György Rózsa: Information: from claims to needs (Joint edition published by the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Kultura Hungarian Foreign Trading Company. Budapest, 1988)
III. „The elephant’s head” and integrated information infrastructure for developing countries
151 Preamble The author is convinced that taking into account the results obtained so far in the matter of development information, high-level division of labour in information is not applicable to developing countries. New methods with more successful means of implementation would have to be found for the Third World. Although the original paper for this study was written in 1976 the author considers that the main ideas of this paper are still valid since the successful implementation of an information system for the Third World is still a concept of the future. Basically, the suggestion for further development for the information supply of developing countries can be summed up in two words: integrated policy. Integration here has two meanings: first, integration as an UN policy combining the different developing information systems of the UN family; second , an integrated approach to the contents of developing information, which combines information supplies with education, manpower training, and with practical works (e.g. agricultural production, small industry, etc.). I. Conceptual changes by the UN in information policy for development Following the adoption of resolution No. 1902 (LVII) by the Economic and Social Council at its fifty-seventh session on 1st August 1974, concerning "the progressive establishment of an international information exchange system for the transfer and assessment of technology for the benefit of developing countries," 1 a series of measures have been taken by the UN. Fundamental in the Economic and Social Council resolution is the assumption that the current UN scientific and technical information systems and services are not adequately meeting the requirements and demands of developing countries, 2 as stated in the study on "Improving technological information exchange with developing countries" 3 also prepared in response to the Economic and Social Council resolution 1902. Based on this study, a note was presented to the UN secretariat to the twenty-first session of ACAST. 4 In its resolution A/RES/3362(S-VII) 5' 6 of the seventh special session, the UN General Assembly took a position on the question of development, international economic cooperation and the role of information. Its chapter III Science and Technology, para. 4, points out that "Developed countries should facilitate access of the developing countries on favourable terms and conditions, and on an urgent basis, to informatique, to relevant information on advanced and other technologies...", and in para. 4 of the same chapter that "The UN system should play a major role... to ensure the application of science and technology to development" and that "the Secretary-General of the UN should take steps to ensure that the technology and experience available within the UN system is widely disseminated and readily available to the developing countries in need of it." Resolution A/3362 (S—VII) was preceded by a resolution on the new international economic order, 7 "The International Strategy for the Second UN Development
