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Statement About the Inter-American Social Development Institute

August 19, 1970

IN ACCORDANCE with Section 401 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969, I submitted Monday to the Senate for confirmation a Board of Directors for the Inter-American Social Development Institute.

I have also directed that $10 million of economic assistance funds be transferred to the Institute to finance its initial operations.

The Institute will provide grant support for innovative, experimental programs undertaken primarily by private nonprofit organizations. It is designed as a pilot project to bring the dynamism of U.S. and Latin American private groups to bear on development problems through people-to-people programs, and to help broaden the participation of individuals in the processes of development.

The Institute will be limited in size and scope of operations to help keep it on a path of creative innovation. It will be separate from existing government agencies and it will not have personnel permanently assigned abroad. It is my hope that the Institute will develop a fresh approach to support new and experimental efforts by private organizations to contribute to social and institutional development, particularly in the areas of education and agriculture. The Board of Directors will, of course, establish detailed operating guidelines for the Institute.

The Director of the Office of Management and Budget will assist the Board of Directors in forming the Institute. He will also conduct by June 1971 a review of the Institute's operations and funding requirements, including its relationship to any new organizational arrangements for foreign aid programs which may be proposed.

Note: A White House press release, dated August 17, 1970, listing the seven nominees to the Board of Directors of the Institute is printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 6, p. 1079).

Richard Nixon, Statement About the Inter-American Social Development Institute Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240341

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