923 



38 



3. There would be negligible impact on current U.S. research 

 interests, but perhaps potential problems with future access to field 

 sites in certain countries. Furthermore, a U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO 

 would result in the absence of a U.S. voice in determining the 

 substantive content and future directions of UNESCO social science 

 activities. 



4. Although UNESCO projects are a unique and important source of 

 support to developing country interests, there are reservations about 

 the quality of research and training activities, particularly the 

 emphasis on "indigenization," which veers toward ideology. The UNESCO 

 program in support of Third World social science research would be 

 harmed by the loss of U.S. funding. 



5. It is important to ensure that the full subvention currently 

 provided by UNESCO to the International Social Science Council is 

 maintained. 



6. There are poor possibilities for alternative interim arrange- 

 ments for supporting these UNESCO-related projects through multilateral 

 channels. On the other hand, enhanced bilateral funding may facilitate 

 new and better opportunities for collaborative research, particularly 

 in the developing world. 



MAJOR PROGRAM IX: 

 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY 



Relations; S&T Policies 

 (IX. 1 and IX. 2) 



Assessment/Potential Impacts 



Subprogram areas IX. 1 and IX. 2 provide support for a variety of 

 activities directed toward the development of science and technology 

 policy structures and instruments for policy analysis of particular 

 interest to developing countries. There has been concern with respect 

 to the value of some of these efforts. The current annual UNESCO 

 budget for Major Program IX (projects and staff costs) plus overhead is 

 approximately $6.2 million — the U.S. share would be $1.6 million. 

 Restricting attention to program costs ($3.8 million), the U.S. share 

 would be about $960,000 per year. Other sources of support in this 

 area provide a total of $1.7 million per year, or somewhat less than 

 one half of the regular UNESCO program. 



The level of visibility of the Program on Science, Technology and 

 Society, and the extent of U.S. participation in it, are perhaps the 

 lowest of any of the programs supported within the UNESCO science 

 budget. A number of U.S. academicians and science policy administra- 

 tors contacted in connection with this evaluation either had never 

 heard of the program or were only vaguely aware of some of its compo- 

 nents. In general, the activities undertaken through this program 



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