United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), created by resolution 2152 (XXI) of 17 November 1966 of the General Assembly as a subsidiary body of the Assembly, has become, since 1 January 1986, a specialized agency of the United Nations, due to the entry into force on 21 June 1985, of the Constitution adopted in Vienna on 8 April 1979.

Three successive reforms of the Organization were adopted at the general conferences of 1993, 1995 and 1997 involving the streamlining of structures and internal functioning and better targeting of activities.

Its headquarters is located in Vienna.

The main objective of UNIDO is to promote and accelerate sustainable industrial development in developing countries and work towards a new international economic order based on cooperation at global, regional and national levels, as well as at the sectoral level.

UNIDO has three main areas of activities:
 poverty reduction through productive activities
 trade capacity-building through the promotion of industrial investment and technology (industrial policy, institutional capacity-building, establishment of quality standards and metrology, industrial statistics and industrial information for network management, in particular information on technology transfers)
 energy and environment, through support programs to environmentally sustainable industrial development strategies and technologies, including technology transfers, and the development of standards and criteria relating to environmentally sustainable industrial development strategies and technologies, as well as the application of international treaties in the field of environment.

A new direction was recently given to the programs, based both on the countries’ own request and on market rationale and, in December 1997, the Organization defined priority themes for which it could provide a truly specific expertise (investment promotion, institution-building, agro-industries, clean industry) with emphasis on the poorest countries (Africa in particular), agro-industries and SMEs; an extensive decentralization was also approved.

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