LIST OF DECISIONS, DIRECTIVES AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COUNCIL

Current World Food Situation - Progress Report by the Director-General

Requested the Director-General to draw the attention of the World Food Council to the need for urgent special measures for financing the essential imports, particularly of food, fertilizer and other agricultural inputs, of developing countries, especially the MSAs (para 18).

Impact of the World Food Conference (Rome, November 1974) on the Programme of FAO for 1975 and the Following Years, and the Budgetary Consequences of the Follow-up

Suggested that the Programme and Finance Committees should carefully scrutinize the proposals contained in the Summary Programme of Work and Budget 1976–77 with a view to determining whether the absorptive capacity of the Organization was adequate to handle these additional programme activities, giving particular attention to proposals for very steep increases in individual items (para 25).

Recommended that the Director-General and the Programme and Finance Committees examine the question of duplication, particularly in information-gathering activities, such as agricultural adjustment, PSWAD, Global Information and Early Warning System, SOFA, World Food Security (para 26).

Recommended that the relationship between programmes which together were long-term undertakings should be clarified in the programme of work (para 26).

Endorsed the statement of the Director-General that he would incorporate the results of the process of decentralization in the 1976–77 Programme of Work and Budget (para 30).

Requested that, while examining additions to the budget at regions, the Director-General and the Programme and Finance Committees should pay special attention to the need for reducing related expenditures at Headquarters (para 31).

Endorsed the view that Priorities in the Programme of Work and Budget should take into consideration the recommendations of the World Food Conference and the views of FAO's Governing Bodies, Regional Conferences, and Council Committees as to the needs of food and agricultural development, particularly in developing countries (para 32).

Requested that the Director-General adopt urgent measures for the evaluation of the Regular Programme on a selective basis (para 33).

- Working Arrangements for Global Information and Early Warning System for Food and Agriculture

Stressed that data supplied by governments and not available from other sources should be treated confidentially and compiled in such a way that its release would not result in national or international action detrimental either to the common interest or to the country concerned (para 36).

Requested the Director-General to transmit the working arrangements for the System to all members of FAO and of the United Nations and to interested international organizations, drawing attention to the recommendations of the World Food Conference in this regard; to invite all concerned to participate in the System in accordance with the proposed arrangements and procedures, and communicate to him any observations they may wish to make on them by 30 June 1975; and, on the basis of the replies received, to put the System into full operation as soon as possible (para 37).

- Priority Proposals in the Outline

Requested the Director-General to submit to the Programme and Finance Committees and the next Council session, a programme of work for 1976–77 based on discussions at this session and on the resolutions of the World Food Conference (para 38).

- Units Dealing with Fertilizers

Requested that the Director-General and the Programme and Finance Committees give attention to the number of units dealing with fertilizers (para 40).

- Posts Funded under Agency Costs

Noted that the Director-General and the Programme and Finance Committees at their next sessions, in connexion with the review of the Summary Programme of Work and Budget 1976–77, would make a further detailed review of the proposals to absorb within the Regular Programme the cost of a number of posts presently funded under Agency Costs (para 41).

- Field Programmes

Suggested that in future the Conference should give attention to FAO's field programmes for the forthcoming biennium and that the governing bodies should give attention annually to future trends in field programmes (para 42).

- Budget Level

Requested that the Programme and Finance Committees carefully review at their next sessions the number and location of new posts and upgradings which might be proposed for 1976–77 (para 45).

Requested that the Finance Committee should look carefully into the extent of the estimated cost increases for 1976–77 (para 46).

- Procedures

Invited the Chairman of the FAO Council to explore the possibility of improvements in the method the Council used to examine the Programme of Work and Budget (para 47).

Effect on FAO of the Institutional Recommendations of the World Food Conference and of the Decisions taken thereon by ECOSOC and the UN General Assembly

Decided that it would consider the effects of the institutional recommendations of the World Food Conference further at its June and November 1975 Council Sessions (para 51).

Decided that it would revert to consideration of its role, functions and composition after the First Session of the World Food Council (para 52).

- World Food Council

Agreed that it was important that duplication between the activities of the Conference, the Council and its subsidiary bodies, and those of the World Food Council should be avoided and that the work of FAO and the World Food Council should be complementary (para 54).

Considered that the Conference should delegate to the Council authority to refer to the World Food Council policy matters which required a coordinated approach by agencies of the United Nations system (para 55).

Endorsed the suggestion that the Chairman of the FAO Council be invited to participate as an observer at sessions of the World Food Council and that the President of the World Food Council be invited to participate as an observer at sessions of the FAO Council (para 56).

Decided to make available to the First Session of the World Food Council the following documents: (a) CL 65/6 (World Food Situation - February 1975) and the Council's comments thereon, and, after consideration by the June 1975 Council Session, (b) the report of the Ad Hoc Consultation on Pesticides (7–11 April 1975), (c) the report of the Ad Hoc Consultation on World Food Security (19–23 May 1975) and (d) the report of the Second Session of the Commission on Fertilizers (3–7 June 1975) (para 58).

Considered that as a general principle Reports of FAO bodies should be transmitted to World Food Council through the Conference, or through the Council acting upon authority from the Conference, first submitting reports of subsidiary bodies of the Council to the Council (para 59).

Agreed that the Director-General should make a recommendation on the rank of the Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Council to the Finance Committee, taking into account the views of ACABQ. A decision on the rank of the Deputy Executive Director would be taken by the next Council Session, and the effective date of its implementation would be the same as that effective date of appointment of the Executive Director (para 61).

Approved the use of the total authorized expenditure for the Secretariat of the World Food Council for 1975, as proposed in Appendix C to CL 65/5, subject to the decision on the rank of the Deputy Executive Director (para 62).

- Committee on World Food Security

Considered that it would be appropriate to examine at its Sixty-Sixth Session the proposed functions and method of work of the Committee on World Food Security in the light of the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Consultation on World Food Security (para 63).

Consultative Group on Food Production and Investment

Agreed that the organization should carry its share of one third of the costs of the Joint Secretariat of the three sponsoring agencies of the Group (para 67).

Felt that the total knowledge and expertise of FAO should be brought to bear on CGFPI activities, not only through its staff work but also in drawing upon the views of FAO's various technical and policy making bodies (para 69).

Felt it should keep the work of the Group under regular review (para 70).

Requested the Director-General to convey to the President of the World Bank and the Administrator of the UNDP the views of the representatives of the developing countries who felt that the month of May 1975 was too early for convening the Group's first session (para 75).

The postponement of the First Session of the Group would enable the next Council session to indicate the representation of the developing countries to the Group (para 77).

Agreed that the Director-General should convey to the other sponsoring agencies and to the Chairman of the Group the views of the developing countries, and requested him to transmit the verbatim records of its discussion on this item to the Chairman of the Group for the attention of the members of the Group (para 78).

Draft Strategy on International Agricultural Adjustment

Requested the Director-General to convene an Ad Hoc working party in Rome from 26 to 30 May 1975 to consider the Director-General's draft text on the proposed Strategy for International Agricultural Adjustment (para 80).

Application for Membership: Grenada

Authorized the Director-General to invite Grenada to participate in an observer capacity at appropriate Council meetings, as well as at regional and technical meetings of interest to it, pending a decision by the Conference on its application (para 82).

Date and Place of the Sixty-Sixth Session of the Council

Decided that its Sixty-Sixth Session should be convened in Rome from 9 to 20 June 1975 (para 83).