The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation

2. The Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance

TWO The Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance n The Beginning: Aspirations and Guiding Principles n The Creation of the EPTA: Background, Objectives, Main Principles, and Funding n Implementation: Evolving Patterns n Some Concluding Observations In the UN Charter, the founding governments committed themselves to promoting “higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development” and “solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems” (Chapter IX, Article 55).Article56reiteratedthiscommitment:“Allmemberspledgethemselves to take joint and separate action in co-operation with the Organization for the achievement of the purposes set forth in Article 55.” Toward the end of 1946, the UN General Assembly recognized the responsibility of the United Nations to assist some member states by providing expert advice “in the various fields of economic, social and cultural development.” The justification was clear: development was important for world peace and prosperity.1 Within the UN system, the central body concerned with such matters was ECOSOC, where discussion about the developmental needs of new and emerging states took place during the early years. The United Nations became the major forum for promoting the idea of development assistance. As might be expected, representatives of governments in the South, whose numbers were increasing, played an active role in getting this idea on the agenda. The UN Secretariat also played an active role, as did other UN bodies. The UN arena globalized the issue in a way that could not have been achieved in any other forum. Providing assistance in order to promote development in “underdeveloped countries” was made a normative issue in the sense that states were expected to honor their (ideal) commitments as members of the world organization. 44 n The Emergence of International Development Assistance This is not to imply that idealism ruled supreme: the United Nations was also a major arena for power politics and the pursuit of foreign policy interests. In the early postwar period, increasing tensions between the former allies divided Europe. For the emerging superpowers that aspired to global hegemony, the growing number of newly independent states also became important. In this context, aid became an instrument for fortifying old relations, establishing new loyalties, containing the influence of rivals, and ensuring the superpowers’ economic and strategic interests and ideological concerns. The main response to the socioeconomic expectations embedded in the UN Charter came from the United States, which was the richest country in the world. Unlike its European allies, its infrastructure and economy had not been damaged in the war. By contrast, most governments in war-torn Europe were preoccupied with rebuilding and reconstructing their economies. In these efforts, they received generous support from the U.S. government in the form of financial aid and food aid through what became known as the Marshall Plan. By the late 1940s, however, the concept of development assistance had begun to attract greater attention, particularly within the UN system . Efforts concentrated on establishing the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance and a Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development (see chapter 3). Although the United Nations played a crucial role in bringing onto the international agenda the need for assistance to promote economic development in less-developed countries and regions, the United States played a leading role in terms of both ideas and praxis. President Harry S. Truman’s inaugural address for his second term of office, which broadcasted on radio and television on 20 January 1949, was perhaps the most important event in this regard. Truman’s speech was important for setting priorities and furthering progress within the United Nations, and it decisively launched a large bilateral program of technical assistance by a U.S. administration that had a financial framework that far exceeded that of UN programs. It also inspired allied governments to develop their own bilateral development assistance programs. Although relations with the countries of the South were not high on the agenda of the industrial countries of the North during the years immediately after World War II, they began to attract increased attention due to the East-West rivalry and the decolonization process that was under way. In the West, as in the East, attention focused on the growing tensions between the emerging blocs. Security concerns became the top The Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance n 45 priority in the 1940s, increasingly burdening the budgets of the superpowers and making it even harder to release resources for development in the...