Irving Friedman maintained these files on the Bank's cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in developing a supplementary financing scheme. The scheme was conceived as a response to the instability of commodity prices that frequently led to unexpected shortfalls of export earnings in developing countries. The aim was to have supplementary financing cover these shortfalls through soft loans to shield the development programs of the developing countries. IBRD/IIDA supplementary financing would offer longer-term assistance, as opposed to the International Monetary Fund's short-term compensatory financing facility.
The records include correspondence with UNCTAD, memoranda, drafts, handwritten notes by Friedman and others, meeting briefs, agendas, speeches, and official documents from UNCTAD, IMF, and IBRD on supplementary financing. The general correspondence is principally between Friedman, other Bank managers, and UNCTAD officials, especially Raul Prebish and Manuel Perez-Guerrero, Secretary Generals of UNCTAD, and Sidney Dell, Director of UNCTAD. The meetings files relate to meetings of UNCTAD, the UNCTAD Committee on Invisibles and Financing related to Trade, the Intergovernmental Group on Supplementary Finance, the Development Advisory Committee, and meetings within the World Bank. Friedman filed into the file on a meeting both documents that pre-dated the meeting and documents from activities subsequent to the meeting, so researchers will need to read through the sub-series on meetings in order to find all the items about one meeting.
In addition, three files on stabilization of prices for primary commodity products, transferred to the World Bank Group Archives separately from those on supplementary financing, are found at the end of the series.
