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Entries tagged with ‘United Nations’
“Our Common Future” UN Brundtland Commission Report
The first internationally commissioned document to declare issues of environmental concern and human development as an ‘interlocking crises’.
Following from the UN Conference on the Human Environment, the report highlighted the need to recognise the interdependence of nations and the need for a multilateral approach in solving global development issues.
The concept of ’sustainable development’ was defined famously as:
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
• the concept of ‘needs’, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
• the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.”
This definition has been under close scrutiny since the report’s publication, providing the basis for political and environmental discourse to this day.
Entry submitted by Gyto Pugh
Background paper / Manifesting Utopia: History and Philosophy of UN Debates on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development
By Esha Shah
This paper revisits a series of key moments in the last 50 years of UN debates on science and technology for sustainable development. It reflects on the genealogy of tropes of development and the ways in which these have been equated with science, technology, and innovation.
UNCTAD established & UNCTAD-I Geneva
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established as a subsidiary organ of the United Nations General Assembly to promote the integration of developing countries into the world economy in order to accelerate their development. At the first conference, UNCTAD-I, in Geneva in 1964, the developing countries established the Group of 77 to voice their concerns (today, the G77 has 131 members). At the time, many developing countries were only recently independent from colonial rule, and made historic challenges to developed countries demanding economic and political independence.
UN Vienna Conference on S&T for Development
The United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) held in Vienna involved years of preparation, regional meetings and significant participation by NGOs, and resulted in several new commitments and institutions. The conference recognised the complexity of directing science and technology toward development goals, and followed growing tensions between the G77 and Group B on negotiating terms of trade, technology transfer, and the broader efforts toward a ‘New International Economic Order’ – highlighting concerns of equity in international relations.
UN First Development Decade
On 25 September 1961 the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, addressed the UN General Assembly and launched a proposal for a Development Decade to “lessen the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries, to speed up the processes of modernization, and to release the majority of mankind from poverty.” (Jolly, 2004:86)
UN Conference on S&T for the Benefit of the Less Developed Countries
The 1963 United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for the Benefit of Less Developed Countries, held in Geneva, involved some 1,665 delegates from 96 countries and 108 specialized agencies, with sessions devoted to science policy, education, and natural resources, among others. The conference was meant to address “the observed trend toward greater economic disparity between the developed and developing countries”. (Jolly, 2004: 95)
