913 



28 



together the leading scientists of both developed and developing coun- 

 tries, many UNESCO activities critically depend on ICSU. Therefore, 

 the UNESCO subvention (about $540,000 per year) to ICSU and the support 

 of specialized activities by ICSU's constituent bodies are of particular 

 importance. 



The above-named activities and organizations depend to varying 

 degrees on UNESCO support, but such support (largely catalytic) is 

 particularly important for training activities in the developing world 

 since UNESCO provides the intergovernmental link to countries and 

 regions having limited affiliation with nongovernmental scientific 

 associations. It is true that these collaborating organizations can 

 receive funds from a variety of sources and do so. It is also true 

 that limited administrative structures within NGOs proscribe their 

 capacity to greatly augment program responsibilities were they to 

 choose to do so. However, the nongovernmental scientific organizations 

 and associations could provide a great deal more advice and assistance 

 to UNESCO projects, thus increasing their quality and efficiency. 

 Therefore, staff and administrative costs for NGOs need to be included 

 in consideration of alternative interim arrangements. Furthermore, 

 there would be significant U.S. oversight costs to be borne by an 

 appropriate organization sensitive to U.S. interests (NSF and/or NRC) 

 in channeling support to a variety of organizations and project 

 activities. 



Alternatives 



A preferred interim arrangement is to provide the current level of 

 U.S. contributions to UNESCO program costs in this area ($1.1 million 

 per year) to the relevant nongovernmental organizations through ICSU. 

 In fact, support of NGO-administered activities should be augmented to 

 a level of $1.5 million per year. This level might include the 

 seconding of a science administrator to ICSU. An additional provision 

 of $300,000 for bilateral programs involving U.S. professional groups 

 and universities is suggested, raising the total to $1.8 million per 

 year. All of these arrangements would require agreements with the 

 organizations concerned; support levels would have to include appro- 

 priate managerial, oversight, and overhead costs, which could be 

 significant. 



A second option for alternative support of these program activities 

 would be an annual contribution to UNESCO (Funds-in-Trust, donations, 

 etc.) for the U.S. share (25 percent) of regular program costs in this 

 area, plus an estimated 10 percent overhead charge, or a total of 

 $1.1 million. In addition, it is recommended that about $700,000 be 

 provided to selected multilateral science activities through grants to 

 the relevant nongovernmental scientific organizations. Such augmented 

 support would raise the total level of support of VI. 1 activities to 

 $1.8 million per year, or about the same as the present U.S. contri- 

 bution. 



