‘Quibbling in the Face of Crisis’
International Fund for Agricultural Development projects are based on the belief that poor people will not be helped if they do not participate in planning and implementing development efforts intended to help them. One manifestation of the effectiveness of their projects shows that $200 enables small landholders to produce 1 ton of food each year for the rest of their lifetimes, while it costs $400 to send 1 ton of food for famine relief.
Previously 12 OPEC nations contributed 42% and 20 Western nations 58% of the funding. A 50% fall in OPEC nations’ export since 1980 has led to an effort by them to adjust the ratio to 40/60--all nations consenting with the exception of our own.
America, is there a need for us, right now, to rally round the IFAD? Do we want to risk the loss of this most powerfully effective means of implementing Third World stability?
GLORIA STACHURA
Thousand Oaks
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