OPPORTUNITIES AND PROPOSED INITIATIVES: HIGHIIGHTS 



The initiatives identified in this report fall into 

 two categories: (1) those that relate to specific 

 clusters of development activities, and (2) those that 

 help strengthen the general abilities of developing 

 countries to make use of science and technology for 

 national purposes. The first 16 initiatives in this 

 chapter highlight those in the first category that seem 

 to this Committee to have the highest priority among 

 the many discussed in later chapters. They relate to: 



— increasing food supplies, 

 health and related needs, 



-- urbanization and industrialization, 



— management of resources. 



The remaining initiatives identified in this chapter 

 fall into the second category, that is, they relate to 

 the general abilities of developing countries to use 

 science and technology. This list does not, of course, 

 exhaust the total of potentially useful initiatives. 

 Many more are outlined in subseguent chapters; still 

 others were raised in public forums and elsewhere. 



The problems we have identified for concentrated 

 effort share three attributes: (1) successful work on 

 the problem would have a broad impact on development 

 and human welfare, especially on the poorest sectors in 

 developing countries; (2) developing and developed 

 countries have a mutual interest in collaborating on 

 the problem; and (3) the scientific and technical 

 knowledge needed for addressing the problem is 

 available or foreseeable. Any U.S. initiative proposed 

 at the U.N. Conference needs to be judged against all 

 three criteria if it is to be well received at home and 

 abroad. Moreover, the policies and actions of each 

 country set the directions and pace of its development, 

 which normally is affected only marginally by outside 

 initiatives. However, international collaboration, 

 such as the initiatives listed below, can be decisive 

 in dealing with key problems. 



Increasing Food Supplies 



Increased crop production to feed the world's 

 growing population can be achieved either by expanding 

 the land area cultivated or by increasing average 

 annual yields per hectare. The latter may be 

 accomplished by applying more labor per hectare, 

 applying more capital per hectare (in the form of 

 fertilizers, eguipment, irrigation ditches, etc.), 

 improving the biological factors that affect crop 



