UN General Assembly
1977

29. International co-operation cannot and must not be an instrument to be resorted to for momentary convenience nor must it serve as the last resort for help in circumstances of acute crisis. It must be a continuous, constructive and creative effort An objective evaluation of the field of international economic relations demonstrates that such an effort is truly indispensable. 32. Initiatives and projects succeed one another without, as we should wish, any change occurring in the harsh realities facing the developing countries. Almost 20 years after the launching of the First United Nations Development Decade, almost 15 years after the convening of the first session of UNCTAD, and more than a generation after the creation of the Economic and Social Council where the central problems of world economic relations have been discussed, the developing countries still face severe obstacles and encounter structures and machinery which no longer respond to the claims of the present world.