UNIDO 1and IFMBEFrom its inception, the United Nations recognized that equitable economic development throughout the world was the keystone to lasting peace and prosperity. However, its own efforts to promote industrial development took concrete shape in 1961, when the UN Committee for Industrial Development established the UN Centre for Industrial Development (CID). During the sixties, CID organized a series of regional industrialization symposia. At each symposium, a detailed review of the industrialization efforts of the countries of the region was made. Their recommendations laid down comprehensive guidelines for action at the national, subregional or regional and international levels. On 17 November 1966 the United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 2152 (XXI) to establish the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The resolution is considered the founding document and thus provides UNIDO's anniversary date, although the Organization was not actually set up for business until January 1967. UNIDO's mandate was to act as the central coordinating body for industrial activities within the UN system and to promote industrial development and cooperation at global, regional, national and sectoral levels. UNIDO was the successor to CID, which was disbanded when UNIDO was born. As UNIDO was an integrated organ of the United Nations, the Secretary-General approved the budget and appointed the Executive Director. On 16 December 1966 the UN Secretary-General nominated Ibrahim Helmi Abdel-Rahman (Egypt) as the first UNIDO Executive Director. The UN General Assembly chose Vienna as the seat for the Organization. Staff and activities were transferred from New York to Vienna in 1967. The Third General Conference of UNIDO held from 21 January - 9 February 1980 in New Delhi, India, discussed issues presented by the Secretariat in a New Delhi Declaration and the Plan of Action on Industrialization of Developing Countries and International Cooperation. The proposal included new forms of assistance to the least developed and land-locked countries, islands and most seriously affected countries, the Palestinian and Namibian people. New activities included the integration of industry with agriculture, rural industrialization, development of alternative forms of energy and technology acquisition. New techniques were redefined to deal with new elements of field activities. The system of consultations, supported by industrial statistics and global and conceptual studies, paved the way to a more balanced dialogue on industrial matters between developed and developing countries and provided a better understanding of present and future trends in terms of production, raw materials, finance, training and energy requirements. In August, 1985 the first Session of the General Conference of UNIDO as a UN specialized agency with independent finances and administration appointed Domingo L. Siazon Jr. (Philippines) as UNIDO Director-General. The establishment of UNIDO as an independent organization reflected a growing consensus on the part of the international community that the United Nations system could make an important contribution to cooperation between industrialized and developing countries in promoting industrial development. The Organization's services were increasingly being oriented towards the development of small- and medium scale industries (SMIs), investment and technology promotion, human resources development, women in industrial development and cleaner and more energy-efficient industrialization. As technical cooperation continued to shift towards a higher degree of specialization, UNIDO's new organizational structure focused on closer links among its organizational units in order to enhance coordination of projects. The second Session of the General Conference of UNIDO was held in November 1987 in Bangkok, Thailand. During the programme discussion, Member States singled out a Memorandum on Industrial Development in Africa to boost Africa's industrial development. In April 1992, UNIDO, in cooperation with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), developed a programme for the establishment of national cleaner production centres (NCPCs) in developing countries. In June, UNIDO participated in the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In October, the Executive Committee of the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol and UNIDO signed an agreement for the Organization to be one of the four implementing agencies of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer2. The fifth Session of the General Conference of UNIDO held at Yaoundé, Cameroon, in December 1993, adopted the Yaoundé Declaration in which Member States affirmed their commitment to the revitalized UNIDO in line with the shift of most developing countries towards export-oriented competition-driven policies. The seventh Session of the General Conference held in December 1997 in Vienna, Austria, appointed Carlos Alfredo Magariños, (Argentina) as UNIDO Director-General. Mr. Magariños undertook the challenge of transforming the Organization in line with the Business Plan for the Future Role and Functions of UNIDO, which was adopted by the Conference. The Business Plan groups activities into two main areas: strengthening of industrial capacities and cleaner and sustainable industrial development. It reinforces the continuation of UNIDO in a global forum function and in areas where UNIDO has comparative advantages, enabling it to function as a specialized agency within the UN system. The Business Plan also spelled out the new organizational structure, based on three major divisions. The Conference adopted UNIDO's budget for 1998-1999 in the amount of $129.5 million, which represented a 20 per cent reduction over the budget of the previous biennium. The cornerstone for the transformation of UNIDO approved after intense Consultation and debate by Member States at the Industrial Development Board in June 1997 and endorsed by the General Conference in December 1997. In 1999 UNIDO representatives headed twenty-three country offices. The Director-General announced the establishment of five regional centres (Egypt, Ethiopia, Thailand, Uruguay and Zimbabwe) and an additional four country offices were being converted into regional centres in 2000. The consultative status to IFMBE - as a nongovernmental organisation - was accorded in the early 1980s. In this decade IFMBE representatives were active in promoting UNIDO's activities in the field of health-related activities. Seminars, policy paper for UNIDO in biomedical engineering, participation of our members in field projects, establishment of training centre and other activities represented our involvement in promoting healthcare in developing countries. The crisis of the organisation and the new trends in industrial support mainly to the African countries from the second part of the last decade forced UNIDO to strengthen its activity in fields other than medical engineering in healthcare and industry. This, and the restructuring of the organisation, lead to weakening our contacts. Presently we are trying to define those fields which could be of mutual interest and where IFMBE's competence would be of assistance to UNIDO and to the countries of UNIDO's concern.
Mr. Nandor Richter 1 The description of UNIDO's history is based on the documents #3323 UNIDO - 1966 - 1997 Key Policy Events.htm and 3740 UNIDO - 1998 - 2003 Highlights.htm, presented on the webpage: www.unido.org 2 Details about UNIDO are also on: www.unido.org/file-storage/download/?file_id=11798
|