ABSTRACT
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) was created as the UN development system's focal point and coordinator for activities of industrial promotion. The importance of industrialization to economic growth and development—signified by the fact that the term “industrialized” is used synonymously with advanced development—had long been acknowledged. The emergence of an industrial development organization in the international public sector, therefore, might have seemed uncontroversial. However, the ideological rivalries instilled by Cold War politics, and the doubts in a few influential developed countries about the role of the public sector in industrial promotion, surrounded UNIDO in controversy from its earliest days. Its emergence as a full-fledged specialized agency of the UN system was, mainly in consequence, belabored in spite of strong and unwavering support from the overwhelming majority of developing countries, a juxtaposition of power and influence which has accompanied many UN and other multilateral agencies. 1
