852 



requests for funds in this area, and is ecjually responsible with the 

 executive for assigning the highest priority under the U.S. foreign 

 aid program to family planning and population activities. 



Consequently any assessment of the impact of the food/population 

 crisis on both the mechanisms and substance of U.S. diplomacy should 

 note this congressional role. Like the State Department, AID, and 

 other national and international agencies, the Congress is concerned 

 lest unchecked population growth lead not only to starvation in the 

 LDCs, but to the wreckage of international development as well. It 

 seems likely that the Congress will continue to monitor events in the 

 field of population with a view to the possible passage of legislation to 

 make U.S. policy in this area more effective. The strong interest of the 

 Congress in environmental problems also points in the same direc- 

 tion.^*<» 

 Multilateral Programs Dealing with the Population Prohlem 



The burgeoning of global populations has begun to provoke action 

 in the United Nations and associated agencies with increasing impetus. 

 As principal custodian of global statistics, of course, the U.N. has long 

 had a role in the study of the subject. In particular, the planning activi- 

 ties of FAO necessitated early attention to the population side of the 

 food/population balance. For example, as early as 1947, FAO under- 

 took a small study in methods of encouraging rural industries as a 

 means of stabilizing the displaced agricultural population to counter- 

 act the trend toward the cities that was alreadv evident at that time. 

 By 1969, the Pearson Report was to warn that "If present trends con- 

 tinued, the largest city in India would have over 35 million inhabitants 

 by the year 2000." "1 



No other phenomenon casts a darker shadow [warned the Report] over the 

 prospects for international development than the staggering growth of popula- 

 tion. It is evident that it is a major cause of the large discrepancy between rates 

 of economic improvement in rich and poor countries.*" 



United Nations activity in the field of population was formalized 

 with the establishment by the Secretary-General in 1967 of the United 

 Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). In 1969 the Sec- 

 retary-General vested responsibility for managing UNFPA in the 

 Admmistrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) 

 which is the center for U.N. technical and development as- 

 sistance programs. By the end of 1969, $5 million had been pledged to 

 the UNFPA, of which $4 million was contributed by the United States. 

 Other contributing nations were Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, 

 Norway, Pakistan, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United 

 Kingdom. Most of this money has been obligated for a variety of proj- 

 ects, involving not only the usual training activities and research, but 

 also support for nonconventional equipment and supplies. 



^"See: U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interior and Insnlar Affairs. "Congress 

 and the Nation's EJnvlronment : Environmental Affairs of the 91st Congress." Prepared by 

 the Environmental Policy Division, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 

 February 10, 1971, 92d Congress, Ist session. (Washington, U.S. Government Printing 

 Office, 1971), 288 pages. (Committee Prtnt.} 



1" "Partners in Development." Report or the Commlnnion on Jiitornnnonal Development, 

 op. clt., page 61. 



"' Ibid., page 65. 



