Science and Technology for the Future,Contents, Preface ...

Secretary-General of the United Nations on the occasion of the Special Session of
the UN General Assembly to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Vienna
Conference:
1. Since not more than approximately thirty developing countries are partners in
special scientific and technological bilateral co-operation agreements with the
industrialized countries, the vast majority of developing countries is more than
ever dependant on multilateral co-operation, A collective efforts of the United
Nations System as a whole is thus needed to extend systematically the
benefits of science and technology to the high number of economically
disadvantaged countries of the world.
2. The human resource dimension of all economic and social development
aspects will need a greater political attention in the years to come. For the
creation of the necessary endogenous capacities in science and technology in
developing countries the availability of scientist, engineers and technicians in
adequate numbers is an indispensable perequisite.
3. Another new focus for the multilateral co-operation in science and technology
in the 1990s will stem from the growing awareness of the global and regional
deterioration of the environment. This complex issue was not an item for a
major debate at the Vienna Conference (UNCSTD) ten years ago, but has
since moved into the centre of the world’s attention.
4. In the absence of special multilateral funding mechanisms for science and
technology, UNDP, the World Bank and the regional development banks as
well as ‘multi-bi’ funds-in-trust arrangements will, as in the period before
UNCSTD, remain the main sources. What seems to be called for is a new
dialogue with these funding institutions in order to reach a better
understanding of the specificity of the funding of science, technology and
environmental issues which are all, by definition, of a long-term-nature.
5. As an extension to the classical bilateral co-operation instruments, scientific
and technological networks continue to offer the best effective international cooperation
framework. A blending of intergovernmental, governmental and nongovernmental
institutions seems to offer very positive results. Twinning
arrangements between two academic institutions, university-industry cooperation
arrangements and international fellowships are all well tested cooperation
mechanisms.
6. As very few topics are of the same importance for each country in the world, it
appears to be promising to organize scientific and technological co-operation
schemes whenever possible around common interests or around common
interests or around common geopolitical considerations, for example,
Technological Co-operation among Developing Countries (TCDC), regional or
sub-regional approaches, special situations of landlocked or island countries,
common problems of least developed countries (LDC’s), and so on.
7. It can be predicted that the international co-operation in science and
technology in the 1990s will call for a new interaction between multilateral and
bilateral relations in which the regional intergovernmental organizations will, in
addition to the worldwide operating Specialized Agencies of the United
Nations System, such as Unesco – provided that they are prepared to meet
the new challenges - emerge as important new actors.
8. It can furthermore be predicted that in international co-operation the role of
scientific and technological non-governmental organizations, such as ICSU, as
well as that of the private sector, will on a world scale – rapidly increase.
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