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The article demonstrates problems faced by international organizations while planning a program of wide participation, using the example of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and its procurement programs and activities in Australia. The UNRRA was the first organization evolved during the World War II actually operating on an international scale. Created in November 1943 to provide relief to the suffering and to assist in the agricultural and industrial rehabilitation of devastated areas, UNRRA eventually became the service agency of forty-eight governments. Its immediate task was gigantic. The war had subjugated hundreds of millions of people, upset their economies, destroyed their industrial and agricultural potential, and left devastation throughout the world. UNRRA's raison d'etre was to provide the immediate assistance required for relief and rehabilitation, it was an emergency program. At the same time, by its initial contribution toward rehabilitation, it was expected to pave the way for subsequent reconstruction activities.