Both the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly concurred with these views, and by the end of 1953 we had the certainty that we could work out a plan on a longer- term basis. The decisive action - and this was the third stage - was then taken by the Ninth Session of the General Assembly in 1954, when it approved a four years' program for permanent solutions and emergency aid, to be financed from voluntary governmental contributions to the extent of $16,000,000 over a period of four years.