1637 



It is contended by some analysts that a stronger support of the U.N"^ 

 effort might have been more rewarding than the U.S. practice of 

 emphasizing bilateral aid. This is possible, of course. Multilateral aid 

 was shown in the study to have a number of particular advantages in 

 this field, as also in the field of global health. Some of these advantages 

 are identified by Dr. Nanes as follows : 



The inherent advantage of multilateral over bilateral assistance is that the 

 diplomatic profile of the donor is lowered. Motives of the donors are under less 

 suspicion. Another presumed advantage is that recipients may be more likely to 

 contribute substantively to the planning of general programs. If they are in- 

 volved in the planning, they are more positively committed to the implementation 

 of plans. Burdens of cost can be more widely distributed. Results can be better 

 analyzed on the basis of international comparisons. Contributions to a genuinely 

 global program can be expected to come earlier from those nations which are 

 initially recipients. Some forms of assistance practically demand a global 

 approach, i*** 



However, Dr. Nanes also warns that the multilateral approach is 

 not without its present defects: 



The asserted advantages of the multilateral approach to world agriculture 

 should not obscure the evident weaknesses of present institutions to accomplish 

 purposes generally sought. Some of the weakensses attributed to the U.N. com- 

 plex have included: Uncertain funding, varied quality of technical personnel, 

 wavering political support, confused lines of functional organization, want of 

 firmness in management, and absence of accepted overall authority. The desira- 

 bility of a clearer mandate for specific global chores to be implemented by this 

 system, and a general overhaul and strengthening, would appear to warrant early 

 legislative and diplomatic consideration.'^* 



One major example of multilateral aid is the program of the World 

 Bank under the leadership of President McNamara. This institution 

 has identified five principal "roadblocks" to enhanced agricultural 

 productivity in poor regions (paraphrase) : 



1. Where poor farmers are struggling to subsist on semiarid 

 or marginal land, there is a critical need for new agricultural 

 technologies tailored to these conditions. 



2. Another roadblock is government-imposed pricing and sub- 

 sidy policies to provide cheap food to the cities at the expense 

 of reduced incentive to rural areas to expand agricultural 

 productivity. 



3. The small farmer is almost always discriminated against by 

 public institutions, which tend to favor the larger and more 

 prosperous producers in terms of access to public credit, research, 

 water allocations, and scarce supplies of petroleum, pesticides,, 

 and fertilizer. 



4. There is a scarcity of trained technicians to implement 

 complex rural operations. 



5. Finally, all of us have a great deal more to learn about the 

 motivational patterns and behavioral responses of the poor in 

 shifting from traditional subsistence agriculture to cash-crop 

 production. ^^^ 



"s Jbid., p. 8.58. 

 '^^ Ibid., p. 809. 

 I'o McNamara, Address to the Board of Governors (op. cit.), pp. 10-18. 



