"The United States should take the lead in obtaining the necessary funds from bilateral and multilateral assistance agencies for this purpose," the report said.

In some situations, the military or other public and private emergency assistance agencies are called on to assist in transporting food quickly to where it is needed.

Since 2003 the government has registered 5,000 private organizations, including charities, human rights groups, medical assistance agencies and literacy projects.

They visit "transitional assistance" agencies, where they sign "personal responsibility agreements" and are told to get jobs, or else.

There have been numerous attempts by donors, governments and technical assistance agencies over the years to reduce post-harvest losses in developing countries.

It will be essential that, with other international assistance agencies, the European Union should be free to give independent and impartial help.

Another issue for the Budgetary Control Committee is the use of technical assistance agencies.

Last year, Victim Services, a nonprofit assistance agency in Manhattan, received 95,000 calls from women who needed help because of abusive partners.

International donors and Western assistance agencies have devised programs to transfer technology and know-how to address these problems.

New York radicals are fortunate in having a number of good legal assistance agencies.