UN General Assembly
1980

86. What is the present level of economic development in the third world? It is characterized by malnutrition, high unemployment, absence of safe water supplies, poor housing, high levels of illiteracy, short life expectancy: in short, an absence of most of the basic needs for survival. Such tangible evidence of suffering constitutes cold economic indicators which tell their own story. 87. Protectionist measures in developed countries have increased; the terms of trade of developing countries in general have deteriorated; official development assistance by developed countries as a percentage of GNP has declined; the economies of third world countries have become characterized by slow growth rates, high inflation, vast current account deficits and external debts that have reached alarming proportions. Yet the just call by the developing countries for a fundamental change in the existing world economic order—a prerequisite for progress in the field of international economic co-operation—has elicited increasingly negative responses from the developed nations.