UN Declaration on the Use of Scientific and Technological Progress in the Interests of Peace for the Benefit of Mankind.
UN Declaration on the Use of S&T for Peace
UN Declaration: New International Economic Order
UN Declaration for the Establishment of a New International Economic Order (NIEO)
The NIEO was a set of proposals put forward during the 1970s by developing countries through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to promote greater equity in international economic cooperation by reforming the terms of trade, increasing development assistance, reducing developed-country tariffs, and other means.
UN Committee on Science and Technology for Development
During the early 1970s, ECOSOC established a Committee on Science and Technology for Development which provided a special political forum for the results of ACAST’s work within the United Nations and brought the discussion to a more political level.
UNCTAD Committee on Transfer of Technology
In 1974, the Trade and Development Board transformed the Group on Transfer of Technology into the Committee on Transfer of Technology (CTT). During the 1970s, the Committee focused on issues related to the transfer of technology, including terms and conditions for such transfer, reflecting a major preoccupation of developing countries with improving access to foreign technology and ways and means of acquiring it at fairer prices and on fairer conditions.
‘Science, Technology and Development: The role of the UNDP’
The purpose of this advisory note was to present some of the issues important and relevant for the UNDP’s support of projects with a high science and technology component and make specific recommendations. The paper noted how little systematic work has been done to understand the complex processes of the interaction between science, technology and development, especially few empirical studies.
UN Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm
This landmark conference involved the first debate on environment and development and the first call for international cooperation to manage the future of the Earth. The conference demonstrated international recognition of concern for the environment as related to major threats facing the planet: war, overpopulation, hunger, pollution, and depletion of natural resources. Prime Minister Indira Ghandi of India was the only head of state to address this conference.
UNCTAD-III, Santiago
The original resolutions presented by the G77 were on world monetary reform and participation by developing countries in the IMF, but resulted in resolutions on technology transfer and ‘Special Measures for the 25 Least Developed Countries’. There was a heated debate on the terms and conditions of technology transfer being institutionalised in an ‘International Code of Conduct’. Part of the difficulties in negotiations resulted from a divide among the G77 group. Salvador Allende, President of Chile, gave the address.
UNCTAD Intergovernmental Working Group on Technology Transfer
In 1971 UNCTAD set up a working group concerned with the transfer of technology to the developing countries. This action, following the establishment of UNCTAD in 1964, helped to create awareness and stimulated intergovernmental discussions on technology-related issues.
World Plan of Action for the Application of S&T for Development
In 1971, ACAST submitted a World Plan of Action for the Application of Science and Technology for Development, drawing on the Sussex Report, and highlighting such issues as the need for indigenous capacity-building, the gap between the potential of science and technology and the extent of the latter’s actual use, the weakness of scientific institutions in the developing world, the problem of access to the world’s technology, and brain drain. The World Plan Action focused on building support for a) research toward new knowledge/technology, highlighting priority areas to be developed, b) the application of existing knowledge toward priority areas, c) building up of an indigenous science and technology capacity – institutional structure. (UNACAST, 1971:4) However, since the Advisory Committee did not have direct access to the political decision-making process, the World Plan of Action was not carried forward as hoped. (UNCTAD, 1997:5)
United Nations Second Development Decade
In the 1960s, ‘development’ strategies emphasised economic growth targets and technical ‘fixes’. Though some countries had achieved target growth rates over that decade, by 1970 there was an acknowledgement that problems of poverty, unemployment, hunger and health had not eased as a result, and so the emphasis shifted toward interest in distribution and equity.