well as concern for social, economic, and physical 

 issues. Many people from developing nations have been 

 trained under this program, and its research and 

 communications activities have been helpful to those 

 working in developing countries. 



U.S. financial assistance might be directed at 

 several objectives: 



— To help enlarge the scope of U.N. activities to 

 include the provision of reports that could be used 

 for training programs and the distribution of 

 course outlines, reading lists, and materials in 

 urban and regional development, and information on 

 major studies in these fields. 



To provide additional fellowships (beyond the very 

 limited number now provided by the United Nations) 

 for study in training programs at various 

 international and national centers for regional 

 development. 



— To fund one or more centers in the United States 

 which can carry out studies in urban and regional 

 development, help train the trainers at the various 

 international and national centers (that is, to 

 elevate the quality of persons doing the training 

 throughout the world) , and participate in U.N. 

 informational activities. 



The other side of the coin in the search for "new 

 initiatives" is that many existing programs, including 

 those of great merit, are overlooked and often starved 

 for funds. A U.S. initiative in the United Nations 

 gave birth to the U.N. Research and Training Programme 

 in Regional Development in 1965, and it would be 

 appropriate if the United States now helped this 

 program achieve a higher level of excellence and 

 greater scope for a worthwhile set of activities. A 

 strengthened U.S. center within an international 

 research and development network could help supply 

 services for the system. 



The benefits of such collaboration would be as 

 great for the United States as for other countries. 

 Inner city blight and slums, poorly planned suburbs, 

 unemployment, and lack of financial resources are major 

 problems in this country that could be more readily 

 solved through a global exchange of information and 

 experience. The United States would especially benefit 

 from monitoring and analyzing the experience gained 

 from new approaches to community redevelopment being 

 used in city-building projects. For example, efforts 

 in Bogota and elsewhere to bring people and jobs in 

 closer proximity may suggest better solutions to U.S. 

 problems of urban congestion and resource waste. More 

 effective international research, training, and 



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