on inte rnational economic co-operatlon for developrEnt on a lrr1de range of inter-related lssues at the UnltedNations. Thls had colnaided wlth t.}'" Declaratr.on of thelhird DeveloprEnt Decade by the unlted Natlons General Assembly at lts ttrlrty-fiful sesslon in t9go.A/40/726 Eng1 i sh Page 45 From lts twen'trjr-ni'nth sesslon in 19?4 the General Assernbly has increasingly been coacerned wi'JI charmell-slng economic assj.stance to indlvldual countries eiuler by way of disaster relj-ef or to meet exceptional econonlc situatlons. AE a mati-er of fact even d'uring itg early years the General Assembly had dealt '"rittt such sltuations but they had been fevrer ln nunbe r as compared to the present. At the thirw-nlnctr session in 1984 ttre number of' suclr cases were as many as twenEY-six antJ a speci.al conf,erence "tag organised for elne rge ncL assistance to certain countrles ln Africa during 1985. The r€soluti)ns adopted by the General Asseribly 1n tlrese cases have caUed upon the world conrrrrnlty to come to the aid of the vletims of f a:nir-re or natural dlsaster. fn additlon to matters of economic progress and development, tie Second Conmittee has al-so directed lts attention to the questLon of food, although $e sare has been sinnrltane6usly tackJ-ed by t?re food aird Agrlcrrl- turat Organizatlon, a speclallsed aqency of tbe Unlted Natiorrs. . Ttre Second ConrnitGe has olso been Progresslvely corrce rted with a nurnber of natte rE whlch' 1n sore lray . or other, have a link '.tittr the question of economic developnent. For exaftple, it has dealt vrith the questlon of populatlon ever since the .b{entY-first session in 1966. It has also dstablished a tlrnd for Population Activltles. Mor€ recently, all matters relating to envlrom€nt, hunan settlernent, and desertj-fication have been allocated to the Second conrnlttee and the reports