(D) promote greater equality of income distribution, including measures such as more progressive taxation and more equitable returns to small farmers; and (E) reduce rates of unemployment and underemployment. A report on such proposed criteria and factors shall be transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate by January 31, 1978. (2) The President shall endeavor to bring about the adoption of similar criteria and factors by international development organizations in which the United States participates. (3) Presentation materials submitted to the Congress with respect to assistance under this chapter, beginning with fiscal year 1977, shall contain detailed information concerning the steps being taken to implement this subsection. (e) For the purpose of promoting economic growth in the poorest countries, the President is authorized, notwithstanding any other provision of law, to make assistance under this chapter available to the relatively least developed countries on a grant basis to the maximum extent that is consistent with the attainment of United States development objectives. Section 510 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1978, Public Law 95-105, 91 Stat. 860, approved on August 17, 1977, expresses the sense of the Congress that the President should launch a major diplomatic initiative toward the creation of an international system of nationally held grain reserves to provide supply assurance for consumers and income security for producers. Section 510 appears below: (a) The Congress finds and declares that (1) half a billion people suffer from malnutrition or undernutrition; (2) very modest shortfalls in crop production can result in widespread human suffering; (3) increasing variability in world food production and trade remains an ever-present threat to producers and consumers; (4) the World Food Conference recognized the urgent need for an international undertaking on world food security based largely upon strategic food reserves; (5) the nations of the world have agreed to begin discussions on a system of grain reserves to regulate food availability; (6) the Congress through legislation has repeatedly urged the President to enter negotiations with other nations to establish such a network of grain reserves; (7) little progress has resulted from the initial multilateral discussions toward the negotiation of an international grain reserve system; (8) this lack of progress is caused, in part, by lack of leadership in such discussions; and (9) the United States is in a unique position as the world's most important producer of foodstuffs to provide such leadership. (b) It is therefore the sense of the Congress that the President should initiate a major diplomatic initiative toward the creation of an international system of nationally held grain reserves which provides for supply assurance to consumers and income security to producers. On January 10, 1977, Ambassador Marshall Green, Coordinator of Population Affairs, Department of State, made a statement to the Nineteenth Session of the U.N. Population Commission in which he described some of the U.S. responses to the World Population Plan of Action adopted by the General Assembly on December 17, 1974 (Resolution 3344 (XXIX)). Excerpts from his statement follow: We feel that an important aspect of the World Population Plan of Action was the call for increased international assistance to countries requesting it from nations able to provide it. Pursuant to this call, we undertook a detailed review of our international population assistance strategy. We concluded that there are encouraging indications that fertility control measures are increasingly effective. We see this as confirmation of the judgment in the late sixties and early seventies that we should provide substantial resources to other countries to cope with their population problems. Another result was the recommendation that we continue to provide assistance to other countries on a larger scale than heretofore, and that this assistance be increasingly focused on the national and local level as well as on creating circumstances where individuals can decide on and participate in programs that can help to control fertility. As far as donor countries and agencies are concerned, I think it only reasonable to suggest that all of us be even more forthcoming in all types of assistance that are both needed and justified in helping nations to improve conditions of life for their people. All external assistance in the population field must take into account political and cultural sensitivities, as well as obstacles and complications inherent in the local-shortages of managerial skills as well as of doctors, nurses, and midwives, especially in rural localities where a large majority of the developing world lives. As far as population growth in the United States is concerned, the rate of natural increase was well below one percent in 1975, due not only to economic and social development but also to the extensive availability and use of family planning methods. It is indeed fortunate that the United Nations has already moved effectively into the population field, and it is to be hoped that the important deliberations of this Commission will provide further support and impetus to carrying out both the letter and spirit of the World Population Plan of Action. Dept. of State File OES/CP. Excerpts from the First Annual Report on U.S. International Population Policy, prepared by the Interagency Task Force on Population Policy in May of 1976, and declassified in 1977, follow: NSDM [National Security Decision Memorandum]-314 of November 26, 1975, requires that the Chairman of the NSC [National Security Council] Under Secretaries Committee submit annual reports, the first to be prepared within six months of the above date, on the implementation of U.S. international population policies. The first required annual report is herewith submitted by the Interagency Task Force on Population Policy, established by the Under Secretaries Committee for the purpose of coordinating and implementing the above policy. The first step taken by the Task Force in implementing the new Presidentially approved policies was to ensure that all responsible officials in Washington and the field were informed of the essential content of basic NSC policy on population. It would be difficult to overstress the importance of involvement of our leaders, ambassadors, and country teams in overseas population growth issues. Our officials must know about the facts of population growth and be fully persuaded of the importance of this issue. They must then find suitable occasion and discreet means to bring the message most persuasively to the attention of LDC [less developed countries] leaders whose influence is decisive in shaping national policies and programs. Without this total involvement of our diplomacy, our efforts will fall far short of the mark. I. The World Population Crisis: Its Dimensions and Responses by Nations Most Affected A. Embassy evaluations of the world population crisis largely substantiate the conclusions of NSSM [National Security Staff Memorandum]-200, but with even greater emphasis on the significant impact of population growth on environment and on generating unemployment. Embassy evaluations are somewhat less concerned than NSSM-200 with regard to the availability of food to meet population growth in the immediate future. However, our ambassadors see this as a serious threat in the longer run, with the LDC's increasingly dependent upon food imports, running deeper and deeper into debt and unable to finance the considerable capital cost involved in adequately expanding food production. D. Despite these ominous conclusions, embassy responses nevertheless point up the fact that more and more countries, including most of the big population countries, have taken counter-measures in the form of national policies and programs to control population growth, though the strength of their commitment and the efficiency of their programs vary widely. . . . F. On the other hand, our embassies note persistent obstacles to acceptance of birth control as well as the fact that program implementation is badly handicapped in a number of countries through lack of executive talent and shortages of professional manpower. . . . G. The overall conclusion to be drawn from embassy reports is that current LDC population growth poses serious problems, but this is counter-balanced to some extent by encouraging evidence of greater attention to population policies on the part of most of the LDC's, significantly including the three largest China, India, and Indonesia. II. Overall U.S. Strategy and Development of World Commitment to A. U.S. strategy in dealing with the world population problem proceeds from a recognition of the disastrous implications of current population growth rates (including threats to our national security), and yet a counter-balancing recognition that the problem can be significantly eased if the nations of the world take prompt and effective counter-measures. The main task is up to nations handicapped by excessive population growth, which includes almost all the developing world. But these nations need outside help, and it must be our principal task to see that, in cooperation with other donor nations and organizations, we render effective assistance, when requested and desirable. B. Whatever promotes stability, economic development, better health, improved education, and so on, particularly as such measures broaden opportunities for women, will also create a more favorable setting for reducing current excessive population growth rates which in turn should induce countries to become committed to population stabilization. . . C. In the case of countries that have an announced national policy on family planning and development . . ., the U.S. should, in addition to its current AID [Agency for International Development] programs . : 1. Encourage national leaders to speak out clearly and firmly in support of broad-based population programs. 2. Encourage these countries to adopt innovative approaches. . . designed to root family planning in the villages . . . ; 3. Train paramedics, midwives, volunteers, and others to provide general health services, including family planning in villages where these people are known and trusted. . . . ... E. In the case of LDC countries uncommitted to population programs, our efforts must be fine-tuned to their particular sensitivities and attitudes. F. We should lend even stronger support to worldwide efforts for the improved status of women and for their active participation in community and national life . H. . . . It is important that the LDC's take more of a lead on population issues at international conferences and at home III. Maximizing Efforts and Contributions of Other Donors and Organizations and Improved Coordination A. At a time when there is growing LDC concern and interest in combatting excessive population growth, it is particularly important that as many financial resources as possible are brought to bear on the problem, including assistance from other donor states as well as international organizations. B. If the U.S. announces its intention to increase its funding, we will be in a better position to carry out a major effort to get other donors to increase their funding beginning later this year. . C. There is also need for improved coordination efforts amongst donors, particularly since many donors are now reexamining their overall development assistance programs in the context of population growth. ... E. The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and the private International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) represent the two most important channels for assistance provided through international organizations and private intermediaries. These intermediaries can operate, though sometimes with limited efficiency, in countries where AID's bilateral assistance programs are not now acceptable. In over half of the key 13 NSSM200 countries, the total U.S. effort is limited to our indirect support for activities of these intermediaries. (Footnotes omitted.) Dept. of State File OES/CP. For further information concerning the World Population Plan of Action, see the 1975 Digest, Ch. 10, § 11, pp. 689-690. For President Carter's statement of "The Global Environment," including remarks on world population, see post, Ch. 11, § 1, pp. 841–843. World Assembly on Aging On October 31, 1977, Representative Clement J. Zablocki introduced into the Congressional Record and moved the adoption of House Resolution 736, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the U.S. delegation to the United Nations work with other U.N. member nations to call for a World Assembly on Aging and a World Year on Aging. The House of Representatives agreed to the resolution, which, together with its preamble, appears below: Whereas the United Nations has within recent years intensified its research and information exchange activities relating to aging; Whereas a question relating to broadening the United Nations program on aging will be considered this autumn at the thirtysecond session of the General Assembly; Whereas the discussion of such question will offer a timely forum for discussion of a proposal for a World Year on Aging and an intergovernmental Assembly on Aging; Whereas recent United Nations reports provide impressive evidence that aging populations worldwide will cause widespread economic and social dislocations unless extensive and informed efforts are made to take full advantage of the beneficial and far-reaching opportunities afforded by an increase in the proportion of older persons; and Whereas there is reason to believe that widespread support for a World Assembly and World Year on Aging can be developed among member nations of the United Nations: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the President should instruct the United States delegation to the United Nations to work with the delegations of other nations represented at the United Nations to call for a World Assembly on Aging and a World Year on Aging for not later than 1982. SEC. 2. The Clerk of the House shall transmit a copy of this resolution to the President. 123 Cong. Rec. H 11838 (daily ed. Oct. 31, 1977). For the text of Representative Zablocki's remarks, see 123 Cong. Rec. H 11837-11839. $ 12 Economic Sanctions Southern Rhodesia Byrd Amendment On February 10, 1977, Secretary Vance testified before the Subcommittee on African Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in support of the Rhodesian sanctions bill, which would repeal the Byrd amendment permitting the importation of Rhodesian chrome: The Administration fully supports this bill. We urge the Congress to pass it into law as rapidly as possible. To do so would, I firmly believe, strengthen the hand of the United States and others who are working to find a peaceful solution to the Rhodesian problem. Moreover, it would return the United States to conformity with its obligations under the United Nations Charter. American industry is not dependent on Rhodesian chrome and repeal will not harm our economy. Secretary Vance outlined the impact of passage of this bill on U.S. policy toward Africa and U.S. compliance with international law in these terms: |