Contents
Section (Paragraphs)
- Interim Fund (1)
- Purpose of the Interim Fund (2)
- General principles (3)
- Basic activities (4)
- Participation in the Interim Fund (5)
- General operational provisions (6-10)
- Resources of the Interim Fund (11-17)
- Organization and management (18-30)
- Procedures (31-56)
1. The United Nations Interim Fund for Science and Technology for Development (hereinafter referred to as the Interim Fund), established by the General Assembly under resolution 34/218 of 19 December 1979, shall operate as an identifiable and separate fund and as an organ of the Assembly in accordance with the provisions set forth below.
2. Subject to the provisions of paragraphs 32 to 52 below, the aims and objectives of the Interim Fund and the purposes for which its resources shall be used are to provide technical and capital assistance to Governments and organizations in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 8 below, for activities intended to promote the objectives of and implement the measures recommended in the Vienna Programme of Action on Science and Technology for Development,/248 as set out in section I thereof, entitled "Strengthening the scientific and technological capacities of the developing countries", and section II entitled "Restructuring the existing pattern of international scientific and technological relations", as endorsed by the General Assembly and as an integral part of the establishment of the new international economic order, inter alia:
- To strengthen the endogenous scientific and technological capacities of the developing countries;
- To promote the strengthening of international co-operation in the field of science and technology for development by, inter alia:
- Promoting co-operative arrangements through which developed countries may more effectively support and facilitate the internal efforts of developing countries to achieve development through the establishment and strengthening of their scientific and technological capacities;
- Supporting co-operation among developing countries at the subregional, regional and interregional levels;
- Pending the coming into operation of the United Nations Financing System for Science and Technology for Development, to support, promote and initiate if appropriate during the interim periOd the activities necessary to prepare for future efforts to strengthen the scientific and technological capacities of the developing countries.
3. The Interim Fund shall operate in accordance with the following principles:
- The provision of assistance shall be in conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and within the framework of the priorities of the recipient developing countries;
- The assistance furnished by the Interim Fund shall not be a means of foreign economic and political interference in the internal affairs of the country or countries concerned and shall not be accompanied by any conditions of a political nature;
- The resources available to the Interim Fund shall be used to support projects and programmes of the developing countries at the national, subregional, regional and interregional levels, taking due account of the need to ensure adequate linkages between institutions at the national, subregional. regional and interregional levels and between the latter and the productive sectors of the country or region concerned, and taking into account, inter alia, the need to take special measures to meet the urgent and specific problems of the least developed, landlocked, island and most seriously affected developing countries and the need to overcome poverty and to accelerate the development of the developing countries as well as other criteria to be adopted by the Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology for Development;
- Due account shall be taken, in the use of the resources of the Interim Fund, of the need for an appropriate balance between activities to meet the urgent needs of the developing countries for assistance in the field of science and technology and activities to lay the basis for a sustained effort, over the next decade. to build up and strengthen the scientific and technological capacities of the developing countries, including cooperative undertaking~ in the field of science and technology for development;
- The assistance furnished by the Interim Fund to individual countries shall be provided in response to the requests of the Governments concerned;
- For intercountry projects and programmes, the assistance furnished by the Interim Fund shall be provided in response to requirements as defined by the countries concerned, taking due account of paragraph~ 80 and 81 of the Vienna Programme of Action;
- Subject to the provisions of subparagraphs (e) and (f) above, the activities supported by the Interim Fund shall be coordinated with, and should not duplicate activities of, bilateral and multilateral programmes for science and technology, including those of the entities of the United Nations system;
- Assistance from the Interim Fund shall be provided in a flexible manner, and due account shall be taken, in the management of the Interim Fund, of the need to promote innovative approaches and accelerated procedures so as to be fully responsive to the Vienna Programme of Action over the interim period;
- The resources of the Interim Fund may be used to provide assistance, capital and technical, to promote international collaboration in the field of science and technology;
- The Interim Fund shall actively promote effective investment and other follow-up to its activities, and shall assist the developing countries in obtaining financial resources for scientific and technological activities from other sources;
- Measures shall be taken to ensure that the relevant expertise existing in the United Nations system and in the developed and developing countries should be made available in the identification, formulation, appraisal, execution and evaluation of the projects and programmes supported by the Interim Fund.
4. Within the limits of the resources prospectively available and of the interim period envisaged, the assistance furnished by the Interim Fund in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 8 below shall support a broad range of activities envisaged in the Vienna Programme of Action to strengthen the scientific and technological capacities of the developing countries and likely to contribute to the restructuring of the existing pattern of international scientific and technological relations, including, inter alia, the creation and/or strengthening of policy-making capacity for scientific and technological matters; the review of, and international exchange of experience and information on, issues related to science and technology for development; the establishment of appropriate legal, administrative, fiscal and institutional machinery and the services required to carry out the process of scientific and technological development; the establishment and strengthening of national capacities for the assessment, selection, acquisition and adaptation of foreign technology and expertise; the monitoring of future scientific and technological activities to assess their impact, including negative impact, on the developing countries; the preparation of action programmes to strengthen the scientific and technological capacities of developing countries both individually and on a co-operative basis; the establishment and improvement of national, subregional, regional and global information centres, networks and systems to meet, particularly, the needs of developing countries; the establishment of global and interregional projects in science and technology for development; the education and training of the human resources required at all levels to generate and implement scientific and technological development policies, plans, programmes and projects; the promotion of basic and applied research; application and pilot testing and the diffusion of innovative technology; the promotion, through the application of science and technology, of the use of natural resources for national, subregional and regional development; the facilitation of the transfer of technology from developed to developing countries; the promotion of activities related to the socio-cultural implications of science and technology for development; the undertaking of a limited number of high-risk, high-potential, research and development projects; the undertaking of international co-operation projects in research, development and application, and in training in relation to problems of particular importance to developing countries in the field of science and technology.
5. Participation in the Interim Fund shall be open to all States.
A. Forms of co-operation
6. In pursuance of its objectives, the Interim Fund may provide assistance, as appropriate, to projects or programmes in fields such as those mentioned in paragraph 4 above, at the country and intercountry level, through, inter alia, one or a combination of several of the following:
- Services of experts and consultants, including operational personnel;
- Provision of equipment or supplies;
- Scholarships and fellowships or other arrangements under which candidates from developing countries may study or receive training within other developing countries or in developed countries;
- Assistance for research, development and the testing of products and processes and for pilot production; ,
- Support for basic and applied research, including support for the creation, adaptation or application of technology in developing countries;
- Support for the strengthening of existing and the creation of new research institutes;
- Support for activities conducive to the acquisition of scientific potential and of operative technology and know-how; (h) Survey pilot projects, technical tests, experiments and research;
- Support for the dissemination of the results of research and development and pilot projects both within and among developing countries;
- Support to improve both the access of the developing countries to scientific and technical information and their ability to use it in the process of development;
- Mobilization of additional resources of all kinds to support or follow up the activities of developing countries in the field of science and technology for development;
- Such other and further assistance as may, in the opinion of the Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology for Development, be considered consistent with the objectives of the Interim Fund, taking into account the form of assistance requested by Governments.
7. The assistance referred to in paragraph 6 above to be furnished by the Interim Fund from its resources shall be on a grant basis. In the light of experience of the operations of the Interim Fund, the Committee shall provide policy guidelines on whether any capital assistance extended by the Fund shall be on a loan or a refundable basis.
B. Eligibility
8. Assistance from the Interim Fund may be furnished:
- To the Governments of all States or groups of States;
- To organizations eligible for assistance from the United Nations Development Programme, in accordance with the objectives of the Vienna Programme of Action;
- To other organizations which may be deemed by the Committee to be eligible for assistance in accordance with the objectives of the Vienna Programme of Action;
- At the request of a Government or Governments of such States:
- To an entity having public or private juridical personality within the territory of such States, including, inter alia, existing or new research institutes which are engaged in basic or applied scientific and technological research for development;
- To regional or subregional governmental organizations having juridical personalities.
C. General responsibilities of recipients
9. The recipient Governments, organizations and institutions referred to in paragraph 8 above should ensure that the assistance furnished by the Interim Fund is used in an effective manner and in accordance with the purposes for which it is approved.
10. Recipient Governments, organizations and institutions shall maintain the records required by the Interim Fund in connexion with the administration of its assistance.
11. The resources of the Interim Fund shall consist of voluntary contributions from Governments. The Interim Fund shall also be empowered to receive contributions from international organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, and from other private sources. No limitation may be imposed by such donors on the use of donations in a specific recipient country, by a specific agency or for a specific project. Furthermore, while contributions may be accepted on an annual basis, it is desirable, in view of the two years' duration of the Interim Fund, that contributions should be pledged or indicated for two years. Contributions in kind may ,be accepted by the Interim Fund where the Administrator considers it appropriate to accept them.
12. Contributions pledged to the Interim Fund shall be payable as early as possible; every effort should be made to pay within six months following the pledge.
13. Cash contributions shall be made in convertible currencies or in currency readily usable by the Interim Fund.
14. To ensure that the multilateral character of the Interim Fund shall be strictly respected, no contributing country shall receive special treatment with respect to its contribution nor shall negotiations for the use of its currency take place between contributing and receiving countries.
15. Taking into account the financial situation of the country concerned, recipient Governments shall normally be expected to finance a considerable part of the local currency cost of projects.
16. Trust funds may be established for specific purposes consistent with the policies, aims and activities of the Interim Fund.
17. Assistance provided by the Interim Fund will be intended, inter alia, to broaden the financial means available to strengthen the scientific and technological capacities of the developing countries. For this purpose, the Interim Fund may enter into joint financing arrangements with multilateral, bilateral, public or private sources to support projects approved by it.
18. The organization and management of the Interim Fund are designed to ensure maximum efficiency in the use of its resources.
A. Intergovernmental arrangements
19. The policy guidelines for the Interim Fund were established by the General Assembly at its thirty-fourth session; guidelines will also be established by the Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology for Development when it starts its meetings. The Committee will review, as a separate item of its agenda, the policies and progress of the Interim Fund and will provide the necessary directives and guidance. In this connexion, the Administrator, in consultation with the Director-General for Development and International Economic Co-operation, shall, during the interim period, submit to the Committee annual reports on the implementation of those policies. He shall also report annually to the Committee on the progress of the operations of the Interim Fund.
20. The Administrator shall submit, during the interim period, annual reports to the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme on the operations and management of the Interim Fund.
21. The Committee shall, in turn, review the reports referred to above on the progress and performance of the Interim Fund and shall make its report to the General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council.
B. Administrator
22. The Interim Fund shall be administered by the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, who shall exercise his functions under the policy guidance of the General Assembly and the Committee and under the operational management of the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme. The Administrator shall have over-all responsibility and be accountable for all phases and aspects of the operations of the Interim Fund. He shall establish clear lines of responsibility for the direction of the Interim Fund. The Administrator shall appoint the staff for the Interim Fund, on the delegation of authority by the Secretary-General and in accordance with the Staff Regulations of the United Nations adopted by the Assembly. The selection of the staff and consultants shall be made in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter of the United Nations. The Administrator shall have authority on behalf of the Interim Fund to enter into contracts and agreements with Governments, organizations and persons.
C. Staff and other administrative matters
23. The General Assembly shall provide the Administrator with the necessary resources for the initial preparatory responsibility until the Interim Fund is in operation.
24. The administrative expenses of the Interim Fund, once it becomes operational, will be met from its own resources.
25. The Interim Fund will operate with the minimum staff required to perform the functions assigned to it by the General Assembly. Its staff shall be assembled as expeditiously as possible and commensurate with its resources and volume of operations for the interim period.
26. In the operations of the Interim Fund, the Administrator will use, to the extent feasible, the capacities, including human resources, available within the United Nations Development Programme and in other entities of the United Nations system.
D. Co-operation with organizations of the United Nations system
27. The Interim Fund shall establish and maintain close and continuous working relationships with the organizations of the United Nations system, in particular the Centre for Science and Technology for Development, the specialized agencies and other United Nations entities concerned, including the regional commissions, in order to give full expression to the Vienna Programme of Action.
28. The Administrator shall take measures to ensure the involvement, as appropriate, of the specialized agencies and United Nations entities concerned in the identification, formulation, appraisal, execution and evaluation of projects.
E. Use of consultants
29. The Administrator should use the expertise available in the United Nations system, in so far as that would minimize consultancy expenses. The Administrator may also obtain the services of expert consultants and consulting organizations to advise him on the activities of the Interim Fund, the cost to be charged to the Fund. It should be ensured to the maximum extent practicable that those services would be obtained from the developing countries.
30. Subject to the provisions of subsection D above, the Administrator, within the limits of the resources available from the Programme Reserve described in paragraph 52 below, may finance, upon the request of Governments, the provision of expert advice and support for the examination and preparation of projects at the formulation stage. Such resources should be recouped by the Programme Reserve as part of the costs of the project or projects which may result from that preparation.
A. Formulation of requests
31. The Administrator shall prescribe the form, content and procedures for requests for assistance from the Interim Fund.
32. Requests shall include all relevant information on the intended use of and benefits expected to be derived from the assistance of the Interim Fund together with statements of the part of the costs which the Governments themselves would be ready to bear.
33. In the formulation and appraisal of projects, the resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme will provide co-ordination at the field level, until such time as the United Nations resident co-ordinator has been appointed, taking into account the provisions of paragraph 28 above.
B. Methodology for the formulation and implementation of projects
34. The formulation and implementation of projects at the country level should be done with the full participation of the authorities of the country concerned and in accordance with the relevant recommendation of the Vienna Programme of Action.
35. The formulation and implementation of projects at the intercountry level should be guided by the principles set forth in paragraphs 80 and 81 of the Vienna Programme of Action.
C. Appraisal and approval of requests
36. In considering requests for assistance, pending the guidelines and/or principles to be established by the Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology for Development, the Administrator shall be guided by the general principles set out in section III above.
37. The Administrator shall submit for approval to the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme projects to be supported by the Interim Fund resources in the amount of $2 million or above on the basis of policy guidelines established by the Committee. Until such time as the Committee adopts additional policy guidelines, the Administrator should follow the policy guidelines set forth in General Assembly resolution 341218 and the annex thereto.
38. The Administrator shall submit to the Committee at its first regular session proposals on methods for the approval of projects to be adopted by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme.
39. Subject to the provisions of paragraph 8 above, the Administrator shall be authorized to approve projects to be supported by the Interim Fund below the amount of $2 million and shall report in each case to the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme.
40. The Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme shall take final decisions on the projects and programmes recommended by the Administrator in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 37 above, in the light of the guidelines established by the General Assembly and the Committee and of the directives which will be established by the Committee, and shall authorize the Administrator to conclude the appropriate agreements.
D. Execution of projects
41. Projects shall be executed through the channels and arrangements already established for the execution of projects by the United Nations system. Special attention shall be paid to the need to make maximum use of government executing arrangements and national expertise.
42. The Administrator shall apply the existing basic agreements between the United Nations Development Programme and the participating and executing agencies, in those cases where they have been so designated, as the basis for carrying out projects and programmes, subject to whatever modifications may be mutually agreed upon in the light of the special characteristics of the Interim Fund.
43. Bearing in mind the provisions of paragraph 28 above and, when necessary, in order to ensure the maximum effectiveness of the assistance furnished by the Interim Fund or to increase its capacity, and with due regard to the cost factor, increased use may appropriately be made of suitable services obtained from governmental and non-governmental institutions and firms, in agreement with the recipient Government concerned and in accordance with the applicable financial rules and regulations. Maximum use should be made of national institutions and firms within the recipient countries.
44. With the approval of the Government or Governments concerned in each case, non-governmental institutions and organizations within the recipient countries may execute projects supported by the Interim Fund.
45. Arrangements for the execution of projects shall be subject to the approval of the requesting Government or Governments and shall be specified in the project document. Such arrangements shall contain provisions regarding costs which the requesting Government will assume and those facilities and services which it will provide.
46. Emphasis shall be placed, in the execution of projects, on technical co-operation among developing countries.
47. The Administrator shall make appropriate arrangements to monitor and evaluate the progress and results of projects and programmes supported by the resources of the Interim Fund and shall report to the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme and to the Committee on their status.
E. Relations between Governments and the Interim Fund 48. Each Government shall designate to the Administrator an appropriate channel for its relations with the Interim Fund. The Interim Fund shall use only the official channel designated by each Government for the submission of requests.
49. In regard to the operations of the Interim Fund, the existing basic agreements between Governments and the United Nations Development Programme shall apply, subject to such modifications as may be called for having regard to the special characteristics of the Interim Fund and subject to the concurrence of the Governments concerned. In particular, the privileges and immunities accorded to the staff of the Interim Fund shall be identical to those accorded to the staff of the United Nations Development Programme.
F. Financial arrangements
50. The financial rules and regulations governing the Interim Fund shall be those of the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations Development Programme. Any amendments which may be necessary to take account of the special requirements of the Interim Fund's operation shall be drafted by the Administrator and submitted for consideration to the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme, which shall report accordingly to the Committee and the General Assembly.
51. The Administrator will take such steps as are necessary to ensure separate accounting and financial management of the operations of the Interim Fund, while using the existing services of the United Nations Development Programme to the maximum possible extent.
52. The Interim Fund shall be authorized to establish a Programme Reserve by earmarking 2 per cent of the total annual contributions. Such a Programme Reserve shall be used by the Administrator at his discretion for purposes consistent with the Vienna Programme of Action and with the guidelines established by the General Assembly and the Committee, to ensure the flexibility and innovative capacity of the Interim Fund and its ability to provide catalytic support. The Administrator shall ensure the utilization of such a reserve fund and shall report to the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme and to the Committee on his decisions and on the results achieved.
53. The Administrator shall not at any time enter into commitments which shall exceed the usable resources of the Interim Fund. Nor shall he incur any liabilities on behalf of the Interim Fund which shall result in a charge against the general resources of the United Nations Development Programme.
G. Period of the Interim Fund
54. In accordance with the decisions adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 34/218 and the outcome of the Pledging Conference, the Administrator shall determine the date at which the Interim Fund becomes operational and shalt report accordingly to the Committee.
55. Time being of the essence, given the limited period of the Interim Fund, the Administrator submitted to the General Assembly at its thirty-fourth session for approval proposals for staffing and other administrative resources required both for the preparatory period and for the full period to the end of 1981.2<9
56. Taking into account the interim nature of the Fund, the General Assembly shall decide at its thirty-sixth session, on the recommendation of the Committee, on the arrangements to be made for an effective transition between the operations of the Interim Fund and the long-term arrangements for the United Nations Financing System for Science and Technology for Development to be determined by the Assembly.
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