The Governing Council of the United Nations University (UNU) held its forty-first session from late November to early December 1994 at Accra. The Council considered proposals to further enhance the effectiveness of the University, led by Rector Heitor Gurgulino de Souza, and to strengthen the University's role and impact in United Nations research initiatives and activities. Several proposals for new academic initiatives were approved by the Council. Among them, the Council decided to establish the UNU International Leadership Academy, which will operate at Amman, with financial support from the Government of Jordan.
The Director-General of UNESCO and the Secretary-General appointed new members of the Council to replace 11 members whose six-year term of office came to an end on 31 May 1995.
The year 1995 marks the twentieth anniversary of the initiation of UNU academic activities. It is also the sixth and final year of the UNU research, training and dissemination activities carried out under the second medium-term perspective (1990-1995). The process of preparing the University's third medium-term perspective (1996-2001) for the next six years has accordingly been set in motion. To that end, the University prepared a mission statement as a step towards sharpening the focus of its institutional goals as an international educational institution and autonomous entity of the United Nations in a rapidly evolving global environment.
At its forty-first session, the Council endorsed an institutional strategy paper setting out the programmatic development goals to take the University into the twenty-first century. In addition, the Council considered the appraisal report of an internal assessment group of the Council. The report called for the University to take a leading coordinating role in United Nations research initiatives and activities and to act to enhance the overall coherence of the University's academic programme. The assessment underlined the need for a better integration of UNU research, training and fellowship initiatives and for more effective dissemination of UNU publications. Another major recommendation of the report was the further strengthening of the UNU Centre in its key function as a coordinating mechanism of University academic programmes and research and training centres and programmes. The Council requested that the essential components of the assessment report and the institutional strategy paper and mission statement be integrated as a further step in the process of developing the University's third medium-term perspective.
During the period from 1 September 1994 to 10 August 1995, 72 UNU academic meetings were held worldwide. As at 10 August 1995, 58 UNU postgraduate trainees were enrolled in training programmes at cooperating institutions around the world. The areas of training include food and nutrition, geothermal energy, remote sensing, biotechnology and micro-informatics. In 1994, 57 per cent of the training was done at institutions in developing countries and 43 per cent at institutions in industrialized countries. More than 1,340 fellows from over 100 countries have been trained by the University since 1976; an additional 2,300 persons have received training in UNU workshops and seminars. To date, more than 300 books, 5 scientific journals and numerous research papers and studies have been produced from UNU research.
Research continued to be carried out within the five programme areas identified by the UNU second medium-term perspective: universal human values and global responsibilities; new directions for the world economy; sustaining global life-support systems; advances in science and technology; and population dynamics and human welfare.
The University has made progress in the implementation of its programme on environmentally sustainable development (UNU Agenda 21), which places particular emphasis on human development and capacity-building in developing countries. A series of postgraduate education and capacity-building activities on environmental management has been initiated in Tokyo, together with collaborating institutions in India and Thailand.
The University also launched a major new long-term research effort that brings together private companies, industrial policy makers and researchers to pursue the achievement of technological breakthroughs that will facilitate manufacturing without any form of waste, the so-called Zero Emissions Research Initiative. To mobilize support and to exchange information on the design and implementation of this global multidisciplinary research programme, the University organized the first World Congress on Zero Emissions at its headquarters in Tokyo in early April 1995. The World Congress was the first multi-point Internet video conference undertaken from Japan, linking scholars and government and business leaders in Asia, Europe and North America and allowing access to an extended audience in some 100 countries.
To further the development of long-term initiatives related to the work of the United Nations, the Rector convened a special advisory team to assist in preparing a "UNU Agenda for Peace, Security and Global Governance". The advisory team suggested a five-year programme focusing on such topics as ethics, democracy and governance, human rights, adjudicatory tools of governance and mechanisms for peace and collective security. These mechanisms include preventive diplomacy, collective security schemes, peace-keeping, post-conflict measures and disarmament. The programme is currently being implemented.
The University continues to strengthen its interaction with the United Nations system and is making an intensive and concerted effort to ensure that the results of its work feed into the deliberations and operational activities of the United Nations. The University prepared policy papers for presentation at the International Conference on Population and Development and the World Summit for Social Development preparatory process. Substantive contributions are being planned or are in progress with respect to the Fourth World Conference on Women, Habitat II and the ninth session of UNCTAD. The University has also intensified its research efforts in support of the United Nations Secretariat through studies on mine-clearance technology, peace-keeping in Africa and regional security questions in Latin America.
The University has produced a number of policy-oriented studies, including "The Fragile Tropics of Latin America: Sustainable Management of Changing Environments"; "International Waters in the Middle East: From Euphrates-Tigris to Nile"; "Managing Water for Peace in the Middle East: Alternative Strategies"; "Hydropolitics Along the Jordan River: Scarce Water and Its Impact on the Arab-Israeli Conflict"; "Sustainable Management of Soil Resources in the Humid Tropics"; "Ocean Governance: Sustainable Development of the Seas"; "Steering Business Toward Sustainability"; "Culture, Development and Democracy: The Role of the Intellectual"; "Global Transformation: Challenges to the State System"; "State, Society and the United Nations System: Changing Perspectives on Multilateralism"; "The United Nations System: The Policies of Member States"; "Arms Reduction: Economic Implications in the Post-Cold-War Era"; "Mega-City Growth and the Future"; "Global Employment: An International Investigation into the Future of Work"; and "The Evolving New Global Environment for the Development Process".
From 1 September 1994 to 10 August 1995, UNU received some $19.9 million in endowment fund, operating and specific programme contributions. Nevertheless, the University faces continued resource constraints brought on by lower investment income from its endowment fund and increased competition for limited resources. Mobilization of operational contributions and of untied or unearmarked funding has become increasingly difficult in the last decade.
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