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The United Nations as an Instrument of Economic and Social Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Walter M. Kotschnig
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Extract

Change has been the one constant in the brief but eventful history of the United Nations. Whatever its shortcomings, the UN has proved itself responsive to the turbulent forces of a dynamic age. Whether it will be able to marshal these forces, to channel them for productive ends, remains to be seen.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Winter 1968 , pp. 16 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1968

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References

1 Assessed UN budget and voluntary contributions to United Nations Development Program (UNDP). In 1946 the total resources, in the absence of voluntary contributions, amounted to $19.3 million.

2 See Brown, Williams Adams Jr, “The Inheritance of the United Nations” in Asher, Robert E. and others, The United Nations and Promotion of the General Welfare (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1957), pp. 153–199Google Scholar; and Gardner, Richard N., Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956)Google Scholar.

3 This includes Yugoslavia, which has achieved a position of leadership among the developing countries.

4 For an earlier study covering the impact of the growing membership on the UN up to 1965 see Jacobson, Harold Karan, “The Changing United Nations,” in Hilsman, Roger and Good, Robert C. (ed.), Foreign Policies in the Sixties: The Issues and Instruments (Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins Press, 1965)Google Scholar.

5 General Assembly Resolution 1710 (XVI), December 19, 1961.

6 General Assembly Resolution 1711 (XVI), December 19, 1961.

7 The United Nations Development Decade at Mid-Point: An Appraisal by the Secretary General (United Nations Publication Sales No: 65.I.26 [UN Document E/4071/Rev.I]) (United Nations, 1965), p. 6.

8 “World Economic Trends” (UN Document E/L.1127, July 13, 1966), pp. 3–4.

9 Ibid., p. 7.

10 For a discussion in depth of these problems see Jan Tinbergen's essay “Wanted: A World Development Plan” elsewhere in this volume.

11 Studies in Long-Term Economic Projections for the World Economy: Aggregative Models (United Nations Publication Sales No. 64.II.C.2 [UN Document E/3842]) (United Nations, 1964).

12 UN Document E/4343, May 25, 1967.

13 Article 25 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and Article 47 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Both Covenants as well as the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are contained in the annex to Part A of General Assembly Resolution 2200 (XXI) of December 16, 1966.

14 See Gross National Product, Growth Rates and Trend Data (Agency for International Development, RC-W-138) (Washington, 03 31, 1967)Google Scholar. The 1960–1966 average GNP growth rates of nineteen developing countries were 5.0 or above with twelve developed countries being in the same range (United States average, 4.8). The AID study does not cover the centrally planned economies.

15 The United Nations Development Decade at Mid-Point, p. 30.

16 “Committee for Development Planning, Report on the Second Session (10–20 April 1967)” (UN Document E/4362), pp. 27–28.

17 Proceedings of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geneva, 23 March–16 June 1964, Vol. I: Final Act and Report (United Nations Publication Sales No: 64.II.–B.II [UN Document E/CONF.46/141, Vol. I]) (United Nations, 1964).

18 Chapter IX is entitled “International Economic and Social Cooperation” and includes Articles 55–60. Chapter X is entitled “The Economic and Social Council” and includes Articles 61–72.

19 General Assembly Resolution 2152 (XXI), November 17, 1966. Growing out of the modest beginnings of the ECOSOC Committee for Industrial Development (CID), the Organization was established in principle by Resolution 2089 (XX), December 20, 1965.

20 McKitterick, Nathaniel M., U.S. Diplomacy in the Development Agencies of the United Nations (Planning Pamphlet No. 122) (Washington: National Planning Association, 1965), p. 31Google Scholar.

21 Gardner, Richard N. (ed.), Blueprint for Peace (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966), p. 9Google Scholar.

22 Many of the LDC's and some of the developed countries are urging that UNDP, with its less than $200 million per year, should be transformed into a capital investment fund. This would obviously provide only very limited resources for investment purposes. It would certainly diminish the funds desperately needed for technical assistance and preinvestment projects and might well be the beginning of the end of the most effective operational program of the UN.

23 “Progress Report on a Global Partnership,” UN Monthly Chronicle, 03 1967 (Vol. 4, No. 3), pp. 64–73Google Scholar.