehensive and long-term project of action is called for, and this was the original intent of the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendation in paragraph 67 (g). If we look at page 11 of Annex 2, the requirements for in-depth study and the following-up of the application of selected countries would cost no more than $104.000. I understand that at least one bilateral agency is spending on the very same subject about 2 or 3 million US dollars to complete the same effort.
One year after the adoption of Resolution 8/77 we were expecting a greater significant progress report on the implementation. Also greater specificity on reporting on what has been actually achieved and what needs to be done could have enhanced the confidence of Member Governments that FAO is now taking a leading role in the nutrition field as emphasized by the Council at its June session in 1977. This also holds true for the response to the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendation 67 (g) dealing with the expansion of FAO's overall capacity to assist governments in the design and implementation of nutrition plans and policies.
Like the United Kingdom, we believe that it would not be a bad idea if the post of Director is filled and the Division's capacity to assist governments bolstered. We believe that where FAO has the particular comparative advantage over agencies in assisting governments, efforts should be further strengthened. The development of methodology, provision of training at the country level, the development of FAO's manpower for increased improved technical assistance to the governments need to be geared to the integration of food consumption concerns in agriculture policies and programmes to select the nutrition intervention programmes, including efforts towards a more effective use of food aid in agricultural development and nutrition improvement.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much for some of the pertinent points brought up and a good review of the developments since the 1974 World Food Conference.
A.G. RAMBOUX (Belgique): J'ai quelque crainte à parler après la brillante intervention de mon collègue des Philippines. Son information fut excellente et je suis heureux de l'avoir entendue. Tout cela a été bien préparé, bien présenté mais, comme le disait mon collègue des Philippines, il me semble que les progrès ont été réduits. Les recommandations émises par le Comité ad hoc sont bonnes, un peu générales et, à ce sujet, j'ai quelques considérations à présenter.
D'abord comme cela a été dit par plusieurs orateurs, la politique de la nutrition doit s'affirmer une composante de la production agricole. C'est l'indispensable qualité de l'alimentation. Il s'agit d'un aspect qui doit imprimer l'action de la recherche agricole internationale de la FAO, du FIDA, des services agricoles des pays, des paysans, consommateurs eux-mêmes.
Tout en acceptant la poursuite limitée des activités du Comité ad hoc, parce qu'il est nécessaire que des spécialistes se retrouvent et permettent une approche pratique de ces problèmes, je pense que, dans un stade ultérieur, il est inutile de créer un organe supplémentaire. Un organe supplémentaire dans ce domaine, d'abord coûterait cher et, secondo, aurait toutes chances d'être isolé.
C'est pourquoi, malgré ces craintes, je crois nécessaire d'envisager à un stade ultérieur l'inclusion du service de la nutrition dans le mandat du Comité FAO de l'agriculture. La réunion du COAG nous éclairera davantage sur ce point. En toute éventualité, ses services devront conscientiser tous les membres du Comité de façon persévérante et convaincante.
Deuxième considération: la coopération avec d'autres organismes du système des Nations Unies est indispensable et là il me semble qu'on aurait du mettre davantage en évidence la collaboration avec l'Organisation mondiale de la santé et le Bureau international du travail.
En ce qui concerne l'OMS, on en a beaucoup parlé. Mon collègue du Brésil a d'ailleurs mentionné combien ses travaux sont intéressants et combien une orientation autre devrait leur être donnée. Des formules d'application faciles doivent être trouvées afin que la pratique de ce Codex puisse être réalisée partout.
En ce qui concerne le Bureau international du travail, il doit aussi collaborer, parce que dans les entreprises, beaucoup de travailleurs sont nourris; dans les foyers sociaux on prépare la nourriture, on donne même des cours pour la préparation de la nourriture et, comme le soulignait le Président, il ne s'agit pas seulement de produire mais également de consommer des denrées de bonne valeur nutritive.
Une troisième considération concerne la formation. La formation est mentionnée en Recommandation, elle est très importante pour le succès de cette action, et je trouve insuffisant que'dans le budget elle revête approximativement la même valeur que l'évaluation.
Ma délégation s'intéresse à ce problème car, pour la Belgique, comme tous les pays donateurs, il importe de connaître les résultats des recherches de la FAO, afin que ses efforts dans le domaine de la coopération agricole puissent être davantage orientés et plus efficaces pour l'alimentation de ceux qui ont faim.
Je termine. Dans ce domaine comme dans beaucoup d'autres, il s'agit d'acquérir chez tous les intervenants un esprit de travail orienté vers le Bien.
CHAIRMAN: I think your last sentence is the key sentence in your statement.
WU TIEN-US I (China) (Interpretation from Chinese): We have already been deeply concerned with the serious under-nourishment and malnutrition of hundreds of millions of the world's population. The nutrition problem involves not only technical aspects but also socio-economic implications such as income distribution, employment, and food price policies. We hope that while formulating policies and programmes related to nutrition, FAO will take this state of affairs into consideration and enforce keen measures to help developing countries solve some of their nutrition problems.
I now make some observations about nutrition work in China. The Chinese Government has concerned itself with the people's livelihood, and attaches importance to food nutrition. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, great attention is given in particular to the food and nutrition of babies, children, pregnant women and invalids. Public health measures which are easy to adopt, practical, and effective, have been carried out. All of these have contributed to reducing the mortality rate of babies, accelerating the recovery rate of invalids, and building up the health of the people.
In 1974, criteria and regulations for food hygiene were promulgated by the Chinese Government. Biological control to deal with crop diseases is underway to decrease the contamination of agricultural produce and by-products by bio-chemicals. Comprehensive utilization is adopted by food processing countries by elimination of three kinds of waste - waste of water, waste of gas, and waste of residue - with a view to preventing the contamination of food during processing. Quality inspection of food has been strengthened and measures have been taken to avoid the deterioration of foodstuffs and oils during storage. All these have helped to improve food nutrition and protect the health of the people.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much for your interesting report on what is being done in China in respect of nutrition.
M.R. LEAR (New Zealand): We share the views expressed by other delegates concerning the importance of nutritional improvement, and we share their approval of FAO's actions and proposals to give greater emphasis to nutrition improvement work. Since we share these views, we need not reiterate them, given the time constraints that we are under.
On the suggestion that nutrition should be included in the terms of reference of the Committee on Agriculture, and perhaps in the terms of reference of the Committee on Fisheries, as suggested by the Chairman, New Zealand is in favour of this.
As the Secretariat has noted in document CL 74/29, this would allow nutritional considerations to be discussed in the overall framework of the activities of FAO in the field of food and agriculture - and perhaps fisheries - and it is in accordance with the policy of FAO, which we support, of restricting the number of statutory bodies of FAO and of meetings in general.
However, we could accept any consensus reached by the Council to defer a decision of the Ad Hoc Committee, as recommended by the Programme Committee and for the reasons given by it.
K.R. HIGHAM (Canada): There has been a lot of very good sense pronounced this morning on the subject of nutrition, and in consequence I can make my comments telegram-short.
The improvement of the level and quality of nutrition of the world's people is one of the traditional mainstays and one of the principal objectives of the FAO. Nutrition has also proved to be one of the most difficult issues for us to address; whereas at first glance the subject seems to offer a straightforward challenge, our experience has shown how dealing with nutrition the subject can be easily confused with other objectives and our efforts become immobilized.
It seems to us that the real question before us now is how to build up and maintain the necessary momentum to give this subject the priority it so obviously deserves. Without wanting to deny the importance of research and other collection activities and the need for strong national nutrition policies, we must not let ourselves be distracted by these activities from taking the action these resources call for.
We are satisfied the progress made by the Ad Hoc Committee is the best way to deal with the nutrition question at this time, and Canada agrees with the proposal that the Ad Hoc Committee should continue to deal with the nutrition issue in FAO and the decision to form a standing committee of the Council should be deferred until 1979. We feel, too, it could be a mistake to limit our attention by forgetting to assign adequate priority to this subject and other FAO Standing Committees, and the Committee on Fisheries is the most obvious of these.
In conclusion, we agree that the Ad Hoc Committee should conduct its present duties, and the future of the Committee be left over for the meantime. In saying so, we round this table, want to emphasize that priority should be given to the nutrition question.
H.L. CLAVERIE RODRIGUEZ (Venezuela): Prometí ser sumamente concreto y lo voy a ser. Nuestra delegación tenía que hacer alguna declaración de principios, pero para otros temas.
El tema de la nutrición lo consideramos suficientemente bien tratado por esta casa y por lo tanto sólo queremos tocar las cuestiones que están a consideración de este Consejo.
Antes de seguir quiero declarar la simpatía con que le vemos a usted, Sr. Presidente, en la posición en que está hoy y estamos siendo testigos de que la gran experiencia que usted tiene de la FAO y de este Consejo'no le ha pasado en vano.
Nuestra delegación, como miembro del Comité del Programa, ha tenido la afortunada posibilidad de conocer a cabalidad los programas nutricionales tal cual se están adelantando en la FAO.
El Profesor Nour Islam, a quien agradezco su presentación excelente del tema de hoy, también fue para nosotros un magnífico expositor en la oportunidad en que lo expuso al Comité del Programa con todo detalle y reforzado por sus compañeros de Dirección.
Por lo tanto, nuestras opiniones en general sobre los programas de nutrición, tal como los viene tratando la FAO bajo la Dirección del Director General, es de completo apoyo, como se refleja en el informe del Comité del Programa.
El Sr. Trkulja, Presidente del Comité del Programa, las expuso en su oportunidad y la forma como fueron expuestas cuenta también con todo nuestro apoyo.
Quiero referirme concretamente al apoyo de nuestra delegación a la forma como se vienen atacando las medidas necesarias para implementar la Resolución 8/77 tal como está expuesto en el documento CL 74/29 sometido a consideración de este Consejo.
Concretamente compartimos la opinion de que debe ampliarse, por supuesto, la capacidad del sistema de las Naciones Unidas para amoldarse a los tiempos y atacar en una forma cada vez más eficaz y eficiente los problemas nutricionales de los países en desarrollo.
Entendemos que deben reforzarse estas actividades del sistema de las Naciones Unidas y concretamente deben reforzarse, por supuesto, las del órgano fundamental del sistema de las Naciones Unidas para los problemas de nutrición y de agricultura, como es la FAO. En este sentido apoyamos cualquier instrumentación dirigida a sustentar medidas de refuerzo en este sentido.
Agradecemos al Director General por las medidas implementadas y que nos han sido anunciadas en el documento CL 74/29 para satisfacer los alcances de la Resolución 8/77.
En cuanto a la transformación jurídica e institucional del carácter del Comité Especial de Política Alimentaria y de Nutrición, es un tema que merece toda la atención de nuestra delegación. En este sentido tenemos un criterio de principio y es el de tratar de evitar al máximo la proliferación de órganos competitivos en esta casa.
Nos parece sumamente positiva la preocupación que se está dirigiendo a la materia de nutrición tal cual la está atacando el Comité Especial. Hemos estudiado las alternativas que se nos han sometido a nuestro criterio y las estamos evaluando en su total amplitud; pero en todo caso, creemos que las condiciones actuales, tal como lo manifestó el Presidente del Comité del Programa, no son proclives a que se tome una decisión en este momento y preferiríamos que la materia se aplazara en el tiempo hasta la ocasión que se considerara necesaria, que pudiera ser eventualmente la primavera próxima.
En cuanto al programa que se nos ha presentado para dar cumplimiento a los alcances de la Resolución 8/77, tal como lo resume el documento CL 74/29, cuyo presupuesto resumido nos ha sido ofrecido en el documento 74/29, apoyamos este presupuesto; apoyamos las partidas en él enunciadas e igualmente creemos necesario que se deben instaurar vías de búsqueda para recabar los fondos presupuestarios para llevarlos adelante. No importa que sean fondos extrapresupuestarios.
Estas son las opiniones concretas que quería comentar ante este Consejo.
J.S. BAKER (United States of America): Mr. Chairman, I would like to say first that I take particular pleasure in addressing a session of this Council which you, Sir, are chairing. I am pleased to see you in a working function in the chair. I would have liked to have seen you arrive there in a somewhat more graceful procedure than was arranged, but the important thing is that you are there and you are functioning in the manner for which you are famous.
I would also like to express my appreciation for the useful introduction by the Assistant Director-General, Dr. Islam, and I would like to associate myself with my colleague on the Programme Committee, the Permanent Representative of India, Mr. Ramadhar, in pointing out the very useful contribution made by our Chairman, Mr. Trkulja, both of this item and in his general conduct of that difficult function. I fully appreciate the high evaluation of his contribution. In fact, I would have welcomed his contribution to our views on the Forestry Programme of the FAO in connexion with our discussion on forestry, had that been so arranged. It seemed to me that some of our study on that issue could have been quite relevant to the discussion of the COFO report.
More than three decades ago FAO was established to improve the wellbeing and nutritional status of people. At this Council Session we are informed that the number of hungry and malnourished is not declining, it is increasing. There have been many previous resolutions on the subject. In recent years the 1974 World Food Conference studied the problem and made specific recommendations for a leading role by FAO. The Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies has met twice to consider specifically what FAO should do to implement those recommendations and subsequent recommendations of the FAO Conference and the World Food Council. I can say that the report of the Ad Hoc Committee is apparently in such great demand that it has been sold out since yesterday, at least in the English version, at the documents desk of our Conference. I hope this is good news, but I am not entirely certain.
We have got beyond the stage of resolutions. It is time for action. I would like first to comment on the report from the Secretariat, second on what governments such as my own might do, and finally have a word about the future.
First, concerning the FAO report, I want to express appreciation for the report itself, especially for the explicit detail on how various recommendations can be implemented, the analyses of resource . requirements and availability of resources needed to respond to requests, and the intention to provide the Council with additional information on the nutritional impact of selected agricultural and rural development projets.
In reviewing the report, however, although we found it very useful we are left with a feeling that the actions which are proposed fall short of the objectives which were set up by the World Food Conference and reaffirmed by the World Food Council at its ministerial meetings in Manila and Mexico City. We share the views expressed by our distinguished colleagues who have spoken before us, that in order to implement these recommendations higher priority for food consumption/nutrition problems is needed. We found some of the points made by the delegate of the Philippines in this regard particularly relevant.
My Government recommends that the activities to implement World Food Conference and subsequent recommendations on food consumption and nutrition be strengthened significantly through the remainder of the current biennium and the next biennium. If additional resources are needed for these programmes as far as they concern activities in the field, they should appropriately be obtained as much as possible from extra-budgetary sources, but strengthening the Organization's capability in the nutrition area should be by regular budget allocations utilizing savings from lower priority areas.
Secondly, in the context of a higher priority for food consumption and nutrition improvement programmes in the FAO Programme of Work and Budget, we suggest that some member countries may also be able to support FAO food consumption and nutrition efforts,either through extra-budgetary trust funds or through provision of technical experts to undertake assignments at FAO or in field programmes, and by financing the field activities bilaterally as part of or in conjunction with FAO country projects.
Let me note some examples of the kind of support that the United States is prepared now to provide. We are ready to consider assisting FAO-identified countries, countries which this Organization may identify as a result of requests, in undertaking nutrition assessment surveys and in establishing surveillance systems. We are also ready to consider requests to the USAID by FAO for United States experts for short-term assignments such as the following: working with FAO in developing surveillance methodology; assisting countries in developing indigenous weaning food assisting FAO in an in-house examination of the degree to which FAO programmes contribute to improving consumption by low income consumers; and assisting countries in planning consumption/nutrition analyses as part of farm and/or household surveys.
Our newly established Human Nutrition Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will seek ways to make its technical expertise available when desired to FAO activities, perhaps through cooperative arrangements similar to that already existing in the area of food composition. To contribute towards improved nutritional status worldwide, the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare will undertake basic and applied research and support cooperative nutrition programmes, including surveillance, through iimultilateral and bilateral arrangements. We would hope that as the FAO' s capabilities and programmes in the field of nutrition develop and we have a clearer idea of its projects, we will be able to provide additional types of support.
We invite other governments and agencies such as UNDP and IFAD to consider ways in which they might provide additional support. We urge FAO to take the lead in developing a comprehensive plan of action for nutrition improvement which can attract and utilize contributions from a variety of sources and in an effective manner. This kind of plan was called for both by FAO's Ad Hoc Committee and in the Mexico City Communique of the World Food Council.
Finally, a few words about the future. Clearly, much remains to be done and the best, therefore, and most careful deliberation of Member Governments will, in our view, be needed. Alleviation of hunger and malnutrition has been central to FAO's mission from the beginning and remains a major reason for its continued existence. FAO»s Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies is the only forum which now exists, in our view, in which governments can focus on the broad problems of improving food consumption and nutrition as their major target. We assume, therefore, that the Committee will continue. We believe, however, that our objective should be to accord it regular status as a standing committee of the Council. We see a need that it meet during the next year and in each successive year to review reports on the nutritional impact of agricultural and development projects, and review the proposed programme of food consumption and nutrition for the coming biennium. While we participated in the Programme Committee's discussion on nutrition and did not dissent from its interim recommendation, I should like to stress the interim character of that recommendation. The United States has serious doubts that an expansion of the terms of reference of the Committee on Agriculture to deal with the issues which the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies has been addressing, will meet the current need to strengthen FAO's leadership in the nutrition field. COAG is now serving important and valuable functions; its agendas are lengthy and varied. To include still another special area would reduce the effectiveness of COAG in performing its major function. It would add to the problem of putting together the appropriate delegations and would almost certainly mean that the important area of food consumption and nutrition would continue to get less attention than it deserves.
Therefore, my Government recommends that we maintain the objective of transforming the Ad Hoc Committee into a standing committee meeting annually, utilizing terms of reference such as those recommended to us in the report of the Ad Hoc Committee's March 1978 Session. We interpret these terms specifically to include food marketing, distribution and utilization. We look forward to having a regular forum to discuss those matters as they impact on nutrition and are ready to participate actively. I would stress again, however, that we favour the continuation of the Committee on an ad hoc basis until a final decision is made on this matter and in this sense we support the proposal of the delegate of Finland which has been seconded by the delegations of Pakistan, the Federal Republic of Germany and others.
CHAIRMAN: We were very much interested to note the type of specific contributions your Government is ready to make to the FAO to help it and developing countries in improving their own nutritional programmes and providing better nutrition to their people.
Md. FAISAL (Bangladesh): On behalf of my Government we wish to express our sincere thanks and appreciation for the excellent work of the Ad Hoc Committee. We wish to express our thanks to Professor Islam for his excellent illuminative and educative introduction of the report under review. We are in agreement with the recommendations contained in the report but we wish to make a certain observations which we consider to be important and which require immediate attention. These are in general terms as follows: FAO's effort toward a solution of nutrition problems, for.assisting nations in intensification of food grains and fisheries is very highly appreciated. However, since we feel and apprehend that exclusive emphasis on increasing food grain production might jeopardize or even negate the growth of other nutritious crops such a pulses, oil seeds, vegetables, as these crops compete with food grains for the same land and the same resources. These crops are not only richer in terms of proteins and vitamin content but also relatively cheap and consequently much more accessible as they are within the purchasing capacity of the majority of the masses of many developing countries, including ours.
I therefore strongly suggest and urge that FAO's objective function in its nutritional programme must strive for maximization of low-cost balanced diet instead of high-cost but poor diet.
Secondly. I should like to draw attention to paragraph 21 of the Report under review where very special attention is given by the Committee to the nutritional standards of the vulnerable groups through feeding programmes, etc. Though vulnerable feeding programmes are sometimes necessary I should like to point out that charity should not form a prime objective of the FAO, because charity is not a complementarv but a competitive variable with respect to self reliance. what is needed is a comprehensive action programme in order to generate a capacity in the Member Nations to deal with nutrition through exclusive and cooperative efforts of hard work and dedication. I should like to request FAO to deal with the whole aspect in a most pragmatic manner. We found that there is a divergence of opinion regarding the creation of a standing committee to deal with the different aspects of nutrition. Though nutrition is very important, we feel and recognize that the entire aspect of nutrition should get immediate priority and consideration in FAO. We are, however highly apprehensive of the creation of another committee on nutrition. We honestly feel that the multiplicity of committees might diffuse the attention it deserves. We earnestly and strongly feel that the present work on nutriton can be done through the Committee on Agriculture (COAG) as nutrition interlinks with the whole spectrum of the problems of agricultural development. Moreover, if it is integrated with COAG, it has all the more better chance to disseminate the idea of nutrition through effective agricultural activities which will help to percolate the result to. the rural and hungry masses.
Lastly, FAO's efforts in terms of solution of the nutrition problem are highly commendable. However, FAO is trying to solve the various issues on nutrition in a sophisticated manner while we believe the solution requires a macro-approach ranging from production to consumption and comprising distribution of income as well as education. Unless these problems are tackled in their totality with a comprehensive approach, the solution of the nutrition problem will remain in practice beyond anybody's reach, including that of FAO.
K. DEVAHASTIN (Thailand): As appears in the document before us, serious concern was expressed in the second session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Food and Nutrition Policies that FAO would not be able to provide sufficient support in nutrition planning to meet all requests from member countries. My delegation therefore concurs with the recommendations made by several previous speakers that the budget allocated to this field should be increased both from regular and extra-budgetary sources so that resolution 8/77 can be implemented effectively, and FAO capacity be- increased to assist governments in nutrition programmes and policies.
As regards the institutional problem, we are of the opinion that the ad hoc body should eventually be given a status of a standing committee so as to ensure that this very important subject of . nutrition, which has a very strong impact on a large segment of the world population, will be dealt with on a regular and increasingly attentive basis. Moreover, such a transformation of the status will to some extent result in the commitment on the part of the participating governments in line with the Committee's decisions and suggestions. However, in view of the fact that the Committee on Agriculture is going to meet in April 1979 it might be more appropriate to wait for the results of that meeting before we make any decision on this particular matter.
CHAIRMAN: In order to allow remaining speakers sufficient time for their interventions, we will continue the discussion this afternoon.
The meeting rose at 12.30 hours
La séance est levée à 12 h 30
Se levanta la sesión a las 12.30 horas
