UN General Assembly
1948

Co-ordination of the activities and work programmes of thirteen inter-governmental organizations was gradually becoming an invaluable reality. Together with the three newest of the organizations just mentioned, the group of specialized agencies in official relationship with the United Nations through the Economic and Social Council now included: the International Labour Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund, the World Health Organization, the Universal Postal Union, the International Telecommunications Union, and the recently completed International Refugee Organization. In still another relationship the Council had, in accordance with the Charter, opened the way for the United Nations to become something other than exclusively an assembly of Governments: sixty-nine qualified non-governmental organizations had been accorded consultative status. Through that novel relationship the United Nations had the benefit of communication with millions of human beings through their own voluntarily chosen associations.