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8. Organization and Methods of Work 105. The Director-General will need the assistance of such officials as a treasurer, a legal adviser, and a director of personnel. The heads of divisions or departments, or whatever may be the title of the main administrative units, might constitute an administrative board responsible to the DirectorGeneral, or their collective relationship might be less rigidly defined.. The Director-General would rely on the standing or special committees appointed by the Conference to advise on various aspects of the work. 106. The number or precise nature of the divisions required to handle the work cannot be determined at present. Each principal field of work might constitute a division—for example, human nutrition ; the sciences and technology of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries ; economic and social questions ; statistics ; education ; and publications. Subdivisions might be made in a number of ways. 107. Arrangements for co-ordinating the work of the divisions, on whatever basis they may be created, will be especially important, since the problems to be dealt with in most cases demand simultaneous attack from many sides. For example, a problem of regional soil conservation, one of eradicating a deficiency disease, or one of shifting production to more-needed crops in a given area might demand the combined work and special knowledge of every division. A. unit of the Organization experienced in co-ordinating the findings of specialists in many diverse fields might present a unified set of recommendations giving due weight to the different elements of the problem. 108. This kind of approach should characterize all the work of the Organization. It should bring every necessary skill to bear so that a given problem might be solved not only adequately, but without the delays likely to result from an unco-ordinated piecemeal attack. 109. A major part of the Organization's work, as has been made clear in the earlier discussion, would be to define problems that should be attacked and to assist those most closely concerned in planning the necessary action and carrying it through successfully. In many cases the most suitable method would be to appoint a committee of experts, drawn in part from the staff of the Organization and in part from local or other especially qualified experts and administrators, to investigate, report, and recommend possible courses of action ; in some instances such a committee would be sent out on a field mission. Making use of such temporary committees would have great advantages. It would not be possible for the Organization itself to have a staff large enough to deal with all aspects of the great range of matters within its scope. The committees would provide flexible machinery and a greatly widened range of personnel to meet specific needs ; they would serve to stimulate local interest and the active participation of local authorities, who would in many cases serve on the committees. Each committee would be dissolved when its work was accomplished. [Art. Vl.] D. RELATIONS WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS 1. Other International Bodies 110. It is important that international agencies should pursue related courses, and that their activities should not conflict. The nature and degree of closeness of association required among international authorities will differ in different stages. Even when the general structure of future international organization is agreed upon and the basic relationships among authorities determined, scope must still be allowed for relationships to develop. Accordingly, the Constitution enables the Organization to enter into agreements with other public international organizations, defining the distribution of responsibilities and methods of co-operation. [Art. XII.] 111. The Constitution permits the Organization to fit into any future general framework of international authorities that may be agreed upon ; assures freedom for it to work with other international authorities, present or future ; and in particular enables it to invite representatives of other international authorities to participate, without the right to vote, in the meetings of the Conference. [Art. 111, XII, XIII.] 112. There are certain international authorities which now exist and with which the Organization should agree on provisional working relationships. Some of these are wartime agencies while the activities of others will extend into the post-war period. 113. In the first category are such agencies as the Combined Food Board and the Middle East Supply Centre. Co-operation with these is desirable because they will have acquired data which may later be turned over to the Organization and be of value to it. For example, the recent study of the comparative levels of food consumption in various countries made by the Combined Food Board should prove of great value. [Art. XII.] 114. The resolutions of the Hot Springs Conference recognize that a transition will have to be effected between the concerted arrangements of the United Nations in regard to food and other supplies during and immediately following the war, and their policies in shaping longer-term adjustments of agricultural production and levels of food consumption. 115. For these reasons it is felt that there should be the closest association between the Organization and agencies concerned primarily with the short-term problems of food and agriculture. [Art. XII.] 116. The Interim Commission intends to submit separately recommendations regarding the International Institute of Agriculture. 117. The Governments concerned will probably in due course consider the future organization and adaption of the work now being done by the League of Nations and its various committees and sections in connection with a general settlement of the structure of international authorities after the war. Working arrangements should meanwhile be established between the Organization and those agencies connected with the League which are active in related fields. 118. The resolutions of the Hot Springs Conference contemplate that the Organization should convene periodic meetings of representatives of national nutrition organizations or committees, and the proceedings would presumably be reported to the Conference. The contemplated reports by member Governments would also presumably include accounts of the work of these organizations, together with a statement of progress otherwise achieved in nutritional matters. It is further contemplated that the Organization would periodically publish a summary of member Governments' reports. By a resolution adopted in 1937 the League has practically identical responsibilities , and the Governments of the nations that are members of the League were requested to furnish corresponding reports. Joint technical committees might with advantage be set up, therefore, to arrange for the orderly assumption by the Organization of activities previously developed by such other agencies. [Art. VI, XI, XII.]
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