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79. Addressing the Governing Council of UNDP at its eighteenth session held in Manila earlier this year, the President of the Philippines called strongly for the immediate implementation of the Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order and of its accompanying Programme of Action. He was the first Head of State to do so in an international' forum. Recalling the debates during the sixth special session of the General Assembly -an historic special session-he said: "[The] concern [of the sixth special session] was not with the past but rather with the present and future. Historical injustices were recalled, not to be exacerbated but to be redressed and transcended. The challenge presented to the rich, industrialized countries was not to irreconcilable conflict but to a massive joint commitment to fashion together a more rational and equitable relationship." I 80. The grim prospects confronting the developing countries emphasize the importance of institutionalizing this new type of relationship as promptly as possible. Time has made their economic problems more acute, with further deterioration in sight in the coming year. Nor can we overlook the possibility of political and social upheavals in the wake of irresistible inflationary pressures coupled with worsening shortages. 81. The encouraging rise in commodity prices has now reached a peak and will soon decline. Only a quarter of the considerable gain in commodity prices went to the developing regions, and of this gain the bulk was negated by the steep increases in the prices of food grains and fertilizers.

82. Furthermore, the developing countries experienced sharp deficits in trade in 1973, with every prospect that the deficits will increase this year. 83. Few aspects of the world-wide economic upheaval cut closer to the bone than the food crisis. What was once viewed as an unfortunate but temporary state of affairs is now correctly regarded as a chronic condition which will grow worse in time unless concerted international action is taken promptly. 84. As long as their vast food resources remain untapped, because of understandable deficiencies in capital and in technology, the developing countries will continue to be the victims of hunger and malnutrition. On humanitarian grounds alone they deserve assistance from the more fortunate industrialized countries, for the toll in human lives now and in the years ahead can well exceed our most pessimistic calculations. And its effects on world stability, on peace and security should be obvious to all. 85. Solving the problem, of course, is not easy. A rising population, competition for sources of food, the ever-present possibility that food assistance will be subject to narrow political ends rather than broad humanitarian objectives, the growing food requirements of the affiuent societies themselves -these admittedly complex factors should not' deter us from confronting the very real dangers posed by hunger and famine.

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86. The Philippines would therefore favour the establishment of a world food reserve in order to ensure assistance to countries suffering from food shortage regardless of the amount of surplus among donor countries. To this most basic of human problems the principle of special preferences for needy regions should be applied,

87. In the long run, expanding the world's food supply is a fundamental consideration. But in order to do this, greater assistance to the agricultural sectors of developing nations would be required. Dwindling food stocks, even in many industrialized countries, make this step even more urgent. Beyond the immediate needs of food, improving the level of agriculture is a fundamental contributory factor to the national development of countries in the developing regions. 88. The Philippines attaches great importance to the forthcoming World Food Conference, with the strong hope that it will be able to evolve a concrete plan of action without too much delay. 89. An integral part of the food problem is the hapless plight of an estimated 400 million children in the developing countries. At its fifty-seventh session, in its resolution 1880 (LVII), the Economic and Social Council endorsed the decision of the Executive Board entitled "Declaration of an emergency for children in developing countries as a result of the current economic crisis", and made an urgent appeal to all Governments for increased contributions to UNICEF, It is, indeed, a sad commentary on the world's conscience that UNICEF, after almost three decades of quiet' and dedicated service, has not received the adequate financial support it has always deserved. It is our hope that the 1974 United Nations Special Pledging Conference on UNICEF scheduled for November will elicit a generous response and demonstrate the anxieties and concerns of the international community over the world's suffering children.

It should be evident that the foregoing problems I have mentioned, being global in character, are susceptible only to collective measures on the part of the international community. The Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, the World Population Conference, the World Food Conference, and the projected seventh special session of the General Assembly constitute historic efforts to tighten the web of worldwide interdependence in order to solve the problems which impede development and endanger the world economy, They are important in still another sense, for they will be a test of whether we have developed in the United Nations the requisite political will to override narrow particularist concerns for the sake of the world community as a whole,

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91. In this connexion, the Philippines hopes that the remaining difficulties with regard to the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States could be resolved to permit the adoption of the Charter at this session of the Assembly. We feel that adoption of the Charter' would be an indispensable step towards the establishment of the new international economic order.