Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

APPENDICES9.1Engineering at UNESCO in facts and figuresThe Natural Sciences began at UNESCO with a total staff oftwelve in 1946 and grew to seventy-eight staff in 1960, andincluded the creation of a Division for Technological Scienceswith a staff of ten (of which four professional staff); the administrativebirth of engineering at UNESCO, although engineeringinterests had previously been included in the AppliedSciences. In 1963–64 the Regular programme budget wasUS$30,000, with Technical Assistance funds of US$270,000and UN Special Funds of US$3.35 million for TechnologicalResearch – it was reported that the ‘greatest concentration ofresources’ was in the field of technology, this was mainly dueto the contribution from the ‘Special Fund’ for technologicaldevelopment in developing countries. The Natural SciencesSector was established by 1965 and staff had almost doubledto 150 with the creation of two new Departments: the Departmentof the Advancement of Science and the Department ofthe Application of Science to Development (which includedthe Division of Engineering Studies, Research and Training asthe main functional division with a staff of ten). The RegularProgramme budget for the Division of Engineering Studies,Research and Training in 1965–66 for the ‘Assessment of TechnologicalNeeds of Developing Countries’ was US$229,000.By 1970 the Natural Sciences Sector had 181 staff with seventy-onein the newly formed (in 1969) Department of ScienceTeaching, Technological Education and Research,including thirty-six in the Division of Technological Educationand Research (this Division was referred to as ‘TER’ after thistime and was the largest Division in the Sector). This Divisionincluded Sections for the Promotion of Engineering, Scienceand Research (ten staff), Engineering Education (fourteenstaff) and the Training of Technicians (ten staff). In 1975, theSector had grown to 195 staff, with the creation of a divisionalstructure that included the Division of Technological Researchand Higher Education – still the largest Division with thirty-sixstaff in Sections of Research in the Engineering Sciences (tenstaff), Engineering Education (twelve staff) and Education ofTechnologists and Higher Technicians (ten staff). In 1971–72the Regular Programme budget for engineering and technologywas US$502,000 rising in 1975–76 to US$2.64 millon,with UNDP funding of US$14.45 million and other supportof US$1.58 million (a total of US$18.67 million). In 1979–80,the total budget for research and training in the scientific andtechnological sciences was US$32.5 million split between scienceand technology, but with a bias toward engineering. It isinteresting to note here that the IT/informatics activity, whichwas then known as computer science and engineering, wasdeveloped in the basic and engineering sciences in the 1970s,prior to the Intergovernmental Conference on Strategies andPolicies for Informatics in 1978 and the transfer of IT activityto the Communications, Information and Informatics Sectorin 1980, and the creation of the Intergovernmental Informaticsprogramme in 1984.In 1981, the Natural Sciences Sector had a total of 204 staff.The Division of Technological Research and Higher Education,with nineteen staff, comprised Sections of Research in theEngineering Sciences, Engineering Education, with the newlycreated Sections of Energy Information Systems and EnergyDevelopment and Coordination. In 1982–83 the total budgetfor the Division of Technological Research and Higher Educationwas US$27.11 million, and US$28.9 million in 1984–85;with a Regular Programme budget for research, training andinternational cooperation in technology and the engineeringsciences of US$5.6 million, UN support of US$8.9 millionand other funding of US$14.4 million. In 1984, the US andthe UK (and Singapore) withdrew from UNESCO, leading toa 25 per cent budget cut and the pruning of the Division fromfour sections to three and some voluntary staff retirements.The number of Natural Sciences Sector staff peaked at 214 in1985, with twenty-four staff in the Division of TechnologicalResearch and Higher Education. In 1986–87 the Regular Programmebudget for research, training and international cooperationin technology and the engineering sciences was US$4.6million, with UN support of US$9.5 million and other fundingof US$15.4 million (total budget of US$29.4 million), decliningin 1988–89 to US$4.1 million, with UN support of US$6.5million and other funding of US$9.1 million (total budget ofUS$19.8 million).The Engineering and Technology Division was created in 1990.By 1991, the number of Science Sector staff declined to 182,with the re-named Division of Engineering and Technologydown from twenty-four to thirteen staff. At the same time,the environmental sciences continued to grow, especiallythe Division of Ecological Sciences and the Man and the BiosphereProgramme, which was created as an IntergovernmentalProgramme in 1971. This situation reflected several factors:increasing concern regarding the environment in the 1980s, thedevelopment of the environmental and ecological sciences, andthe establishment of the Operations Division of UNDP in themid-1980s to implement programme activity directly – ratherthan through other UN agencies – leading to the decline andconsequent disappearance of UNDP Special Funds (it is understoodthat this change may partly have been a response toperceived bureaucratic constraints in UNESCO). For 1990–91,1992–93 and 1994–95 the Regular Programme budget for scienceand technology for development was around US$10 million,split between science, engineering and technology, withan increasing bias towards the Basic Sciences.© UNESCO/N. Burke The Symbolic Globe by ErikReitzel, UNESCO HQ, Paris.373