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President's Report on the State of the Union

10. IUPAC ACTIVITIES IN LESS -DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

IUPAC's international role bears a scientific and moral responsibility to help develop the scientific, educational, and professional training infrastructure in less-developed countries. IUPAC held a joint meeting with the African Association for Pure and Applied Chemistry in Durban, Republic of South Africa in July 1998, on Chemistry in the Development of Africa, to discuss areas of collaboration. This meeting was organized by Professor P.S. Steyn, member of the Executive Committee, for whose leadership I am grateful.

This fruitful and most instructive meeting discussed human capital development, research infrastructure, reduction of brain drain, bridging the gap between donors and less-developed countries, clean chemical industry, and the environment. In addition to current IUPAC programs for less-developed countries, the meeting initiated an AAPAC-IUPAC joint collaboration in the planning of an electronic communication highway for Africa. One tangible result of this collaboration has been the creation of a web site for the African Network for Valorization of Plant Materials. We have provided server space and technical assistance to help the network set up its web site <http://www.iupac.org/links/vpma/index.html>. The Union sponsored a report by Dr. Chris Garbers, in partnership with UNESCO, on the state of Chemistry in Africa. This report has been extensively distributed to IUPAC members and other interested international organizations. Another joint project with UNESCO is the funding of fellowships for students from third world countries to study for six months at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in India.

A new initiative to promote sponsorship of IUPAC Conferences in developing countries will be discussed by the Bureau at Berlin. This initiative will provide funds to help countries that often cannot hold major international conferences to do so. Holding an international conference is an excellent way to help scientists in developing countries maintain the contacts that are a necessary part of participating at a high level in modern chemistry. It also enables young scientists to participate in a major international conference, an opportunity many of them rarely receive.



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