Science and Technology for Development

E/RES/2012/6View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Economic and Social Council, under agenda item 13b Science and technology for development, published in 2012.

What other versions does this mandate have?

15 versions · 1980–2012

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2012	E/RES/2012/6	Science and technology for development	1,582	—
2011	E/RES/2011/17	Science and technology for development	—	—
2010	E/RES/2010/3	Science and technology for development	—	—
2009	E/RES/2009/8	Science and technology for development	—	—
2006	E/RES/2005/52	Science and technology for development	—	—

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Information Exchange Research and Development Science and Technology Science and Technology Policy Technical Cooperation

What’s in this document?

25 operative paragraphs

Decides to make the following recommendations for consideration by national Governments, the Commission on Science and Technology for Development and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development:

Governments, individually and collectively, are encouraged to take into account the findings of the Commission and to consider taking the following actions:

Promote the development of information and communications technology platforms, involving national research institutes and universities, with a view to participating in international research networks and benefiting from opportunities for collaborative learning;

Ensure that multilateral governance mechanisms and standardization bodies of information and communications technology and global networks are democratic, fair and coherent, with effective participation of developing countries;

iii

Promote national policies to encourage the use of information and communications technologies, especially those that have been tailored to local needs in their countries, and establish programmes for the improvement of human resources in this field;

Foster partnerships with other stakeholders to overcome basic infrastructural constraints, in areas such as electricity and other services, that limit access to and use of information and communications technology resources, with particular attention to locally adapted solutions that can be scaled up regionally;

Collaborate to address the “content divide” by exploring ways of increasing online scientific publications and accessibility of content in local languages;

Encourage national research agencies and foundations to provide data and research results to the public domain and make them freely available in an open and accessible format;

vii

Also encourage international collaboration in disseminating digitized publications resulting from publicly funded research, making them freely available online and easily accessible;

viii

Further encourage, in partnership with other stakeholders, the logistical and financial viability of virtual science libraries, in particular those that include a platform to facilitate networking among scientists across geographical boundaries and provide an integrated search capability across all available online publications;

Encourage the formation of national research and education networks, which promote networking among scientists, increase collective buying power for online science research services, including access to journals, and result in the sharing of scarce resources;

Strengthen secondary and post-secondary curricula to better integrate geographic information systems and fundamental concepts of geography that enrich spatial thinking into national education programmes and support teachers through training to better integrate such systems, geography and spatial thinking into their professional development;

Establish bodies dedicated to obtaining, storing and disseminating geographic data, including remote sensing data, to make geographic information system data available for public use at the lowest cost;

xii

Involve the private sector in the process of increasing technology openness for geospatial data, with, for example, public sector organizations such as government agencies and libraries collaborating with private sector firms to index geospatial information and make it easily searchable and available online;

xiii

Promote the dissemination of successful experiences, including those involving constraint-based innovations, to foster an innovative culture through mechanisms such as the creation of awards and mass media campaigns;

xiv

Encourage and support efforts aimed at learning and capacity development at the firm and industry levels through the provision of an enabling environment;

Encourage scientific, research and academic institutions in their countries, especially in developed countries, to collaborate with counterparts in all other countries, with particular attention to those in the least developed countries;

xvi

Recognize the need to continue providing adequate funding and resources for science and technology, particularly in developing countries;

xvii

Consider mechanisms with a view to applying a gender lens in scientific research, from the setting of the agenda to the design and implementation of projects, for example, through the use of quotas and gender-sensitive assessment and evaluation;

The Commission and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development are encouraged:

With respect to the Commission, to continue in the role of torch-bearer for innovation, to raise awareness among policymakers about the process of innovation and to identify particular opportunities for developing countries to benefit from such innovation, with special attention to be placed on new trends in innovation that can offer novel possibilities for developing countries, especially for small and medium enterprises and individual entrepreneurs;

To share and analyse evidence on the development of innovative capacities, including at the firm level, especially for small and medium enterprises, to understand the social and economic dimensions of those processes and provide insights for the development of public policy;

iii

To provide a forum for dialogue and for the sharing of best practices and experiences to identify and recommend ways and appropriate measures to promote innovation, research and development, new knowledge creation and technology transfer, as well as information and communications technologies for capacity-building in science, technology and engineering education and research and entrepreneurship for the benefit of developing countries, and in this context explore ways to expand cooperation among all countries, with particular attention to sharing available resources online;

To develop metrics to assess progress made by countries to implement science, technology and innovation policy review recommendations for developing science and technology and innovation policies and other recommendations they have acted upon and, if requested by those countries, to conduct periodic reviews to monitor such progress;

To encourage the Gender Advisory Board of the Commission to provide inputs to policy deliberations and documentation of the Commission, to invite the Board to report on progress at the annual sessions of the Commission and to consider integrating a gender perspective into the science, technology and innovation policy reviews, where appropriate.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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