CREATION OF THE OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The Presidents and the Ministers Responsible for Science and Technology have given OAS a clear mandate to promote and support hemispheric cooperation in this area. The Ministers, in their Plan of Action, requested OAS, through its Program MERCOCYT, to operationalize the recommendations of the Plan, and requested the Secretary General to "consider providing the necessary resources to the Technical Secretariat of MERCOCYT, located in the Department of Scientific and Technological Affairs, to carry out these new responsibilities". Also, "the Ministers request the assistance of the Secretary General of the OAS in organizing future ministerial meetings". With this, they have given OAS a fundamental role to support future Hemispheric Fora on Science and Technology.

2.2 OAS Background in the Area of Science and Technology

In 1967, the Presidents of the Americas decided to establish a Regional Scientific and Technological Development Program (PRDCYT), and placed it within the sphere of competence of the OAS under the Inter-American Council for Education, Science and Culture. The PRDCYT has been under the direction of the Department of Scientific and Technological Affairs (DACYT) until the current restructuring of the OAS technical cooperation programs.

During its first years of operation, the Program played a leading role in building up a basic scientific and technological infrastructure in the countries of the region in order to provide a solid basis for effective Inter-American cooperation. Later, with the natural growth of the area in almost all of the countries and as the resources for technical cooperation dwindled, this first mission of the PRDCYT was reduced. At this time the Inter-American Development Bank assumed a central role in supporting and strengthening the national infrastructures in science and technology, through a continuous flow of loans to almost all the countries of the region.

On the other hand, and within the limitations already observed, the OAS PRDCYT maintained an important role in promoting and establishing many networks of scientists and technologists in the region. Many of these networks have been later partially assumed and supported by other institutions, such as those of the United Nations System, the Ibero-American Program on Science and Technology - CYTED, and bilateral cooperation Programs like those of Canada and the European Union.

The Department of Scientific and Technological Affairs defined this capacity in its Strategic Plan of 1991, which can be considered an essential element in the mission of the Program: "DACYT has a solid network of connections in the whole region and experience in the management of multinational programs, that enables it to give special emphasis to the stimulus of joint efforts contributing to inter-American integration in these issues".^/

This perhaps, among others, was a contributing factor which led to the decision by the Ministers of Science and Technology, after evaluating the Hemispheric Programs of Science and Technology, to give a special role to the OAS, through DACYT and its MERCOCYT Program. The Ministers recommended MERCOCYT to "continue to encourage the scientific institutions of OAS member states to combine their capacity and efforts" and "to establish cooperation ties among international agencies, inter-American partnerships of academic and technical institutions, and the productive sector".^/

2.3 OAS-IDB Cooperation

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has become the most important source of financing for the scientific infrastructure and the innovation programs in the region, at a national level, and has as such been requested by the Ministers of Science and Technology to "increase its participation in national, multinational and international/regional institutes or programs" supporting specially "the small and relatively lesser developed countries". ^/ There are many possibilities of cooperation and complementarity between OAS and IDB. While IDB has unique experience in financing national programs, OAS has its niche in regional cooperation. There have been instances of cooperation in the past between both institutions, for instance in supporting the Commission of Scientific and Technological Development of Central America and Panama (CTCAP), which is an organism recognized by the Protocols of Integration of the Central American subregion. The Technical Secretariat of CTCAP is located in the Department of Scientific and Technological Affairs of the OAS. Following the mandates of cooperation that OAS and IDB have received from their governing bodies and from the Presidents of the region, there is now an agenda of cooperation under discussion between both institutions, with a package of projects directly derived from the recommendations of the Ministers Responsible for Science and Technology.

3. Creation of the Office of Science and Technology (OST)

3.1 Importance and Characteristics of the OST

The Office of Science and Technology (OST) is created as the new entity which will be responsible for science and technology activities, in order to further the new goals of the Organization of American States. This Office will play a broader role in catalizing --through networking-- technical excellence throughout the Americas, and fulfill the mandates of both the Summit of the Americas and the Ministers Responsible for Science and Technology.

The Office of Science and Technology, will devote itself to strengthening technical capabilities and programs in the Hemisphere, in order to contribute effectively towards achieving present and future goals in the priority areas of the OAS. The OST will provide the Units and programs of the General Secretariat with technical and institutional assistance in the area of science and technology.

The OST, which replaces the Department of Scientific and Technological Affairs (DACYT), will build on the 25 years of experience developed by the programs of the PRDCYT. This experience includes the network of scientists and engineers throughout the Hemisphere, technical community and policy makers, as well as contacts with financial institutions, national productive sectors, and other regional and international organizations.

The OST will be structured according to tasks and actions, based on the recommendations of the Ministers Responsible for Science and Technology, and not on the basis of disciplines as it was before. A structure based on disciplinary lines is rigid. The proposed model will provide a flexible operating mechanism which will enable the General Secretariat to react quickly to the changing needs of the member countries.

3.2 Areas of Activity of the OST

The Office of Science and Technology will focus its activities in the priority areas identified by the AGECID in Partnership for Development which have been recently confirmed by the Ministers Responsible for Science and Technology.

The priority areas laid down by the Ministers in their Plan of Action are:

a) Development of Scientific and Technological Capacity in the Countries of the Hemisphere, which includes development of policies related to science and technology in the region.

b) Technology and Social Development.

c) Science, Technology, Innovation and the Enterprise Sector, referring to activities oriented to promote competitiveness of the productive sector of the region.

d) Science and Technology for Sustainable Development.

e) Development and Application of Information Technology.

In following the above priorities, the OST during the next three years will focus its activities in the areas of:

i) Strengthening technical capabilities and programs in the Hemisphere.

ii) Metrology, Standardization, Accreditation and Quality.

iii) Development and Application of Information Technology: Project "Hemisphere Wide Inter-University Scientific and Technological Information Network" (RedHUCyT).

iv) Science and Technology for Sustainable Development: Support to Environmentally Sound Technologies.

v) Science, Technology and Social Development: Support to improve competitiveness of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) with particular attention to enterprises owned by rural women.

3.3 Coordination with other OAS Units and Programs

The Office of Science and Technology, will assist CIDI and the other Units and Offices, in the different priority areas of the General Secretariat, to develop policies and provide advice on the S&T issues which underpin almost all activities in the identified areas. The OST will coordinate the flow of S&T related information between all the different Units and Offices of the OAS to ascertain that scientific and technological efforts contribute more significantly toward common welfare. In specific terms, the OST has presently identified the following areas of collaboration with different responsibility centers of the Organization:

- CIDI: The OST will support and assist CIDI in the organization of inter-American meetings at the ministerial level within the Office's area of competence.

- Trade: The economic activity of any country involves production which is predicated on the application of S&T and on technological choices. The key for achieving competitiveness in the international arena is for the productive sector of the Hemisphere to place special emphasis on quality which can only be attained with a strong metrological infrastructure, accompanied by a standardization program that covers both processes and products. The activities carried out by the OST in Metrology, Standards, Accreditation and Quality provide the adequate environment for cooperation between OST and the Trade

Unit. Also, through the RedHUCyT project, OST will assist in facilitating access to Internet in the countries, bringing this technology to the productive sector, which is becoming an extremely important tool for economic transactions.

- Democracy: Underpinning the goal of democratic governance is the access to information. This involves the effective use of information and communication technologies. The OST, through its Project "Hemisphere-Wide Inter-University Scientific and Technological Information Network" (RedHUCyT) will cooperate with the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy in fostering the effective use of information for decision making, and use of technology to combat constraints and limitations (physical, economic), as well as national security. In order to fulfill one of the mandates of the Summit of the Americas, RedHUCyT will expand its field of action making this Network accessible to universities, libraries, hospitals and government agencies to enable them to make use of specialized data bases.

- Environment: Much of the environmental problems are created by development activities which failed to take into account their environmental impact. To stop future damages to the environment and to solve some of the problems created under the earlier activities will require some input from science and technology. The biggest industrial polluters in the developing countries are the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The OST will support the goals of the Unit for the Environment and Sustainable Development by promoting activities aimed at the improvement of access to technological information. It will also support this Unit in the promotion of environmentally sound technologies for the productive sector, through technology transfer and technology cooperation, and at directing research and development activities towards generating cleaner production processes.

- Social Development: The greatest obstacle to the implementation of policies which will introduce practices leading to sustainable development is the lack of satisfaction of basic needs of a large portion of the population. Extreme poverty can only be eradicated through creation of new employment. It is well known that 60-70% of employment in most countries is provided by the SME sector. This sector, thus, has the greatest potential to create new jobs. OST will contribute towards this by supporting activities which will improve competitiveness, production efficiencies, resource use and by introducing cleaner production processes. The OST recognizes that it will not have the resources to intervene at the micro (firm) level. It will capitalize on its past experiences by working with the national or regional "intermediate institutions" which have the mandates to provide support to this sector.

The present DACYT has activities in this area in collaboration with several bilateral and multilateral donor agencies. An important area of support to the Unit of Social Development will be the continued involvement in the Inter-American Industrial Support Network for the Improvement of Competitiveness and Environmental Performance of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. The main objectives of this Network are to strengthen the capacity of SMEs and to assist this productive sector in achieving higher levels of competitiveness, as well as promoting environmentally responsible production in the Hemisphere.

- Tourism: The OST will work with the Inter-Sectoral Unit for Tourism to support activities which will reduce outflow of capital. A recent programming exercise in the Caribbean Region identified, as a priority, assistance to areas such as the food processing sector. At present, many countries need to import food products to satisfy the food habits of tourists. An improvement of this sector could have a substantial impact towards stopping the outflow of funds earned from the tourism industries of many countries.

- Culture: By nature, technology retains the cultural values of the society where it was developed. To introduce a technology (hard or soft) in a society, certain adaptations are needed to make it compatible with the economic, physical and social environment. OST will work closely with the Office of Cultural Affairs to identify issues which need to be addressed in any proposed process of technical change and include these in the proposed activity.

- Inter-American Communications Commission (CITEL): The OAS will continue to collaborate with CITEL in the area of information infrastructure, in particular through the participation of RedHUCyT in the Meeting of Senior Telecommunication Officials to be held during 1996.