This is the old United Nations University website. Visit the new site at http://unu.edu
From the CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY
ARTICLE I
Purposes and structure
1. The United Nations University shall be an international community of scholars, engaged in research, postgraduate training and dissemination of knowledge in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. In achieving its stated objectives, it shall function under the joint sponsorship of the United Nations and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization thereinafter referred to as UNESCO, through a central programming and co-ordinating body and a network of research and post-graduate training centres and programmes located in the developed and developing countries.
2, The University shall devote its work to research into the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations and its agencies, with due attention to the social sciences and the humanities as well as natural sciences, pure and applied.
3. The research programmes of the institutions of the University shall include, among other subjects, coexistence between peoples having different cultures, languages and social systems; peaceful relations between States and the maintenance of peace and security; human rights; economic and social change and development; the environment and the proper use of resources; basic scientific research and the application of the results of science and technology in the interests of development; and universal human values related to the improvement of the quality of life.
4. The University shall disseminate the knowledge gained in its activities to the United Nations and its agencies, to scholars and to the public, in order to increase dynamic interaction in the world-wide community of learning and research.
5. The university and all those who work in it shall act in accordance with the spirit of the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the Constitution of UNESCO and with the fundamental principles of contemporary international law.
6. The University shall have as a central objective of its research and training centres and programmes the continuing growth of vigorous academic and scientific communities everywhere and particularly in the developing countries, devoted to their vital needs in the fields of learning and research within the framework of the aims assigned to those centres and programmes in the present Charter. It shall endeavour to alleviate the intellectual isolation of persons in such communities in the developing countries which might otherwise become a reason for their moving to developed countries.
7. In its postgraduate training the University shall assist scholars, especially young scholars, to participate in research in order to increase their capability to contribute to the extension, application and diffusion of knowledge. The University may also undertake the training of persons who will serve in international or national technical assistance programmes, particularly in regard to an interdisciplinary approach to the problems with which they will be called upon to deal.
ARTICLE II
Academic freedom and autonomy
1. The University shall enjoy autonomy within the framework of the United Nations. It shall also enjoy the academic freedom required for the achievement of its objectives, with particular reference to the choice of subjects and methods of research and training, the selection of persons and institutions to share in its tasks, and freedom of expression. The University shall decide freely on the use of the financial resources allocated for the execution of its functions ....
WHTR-2/UNUP-128
This book was published within the framework and as part of the Subprogramme on Food and Nutrition Requirements and Their Fulfillment through Local Diets of the United Nations University's World Hunger Programme. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the United Nations University,
The United Nations University Toho Seimei Building, 15 - 1 Shibuya 2-chome, Shibuva-ku, Tokyo 150, Japan Tel: (03) 499-2811 Telex: J25442 Cable: UNATUNIV TOKYO
Printed in Japan
Vernon Allen Ministry of Industry and Commerce Ocean Boulevard Kingston 1, Jamaica
Hugo Amigo UN University Fellow Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama Guatemala City, Guatemala, C.A.
J. M. Bengoa CONICIT Apartado 70617 Caracas, Venezuela
Alberto Carvalho da Silva The Ford Foundation Praia do Flamengo 100 12° Andar, Rio de Janeiro 20 000, R.J., Brazil Victor Hugo Cespedes Departamento de Economia Universidad de Costa Rica San Pedro, Costa Rica
Adolfo Chavez Instituto Nacional de la Nutrición Mexico City 22, D.F., Mexico
Adolfo Figueroa Departamento de Economia Universidad Catolica Lima, Peru
Maximo Jeria (now with Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, D.C.) 3 Pooks Hill Road 101 Bethesda, Maryland 20014, USA
Eduardo Kertesz IPLAN/IPEA Edificio BNDE, 10° Andar Brasilia, D.F., Brazil David
Lehmann 50 Belvoir Road Cambridge, England
Kenneth Leslie Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute Jamaica Centre P.O. Box 140 Kingston, Jamaica
Flavio Machicado Calle Federico Geraldino 75 Ensanche Piaitini Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Curtis McIntosh Trinidad Centre University of the West Indies St. Augustine, Trinidad, W. l.
Mario Montanari Asesoria Presidente de la Republica Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico Shlomo Reutlinger World Bank 1818 H. Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433, USA
Oscar Ruiz Instituto de Nutrición y Technologaa de Alimentos de la Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile
A. Sanchez Marroquin Coordinador, Area de Alimentos Centro de Estudios Economicos y Sociales del Tercer Mundo (CEESTEM) Crnl. Porfirio Diaz 50 Mexico 20, D.F., Mexico
Detlef Schwefel Gottinger Strasse 23 500 Köln 40 Federal Republic of Germany
Giorgio Solimano (Chairman of the Workshop) Institute of Human Nutrition Columbia University 701 West 168th Street New York, New York 10032, USA
Lance Taylor International Nutrition Program Massachusetts Institute of Technology 20-A-224 18 Vassar Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
Bo Wickstrom University of Gothenburg Vasagatan 3 411 -24 Gothenburg, Sweden
Joao Yunes Ministerio de Saude Brasilia, D.F., Brazil
Food and Nutrition Policy Objectives in National Planning is one of the priority sub programmes of the United Nations University World Hunger Programme, closely associated with two other UN University Programmes-Human and Social Development, and Natural Resources. Equally, the Centre for Economic and Social Studies of the Third World (CEESTEM) in Mexico City has maintained an active interest in food and nutrition issues for several years. In the light of their mutual interests, the two joined forces to sponsor this Workshop.
In this increasingly interdependent world, what one country does with respect to trade, tariffs, and import export regulations affects, for good or ill, other countries. What individual governments do in their own policy-making for national development also affects their populations positively or negatively. Some segments may prosper while others, usually the rural poor, are left out or trapped in greater poverty. Given the magnitude of the world hunger problem, with its threat to human well-being on a global scale, this Workshop, the first to be held under the aegis of the Food and Nutrition Policy Sub-programme, was convened to address one approach toward alleviation of world hunger, the impact of food price policy on nutrition. To be sure, this is only one approach among many that must be explored, but it is essential that governments recognize that food price policies have a profound effect on who eats and who barely survives.
The participants in the Workshop, realizing that too many people cannot afford to purchase adequate diets-and these are often the landless who are left out of the food production system-came together to share experiences from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean region and in Mexico and to analyze how food price policies affect the nutritional status of the populations in these countries. The goal of disseminating the proceedings of this Workshop is to point out areas that need further research and to suggest needed changes and methods for carrying them out that can be adopted by governments in the Third World to improve the nutrition and health of large segments of their populations-a sine qua non for national development. Certainly the industrialized nations have a share in this responsibility and must become more aware of how their international trade policies impact on citizens in developing countries.
The Workshop was held at CEESTEM Headquarters in Mexico City, 22 - 25 March 1978, where excellent logistical support provided by the CEESTEM staff was most helpful in running a smooth, productive conference. CEESTEM will publish these proceedings in Spanish in the near future. The Spanish version may be obtained from Centro de Estudios Económicos y Sociales del Tercer Mundo (CEESTEM), Crnl. Porfirio Diaz 50, Mexico 20, D.F.
Giorgio Solimano
(Conference Chairman)
and Lance Taylor, Editors