Food and Agricultural Development

A/RES/49/103View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 88b Food and agricultural development, published in 1995.

What other versions does this mandate have?

2 versions · 1993–1995

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
1995	A/RES/49/103	Food and agricultural development	1,357	—
1993	A/RES/47/149	Food and agricultural development	—	–

What’s in this document?

18 operative paragraphs

Takes note with interest of the report of the Secretary-General on food production, including agro-industrial products, international markets for agricultural and tropical products and global food security;⁹

⁹A/49/438.

Notes with concern that, in the face of the enormous challenges in the area of agricultural development and food security, the overall resource allocation for the development of food and agriculture in developing countries has continued to decline;

Urges the international community to place food and agricultural development high on the development agenda and to mobilize resources at the national, bilateral and multilateral levels in support of sustainable productive agriculture and food security in developing countries;

Affirms that increasing food production and improving access to food by low-income people in developing countries will contribute to the alleviation of poverty and the elimination of malnutrition and help to raise their standard of living;

Notes that the agreements reached in the context of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations¹⁰ have established a basis for initiating a process of reform of trade in agriculture and will have an important impact on the development of food production, agro-industrial products and international markets for agricultural and tropical products and on global food security;

¹⁰See Legal Instruments Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, done at Marrakesh on 15 April 1994 (GATT secretariat publication, Sales No. GATT/1994-7), vol. 1.

Urges all countries, particularly developed countries, to strengthen their efforts to create a more favourable international economic environment, in particular a more open agricultural trading system which will stimulate food production and productivity in developing countries, and in this context stresses the importance of the urgent and full implementation of the agreements contained in the Final Act of the Uruguay Round;

Notes with satisfaction the individual and collaborative efforts of the food and agricultural bodies based in Rome, namely, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme, calls upon these organizations to strengthen their collaboration in the area of food and agriculture, including with the United Nations Development Programme, and welcomes the programmes of these organizations directed to food production for food security in low-income food-deficit countries, including the initiation of two special programmes of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations;

Attaches special importance to the assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to developing countries on policy transformation and technical assistance in the light of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round and in the context of the Uruguay Round decision on measures concerning the possible negative effects of the reform programme on least developed and net food-importing developing countries;

Urges the international community to give special attention to the promotion and revitalization of economic growth and sustainable development in developing countries through, inter alia, a more diversified food and agricultural sector, focusing in particular on agro-industrial activities in developing countries;

Invites the organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and the multilateral financial institutions working in the field of food and agriculture to support developing country efforts in the development of small and medium-sized agro-industries and cooperatives and in the improvement of processing, transportation, distribution and marketing modalities of their food and other agricultural products;

Welcomes the successful conclusion of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa¹¹ and hopes that the Convention will attract the support of the international community towards solving the important problem confronting, in particular, Africa in that area, and in that regard supports the contribution made by, inter alia, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Fund for Agricultural Development to deal with the problem of land degradation in Africa and invites those organizations to consider extending their programmes to other affected regions;

¹¹A/49/84/Add.2, annex, appendix II.

Urges relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, the multilateral financial institutions and non-governmental organizations to strengthen their efforts towards a comprehensive assessment of freshwater resources, with the aim of identifying the availability of such resources, making projections of future needs and identifying problems to be considered by the General Assembly at its special session in 1997;

Requests the organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, and the multilateral financial institutions, to assist interested developing countries in the formulation and implementation of national water policies and strategies;

Invites Governments, international organizations and, as appropriate, scientific/technical organizations to promote sustainable water use for food production and rural development by improving the efficiency of current water use for irrigation in developing countries, particularly at the village level;

Requests the relevant regional and international organizations to assist the cooperative efforts of developing countries in the area of conservation, sustainable use and integrated management of water, and stresses the need for full implementation of the decisions of the Commission on Sustainable Development, particularly in the area of fresh water;

Welcomes the pledges that have been made by Member States to the Fourth Replenishment of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and in that context invites countries that have not yet done so to consider their pledges as soon as possible, taking into account the decisions taken by the Fund's Special Committee on Resource Requirements and Related Governance Issues;

Requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-first session a report on the implementation of the present resolution, focusing in particular on the use of freshwater resources, as well as on the effects of the results of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations on food production, including agro-industrial products and global food security in developing countries;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-first session the sub-item entitled "Food and agricultural development" under the item entitled "Sustainable development and international economic cooperation".

Food and Agricultural Development

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