under resolution 10/89, such as the preparation of a mediumterm plan, an improved review of the field program and a progress report on women in development activities. The United States worked to identify priority activities for FAO consistent with its comparative advantage, and stressed the need for collaboration between the FAO and other international institutions. Along with several other developed countries, the United States stressed that the FAO should accord greater priority to implementation of its regular rather than field programs during this period of budgetary constraints. The Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters held its 56th and 57th sessions on April 15-17 and October 21-23, respectively. The issue of EC membership in the FAO dominated discussions at these meetings. No agreement was reached on the amendments to the FAO Basic Text, but the United States clarified some provisions regarding the attributes and membership rights of regional economic integration organizations. The 58th session of the Committee on Commodity Problems, which met on July 15-19, dealt with trade issues affecting agricultural commodities. The United States joined developing countries in sharply criticizing the EC for its rebalancing proposal in the Uruguay Round. Other Meetings The FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries of the Netherlands convened a Conference on Agriculture and the Environment in 'S-Hertogenbosh, The Netherlands, on April 15-19. The Conference, attended by experts from over 120 countries, adopted the Den Bosch Declaration of Principles and Agenda for Action. The declaration calls for the implementation of sustainable agriculture and rural development. The agenda is a summary of the efforts needed in the agriculture sector at international, regional, national and local levels to achieve the goals of the declaration. At the 19th session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission on July 1-10, the Commission, with strong EC support, delayed final approval of Maximum Residue Limits for certain animal hormone drugs, the first time that a food safety decision did not conform to the recommendations of Codex scientific and technical committees. World Food Program The World Food Program (WFP), third largest disburser of development assistance in the UN system, is under the joint sponsorship of the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization, and reports to both. Since its inception in 1963, WFP has provided foodstuffs for use in approved development projects throughout the world. To an increasing extent in recent years, the WFP has assumed responsibility for support and management of humanitarian feeding activities. The latter have principally included longerterm refugee care and emergency assistance, necessitated by natural disasters and civil strife. The humanitarian agenda of WFP is the equal of its developmental projects in terms of expenditure. Moreover, the necessarily crisis-related nature of these humanitarian activities places steadily growing demands upon the personnel, time and other resources of WFP. A significant development during 1991, therefore, was the conclusion of an agreement between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and WFP whereby the latter gradually assumes full responsibility for provision of food to refugees on behalf of UNHCR programs. These often involve large numbers of refugees, such as Afghans in Pakistan, and are in addition to the WFP's own agenda of aid to refugees over extended periods, called "protracted refugee operations." During 1991, WFP emergency operations included such critical concerns as prepositioning food in the Gulf region after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to deal with anticipated refugee outflows, and later providing assistance to the Kurdish population and other vulnerable groups following the UN military campaign against Iraq. This increased emphasis on emergency feeding programs has not come at the expense of WFP's more customary underwriting of development programs. The latter not only were maintained, in considerable number, but tended to become adapted to more recent concerns of the international community. Thus, an increasing number of projects WFP aided with food were related to environmental objectives, such as combining land use management with flood control measures and reforestation. Governance During 1991 certain outstanding questions about reorganizing WFP to meet its burgeoning agenda, ensuring its strict accountability, and empowering donor states and developing states to exercise full oversight of WFP operations were resolved with the strong support of the United States. Recommendations formulated earlier by the Subcommittee on Governance, and previously approved in turn by the Committee on Food Aid Pol icies and Programs (CFA) of the WFP, the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and General Assembly of the United Nations, resulted in revision of basic regulations governing the WFP. Some of the most important changes were: • The WFP obtained working autonomy and the legal status enabling it to carry out its mission independently; • The Executive Director of the WFP was granted authority to appoint all but the two most senior subordinates, to enter into contracts, and to certify WFP accounts, with concomitant sole responsibility in each of these matters; • The Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programs (CFA) was specifically named the governing body of the WFP; and • To permit wider representation of interested states on the CFA, the latter was enlarged from 30 to 42 members-27 to come from developing countries and 15 from industrialized nations. The CFA will hold its first regular meeting in its enlarged format at its May 1992 plenary session. The CFA members are partly named by ECOSOC and partly by the FAO Council. On December 13 Catherine Bertini, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Food and Consumer Services, was designated the next Executive Director of the WFP. She will take office April 5, 1992, for a 5-year term to succeed James Ingram (Australia). She will be the first American and first woman to head the WFP. Funding WFP operates on a biennial budget. For the 14th biennium, covering calendar years 1991-1992, the budgetary target set for the regular program was $1.5 billion, two-thirds to be contributed in commodities and one-third in cash, all derived from governments through voluntary pledges, since WFP does not make assessments nor has a formal "membership" per se. The United States pledged $275 million in commodities and transport costs towards the target for the Regular Program. Part of this pledge ($200 million) was to come through PL 480 Title II funding, the rest ($75 million) from Section 416 of the Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended. The U.S. pledge would constitute about 18 percent of the WFP biennial target for 1991-1992. In addition, the United States pledged $125 million for protracted refugee operations and has contributed $146 million for the International Emergency Food Reserve and other emergency operations. The United States also pledged $1 million to cover expenses associated with the administrative budget of WFP. Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programs The Committee (CFA) held two plenary sessions during 1991. At its 31st regular session, May 20-25, the CFA discussed the future role of food aid, the appropriate part for WFP therein, and means of increasing integration of multilateral food aid into the broad development agendas of developing nations. The CFA also reached agreement on undertaking intensive consultations between states and the WFP to find ways to make the International Emergency Food Reserve more readily responsive in emergency situations. In addition, the CFA reviewed the situation arising from the growth in importance of refugee and emergency operations in the WFP workload, together with new arrangements by which WFP assumes fuller responsibilities for delivery of food aid to refugees. The CFA adopted by consensus a $1.5 billion budgetary target for the 1993-1994 biennium, the same figure as for 1991-1992. The 32nd regular session of the CFA took place December 3-6 and December 13. The Committee approved new financial regulations for the WFP in keeping with the governance changes approved earlier. The WFP austere cash situation, arising from disparity between substantial commodity holdings and inadequate money available to meet charges of program administration at headquarters and in the field, occasioned considerable discussion. The CFA decided to take certain interim measures, for example, requiring that at least one-third of contributions be in the form of cash, and to continue discussions at future sessions of measures to improve the cash situation. Agreement was reached to set up an immediate response account of the International Emergency Food Reserve, with a target value of $30 million, to provide for rapid action in the earliest stages of emergency situations requiring food aid. The Committee agreed further to undertake a comprehensive policy review over a 3year period, to ensure region-by-region scrutiny of the efficacy and appropriateness of food aid policies. Subcommittee on Projects The Subcommittee on Projects (SCP), of which the United States is a member, met twice during 1991 to review proposals for development and protracted refugee operations. The 6th SCP session met May 13-17. It gave favorable consideration to 15 regular development projects totaling $160 million and 5 protracted refugee projects totaling $141.6 million, for a total of $301.6 million. At its 7th session on December 9-13, the SCP gave favorable consideration to 19 regular development projects costing a total of $250 million and 6 protracted refugee projects for a total of $235.4 million. The SCP also favorably considered a special Afghan refugees project to cost $142.1 million. The total of projects given favorable consideration amounted to $627.5 million. A special working group of the CFA began in 1991 a series of meetings to discuss the future of the SCP, the latter having been established on a temporary basis in 1987 with U.S. support. This working group, which includes the United States, will submit its recommendations to the CFA in 1992. Its objective is the improvement of the review process on all categories of proposed projects in the WFP portfolio. At the respective CFA sessions following the Subcommittee meetings the projects recommended by the SCP were approved by consensus. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) The IAEA was created effective in 1957, largely at U.S. initiative, in response to growing concerns that nuclear materials or technology devoted to peaceful applications could potentially be diverted to military purposes. Under its Statute, the IAEA is entrusted with the dual responsibility to "accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world," and "ensure, so far as it is able, that assistance provided by it, or at its request or under its supervision or control, is not used in such a way as to further any military purpose." In this regard, the IAEA fulfills a unique role in support of critical U.S.-as well as global-security interests. The IAEA Secretariat, responsible for day-to-day implementation of the Agency's major programs, has headquarters in Vienna, Austria. The Agency's staff is currently headed by Director General Hans Blix (Sweden), who was reappointed in 1989 to a third 4-year term of office. The IAEA General Conference, which convened its annual weeklong session in September, provides oversight of the Agency's work. Representatives on the 35-member Board of Governors offer overall direction and guidance with respect to the |