UN General Assembly
1948

The Economic and Social Council, which was the United Nations machinery for economic and social co-operation, should be more fully used, and more creative projects should be entrusted to it. If significant schemes of international co-operation were always carried on outside the United Nations, the United Nations machinery could never be tested and strengthened. It was right that the wonderful work of UNRRA in respect of children, relief and refugees should be taken over, but if the usefulness of the Council were restricted to such privative activity only, it would sooner or later doom itself to complete sterility. Bold, positive projects of international economic and social co-operation under the United Nations were needed with the assistance of the specialized agencies concerned. Unless such responsible projects were entrusted to the Council, the promotion of solutions of international economic and social problems by the United Nations, as envisaged in Article 55, would always remain a pleasant dream.