The last developed countries: a substantial new programme of action for the 1980s
Who Chronicle 35(6): 223-226
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-9694 PMID: 7344297 Document Number: 384262
The "Substantial New Programme of Action for the 1980's" was adopted at the Paris United Nations Conference of the Least Developed Countries" to help improve the economies of these countries towards self-sustained development and to enable the LDCs to provide at least internationally accepted minimum standards of nutrition, health, transport and communication, housing, education, and job opportunities to all their peoples, particularly the urban and rural poor. During the conference, donor countries pledged to increase their development assistance so that by 1985, official development assistance to the LDCs (31 countries in all) would have doubled compared with transfers to them during the last 5 years. Such increased assistance is a humanitarian obligation to the "poorest of the poor" or the "Third World's Third World." Most LDCs have wasteful patterns of high birth rates and high mortality. Because of inadequate sanitation, unsafe water supply, and widespread malnutrition, acute diarrheal diseases are the 1st or 2nd leading cause of death and the primary cause of morbidity in children under 5. The Programme for the 1980s will give particular emphasis on improving nutrition and health in the LDCs, including the designing of food security programs, particularly in the light of the fact that their per capita food intake and health services are the lowest in the world. Population policies will be an integral part of overall development policies, with the LDCs taking appropriate measures for family planning and population control. Emphasis will be given to biomedical and social science research for the development of better and safer contraceptive methods, as well as to motivational activities, population education, and information and efficient delivery services.