Committee reviews 1979 Programme of Action on Science and Technology for Development.

An end-of-decade review of the implementation of the 1979 Vienna Programme of Action on Science and Technology for Development highlighted the tenth session (New York, 21 August-1 September) of the Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology for Development.

The Committee also discussed the work of the Centre for Science and Technology for Development, the Fund for Science and Technology for Development and the Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for Development-the last a 28-member body of experts in different applications of science and technology to development.

The Secretary-General reported to the body that accomplishments during the 1980s fell far short of the Programme's objectives, except in a few countries.

The Intergovernmental Committee also elected 14 members to the Advisory Committee, which held its ninth session at Vienna from 4 to 12 September.

The Committee decided to further improve the Advanced Technology Alert System (ATAS) as an important means of applying technology assessment to endogenous capacity building in developing countries.

Studies were to be undertaken on ways to assist developing countries enhance their capacity to assess new technologies, and new materials and processing of raw materials.

The Intergovernmental Committee, established in 1979, meets biennially and is open to participation to all States as full members. It aims to ensure implementation by the UN system of the Vienna Programme of Action.

Advisory Committee work

This year, the Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for Development reported that it considered $10 per capita to be a reasonable target for investment in the development of third world scientists and technologists for the future-a figure translating to about $40 billion a year globally. The Committee wanted broad efforts to meet that objective by mobilization of domestic resources, better co-ordination of external funding, and expanded efforts to involve the private sector,

It also wanted technology missions sent to developing countries to mobilize the necessary political and social will to incorporate science and technology more effectively in national development strategies.

On 24 August, Advisory Committee Chairman Francisco Sagasti presented to the Secretary-General in New York a Declaration, signed by 50 members and former members of the Committee. It highlighted the importance of science and technology, problems emerging due to, enormous disparities between the growth in human capacity to generate knowledge, and the growth of science and technology, on the one hand, and the inability to mobilize science and technology in the service of development, on the other.

The Declaration said that in the 1990s a rapidly shifting and changing international context provided new and unexpected opportunities to utilize science and technology in the service of development.

TCDC reviewed in New York

The High-Level Committee on the -Review of Technical Co-operation among Developing Countries (TCDC), at its sixth session (18-26 September, New York), reviewed progress made in implementing the 1978 Buenos Aires Plan of Action to promote and strengthen TCDC. The aim: to help developing nations attain greater national and collective self-reliance.

Spin-off benefits of TCDC exchanges, it was reported, included the exposure of trainees or experts, for the first time, to a new developmental approach in another country, or a new technology starting a chain reaction back home through modification of traditional training programmes.