United Nations
Conference on Science and Technology for Development,
The
United Nations has been concerned with the effects of advances in science and
technology to world peace and social development since its inception in 1945 at
the dawn of the nuclear era. In 1963 the first United Nations Conference on the
Application of Science and Technology for the Benefit of the Less Developed
Countries met in Geneva and began to form an agenda for international action.
This was followed in 1979 by the United Nations Conference on Science and
Technology for Development (UNCSTD), held in
Vienna from 20 to 31 August, which produced the Vienna Programme of Action on
Science and Technology for Development.
In affirmation of the conference's program, the General
Assembly established an Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology
for Development, open to all states, to draw up policy guidelines, monitor
activities within the United Nations system, promote implementation of the
Vienna Programme, identify priorities, and mobilize resources. In 1989, on the
tenth anniversary of the 1979 Conference, the General Assembly expressed its
disappointment with the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action and
eventually decided to transform the Intergovernmental Committee and its
subsidiary body, the Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for
Development, into a functional commission of ECOSOC (General Assembly
Resolution 46/235).
The UNCSTD marked a conceptual shift in the views of
both industrialized and developing nations. The meeting brought into the open
many of the key issues, and it forced many in developed countries to confront
seriously the valid aspirations of developing country scientists and
governments. However, even serious consideration did not in most cases lead to
agreement, and many imaginative UNCSTD creations, such as a financing system
for science and technology for development, did not endure. UNCSTD sharpened
the conviction in industrialized nations and developing nations alike that the
building of endogenous scientific and technology capabilities in developing
nations was central to their future prosperity.
Growing recognition in the
industrializing nations of the importance of market forces and the role of the
private sector also heightened interest in the contributions of science and
technology.
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