UNEP and the Bureau of the Governing Council (UNEP/GC.7/II).

The Executive Director of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), introducing the item, said that the prime purpose of the joint meeting, held in March 1979, had been to ensure that there was no over- lapping or duplication of activities carried out by the two organizations. The meeting had reached full agreement on the complementarity of the two programmes and on the areas where joint projects would be appropriate.

He stated that the Executive Director of UNEP had addressed the second session of the Commission on Human Settlements on those issues which he felt crucially affected the environmental aspects of human settlem- ents: pressures of population growth and urban expansion, inadequacy of analytical tools for dealing with human settlements problems, and the growing waste and pollution problems in human settlements. UNCHS gave full weight to those concerns and believed it could collaborate fully with UNEP in dealing with them.

The 1980-1981 work programme of UNCHS, approved by the Commission at its second session, reflected the importance of some broad human settle- ments and environmental issues in the current context of global population growth, socio-economic development and natural resources constraints. It was structured around the six areas of con- cern identified by the Habitat Confer- ence for priority action and subse- quently endorsed by the General Assembly: (a) settlement policies and strategies; (b) settlement planning; in- cluding area development for tourism; (c) shelter, infrastructure and services; (d) land; (e) institutions and manage- ment; (f) public participation. The Commission had assigned top priority to shelter, infrastructure and services, followed by settlement planning and institutional and management require- ments, and had asked UNCHS to give emphasis to technical co-operation activities, supported by research, training and dissemination of Infor- mation.

As an executing agency for human settlements projects, UNCHS was already implementing 75 projects in about 40 different countries, and an equal number of small-scale projects primarily aimed at providing training assistance or individual expert assistance, with financ- ing mainly from the United Nations

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Development Programme (UNDP), to- gether with some trust fund contribu- tions from donor Governments.

Human settlements goals and pro- . grammes were inextricably linked to national goals and programmes for economic development, social improve- ment and resource utilization and con- servation. The failure to optimize re- source distribution had resulted in gross inequities in living standards in many developing countries, and in shortfalls which retarded overall economic growth, and, hence, social improvement. The most glaring manifestations of that failure were the many problems which plagued the human settlements of developing countries.

So far, however, few developing countries had taken the comprehensive long-term approach needed for an orderly transition to a technologically advanced society. The UNCHS had an important role to play in devising suitable stra- tegies and approaches for bringing about an environmentally sound transi- tion based on each country's living patterns, cultural values, resources and skills. The new awareness of the con- straints on development resources had helped generate'support for the Integra- tion of environmental and human settle- ments requirements into the develop- ment process. Once the human environ- ment, both ecological and cultural, had been damaged, it was difficult, perhaps impossible, to reverse the pro-

cess. A resource and energy conserv- ing approach to the design, construction and management of human settlements was therefore needed, linked with public participation both in development and in the related decision-making process. With grassroots participation in plan- ning, environmental considerations would certainly begin to receive the attention they deserved.

Many delegation welcomed the co-operation between UNEP and UNCHS, which they felt was off to a good start, while other delegations suggested a fur- ther delineation of responsibilities be- tween the two organizations. The first joint meeting of the Bureaux and the Executive Directors had produced very satisfactory results, in that an understand- ing had been reached on working rela- tionships between the two organizations, based on mutual co-operation and collab- oration rather than rigid demarcation lines between them.

While most delegations welcomed the assumption by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHE) of overall responsibility for the subject area, they endorsed UNEP's continued responsibility for the environmental as- pects of human settlements. However, it was generally felt that the revised ob- jectives and strategies reflected correctly the reorientation of the UNEP programme in that field in accordance with General Assembly resolution 32/162 of 19 December 1977. []

World's Non-Renewable Resources T h e UN " C o m m o n F u n d "

One of the actual items in the international environmental discussion is certainly the problem of the "worlds non renewable resources". Future negotiations in this field may well be influenced by the outcome of a series of international conferences on the establishment of a fund to facilitate the financing of international com- modity agreements. It is quite obvious that a great number of commodities is of major importance to the foreign exchange earnings of Developing Coun- tries. In the past, Developing Countries have complained about the extremely high fluctuations of these export earnings, due to the uneven develop- ment of the prices on the world market. The discussion of these problems in the relevant international fora has led

to the establishment of the "integrated Commodity Programme", the main purpose of which is to stabilize the market prices for 18 different com- modities of special interest to Developing Countries. The outstanding element of the Integrated Commodity Programme is the creation of price-regulating bufferstocks.

Developing and Developed Countries have agree d to set up a Common Fund which would contribute to the financ- ing of the different bufferstocks through its so-called "first window". Where stocking is not appropriate or insuffi- cient the Fund would serve as a financial source for other measures through its second window.

The negotiations have let to a frame- work for a Common Fund (see Selected Documents at page 155). []

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