Chemistry International
Vol. 24, No. 3
May 2002
IOCD:
20 Years of Building Capacity in Chemistry in Developing Countries
by
Jean-Marie Lehn, Elkan R. Blout, and Robert H. Maybury
The
International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD)
is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its founding by awarding the
Pierre Crabbé-IOCD Prize, in honor of its founder, the late Pierre
Crabbé. Over the years, Crabbé and his successors have
managed to create and maintain specific and practical activities, provide
vital technical services, and deliver promising results. Now rich with
experience, this organization is planning for the road ahead.
In 1981,
Pierre Crabbé, a Belgian chemist working at UNESCO in Paris,
called together a group of distinguished scientists from 15 countries
to discuss scientific research in developing countries. He had joined
the UNESCO staff after years of creative research in steroid chemistry
with Carl Djerrasi at the Syntex company in Mexico. Their work had culminated
in the synthesis of the first steroid oral contraceptive, the now well-known
birth control pill.
The years
of working in Mexico had opened Crabbés eyes to the many
barriers that hinder the efforts by scientists in developing countries
to carry on research, such as inadequate laboratory equipment, a lack
of up-to-date books and journals, and long periods of isolation from
mainstream scientific activities. His vision of how these barriers might
be lowered was to engage scientists from developing countries in collaborative
research with scientists from industrialized countries.
|
Front
row: M. James Cosentino, Jean-Marie Lehn (President), Robert Maybury
(Executive Director) Back row: Jacques Perié, Walter Benson,
Fred Opperdoes, Stephen Matlin, Lester Mitscher
|
Crabbé
gave concreteness to his vision by bringing a group of scientists to
Paris, where they formed the International Organization for Chemical
Sciences in Development (IOCD). A charter and bylaws were drafted and
deposited with the Belgian Ministry of Justice, and officers were appointed
as follows: President, the late Glenn T. Seaborg, a Nobel Laureate of
the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory; Vice President and Treasurer, Elkan
R. Blout, Dean of Harvard School of Public Health; and Director, Pierre
Crabbé.
The IOCD
initially formed two scientific working groups and placed them at the
core of IOCD. The Working Group on Fertility Regulation, headed by Dr.
Josef Fried of the University of Chicago, linked specialists in the
chemistry of fertility regulation with chemists in developing countries
in order to synthesize new compounds to be tested as antifertility drugs.
The Working Group on Tropical Diseases, chaired by Dr. Sydney Archer
of the Renssalear Institute, linked specialists in synthetic organic
chemistry with chemists in developing countries, with the aim of synthesizing
compounds to be tested as chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment
of tropical diseases.
Under
the inspired leadership of Pierre Crabbé, these working groups
launched vigorous collaborative research with generous funding from
donor agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Mellon
Foundation, and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. They
set high expectations in their work, aimed to build research capacity
among the scientists in developing countries, and sought to make substantive
contributions to the world body of scientific knowledge. Dr. Pino Benagiano,
a WHO official at that time, commented that IOCDs Working Group
on Fertility Regulation in the Male had "unique status" in the global
search for an effective male fertility regulator.
This promising
early period of IOCD came to an abrupt and tragic halt in mid-1987 when
Pierre Crabbé was struck and killed by a car in the street near
his home in Brussels. The IOCD Executive Committee was confronted with
the need to find a person who could quickly take up Crabbés
work and maintain the momentum of IOCDs activities. Their search
brought them to Dr. Robert Maybury, a chemist recently retired from
20 years with UNESCO. He accepted the IOCDs invitation to become
the executive director, bringing a wide range of contacts built up during
his many years of service in the field.
Maintaining
the Momentum of IOCDs Program (1987 to Present)
One of
Mayburys first tasks was to establish the Working Group on Plant
Chemistry, with Sir Leslie Fowden, director of the Rothamsted Experimental
Station in England, as its
chairman. The working group focused its capacitybuilding efforts on
convening workshops for natural-products chemists in developing countries.
The members of the working groupoutstanding specialists from industrialized
countriesprovided instruction in relevant laboratory techniques
to selected natural-products chemists from countries in the region where
the workshops convened. The first workshop convened for one week in
1990 in Nairobi, Kenya. Twelve natural-products chemists from East African
countries had an opportunity to learn selected, simple bioassay techniques:
the brine-shrimp toxicity test, assays for antisickling, the potato-disc
bioassay, and antimicrobial screening. The second such workshop was
held in 1992 in Ghana with participants from West African countries,
and the third in 1994 in Uruguay for South American participants. In
1994, Dr. Kurt Hostettmann, director of the Institute of Pharmacognosy
and Phytochemistry at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, became
chairman. He created a new international symposiumfocused on the
medicinal plants of a particular geographic regionthat was held
along with the workshop on bioassay techniques, but which was open to
scientists from throughout the world.
An
IUPAC-IOCD Working Party has organized workshops, in many different
countries, that provide analytical chemists and laboratory managers
with up-to-date information and methods pertaining to environmental
analytical chemistry.
|
In 1992,
in response to increasing requests from African natural-products chemists
for chemical and biological analyses, IOCD invited the directors of
several well-equipped African laboratories to a meeting to dis - cuss
ways to respond to these requests. IOCD realized that although no one
laboratory possessed all of the sophisticated instruments needed for
the full range of requested analyses, collectively they did. In response,
the group of directors set up the Network for Analytical and Bioassay
Services in Africa (NABSA) and selected Dr. Berhanu Abegaz of the University
of Botswana to be coordinator. Initially, IOCD provided financial assistance,
but now other donors are assisting NABSA.
In 1997,
when Dr. Sidney Archerthe original leader of the Working Group
on Tropical Diseases passed away, Dr. Fred Opperdoes of the Research
Unit for Tropical Diseases in Brussels assumed the role of chairman.
He introduced a highly innovative change in the groups program
by arranging for the admission of IOCD to observer status in the European
Unions cooperative research program known as COST (Cooperation
in Science and Technology). This status enables IOCD to invite several
younger research scientists from developing countries to participate
in the annual COST congresses on tropical diseases. IOCD covers the
full cost of their travel, room, and board. These scientists have opportunities
to present research reports and to explore possible research collaboration
with leading specialists attending the congresses.
Under
Mayburys leadership, IOCD added two environmental programs. In
1993, it signed an agreement with IUPAC to form the Joint Working Party
on Environmental Analytical Chemistry. Dr. Walter R. Benson, a retired
U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientist, became the programs
chairman. The Joint Working Party has organized workshops, in many different
countries, that provide analytical chemists and laboratory managers
with up-to-date information and methods pertaining to environmental
analytical chemistry.
The second
program, the Biotic Exploration Fund, was created in 1996 with a grant
from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Based on an idea of Dr.
Thomas Eisner of Cornell University, the program helps developing countries
introduce bioprospecting programs using biodiversity resources. Because
bioprospecting often involves a countrys indigenous peoples who
are the guardians of its biodiversity resources, IOCD prudently adopted
a Policy on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing to guide
its work of promoting bioprospecting. This put IOCD in full compliance
with the U.N.s 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity. IOCD scientists
have to date collaborated with responsible groups in South Africa, Kenya,
Uganda, and Guatemala, in
making plans to eventually implement bioprospecting. The chairman of
the Biotic Exploration Fund, Dr. Charles Weiss, was formerly the science
and technology advisor at the World Bank and is now a full professor
in Georgetown Universitys School of Foreign Service in Washington,
D.C.
With funds
from UNESCO, IOCD recently set up the project Books for Development.
Through this project, IOCD collects scientific books and arranges for
their shipment to university libraries in African countries. Dr. James
Cosentino, vice chair of the IOCD Working Group on Medicinal Chemistry,
initiated and continues to direct the project. He accepts books from
many sources, but has also reached agreement with university libraries
in Pennsylvania, USA, to donate their unneeded books.
IOCD
Starts Along the Road Ahead
In addition
to marking the 20th anniversary of IOCDs founding by awarding
the Pierre Crabbé-IOCD Prize, we as IOCDs officers also
see this as an opportune time to give thought to the future of IOCDs
program. This requires looking back as well as ahead and seeking answers
to such questions as: What improvements do we need to consider making
in our ongoing activities? Is there an unexplored potential of IOCD?
What new directions in the program should we consider in unlocking this
potential?
IOCD
scientists have to date collaborated with responsible groups in
South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and Guatemala, in making plans to
eventually implement bioprospecting.
|
We will
pursue this search for answers through a three-part strategy. The first
part calls for a critical analysis of IOCDs 20-year record of
capacity building among scientists in developing countries, thereby
discerning which activities were clear successes and which had shortcomings.
The strategys second part requires our sincere effort to seek
the views of the scientists in developing countries with whom we wish
to work, asking them to point out problems they face and asking them
how IOCD can help them find solutions. As the third part of this strategy,
we intend to consult with the two international organizations with which
we are affiliated IUPAC, of which we are an Associated Organization
and the International Foundation for Science (IFS), of which we are
a member organization about possible collaboration in the deliberations
on our future. Both organizations have extensive international experience
in responding to the needs of scientists in developing countries.
The interactions
we have had to date with IUPAC, which have been useful but limited,
are nevertheless indicative of the benefits we can expect from broader
collaboration. A particularly useful interaction is our cosponsorship
with IUPAC of the Joint IOCD/IUPAC Working Party for Environmental Analytical
Chemistry. We found IUPAC receptive to our repeated requests for funds
in support of the workshops. In regard to these workshops, we believe
closer collaboration with IUPAC could prove most beneficial in the study
of two workshop-related issues.
The first
arises from the decision of all of our working groups to adopt the workshop
as the modus operandi for its capacity-building efforts. Our
original approach had been to establish collaborative research with
scientists in developing countries. We are confident that collaboration
with IUPAC would greatly assist us in developing a rationale for turning
to the workshops as a way to build capacity.
The second
issue concerns the need to supplement the feedback we seek from workshop
participants on such matters as topics to be covered, time required
to cover the topics, and appropriate instructional methods and aids
(lectures, videos, books, computer programs, laboratory experiments,
etc). In addition, we need information about local problems and needs
of the countries where workshops are held. Collaboration with IUPAC
could help us devise appropriate surveys and research studies for gathering
this kind of information.
We have
a similar interest in benefiting from the wealth of experience found
in IFS by broadening our collaboration. We find IFSs own words
encouraging in this respect. In a recently completed study, IFS Member
Organization: Revisiting and Revitalizing their Role, IFS makes
clear its intentions to strengthen its collaboration with member organizations.
IOCD can also benefit from IFS assessment of the impact of its
activities on the achievements and career development of several hundred
IFS grantees in Africa. We intend to consult with the recently appointed
acting director of IFS, Dr. Jacques Gaillard, about the possibilities
of broader collaboration.
Clearly,
as IOCD continues to branch out in new directions, the spirit of its
founder lives on. The
Pierre Crabbé-IOCD Prize of USD 10 000 will be awarded to
the person "who has made the most significant contribution during the
past two years to the encouragement of better science and education
in a developing country." The submission deadline was 31 March 2002.
Jean-Marie
Lehn, IOCD President, Nobel Laureate, is professor at Université
Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France; Elkan R. Blout is IOCD Vice President
and Treasurer; and Robert H. Maybury is IOCD Executive Director. *E-mail:
[email protected]
www.iocd.org
IUPAC's Associated Organizations