UNESCO’s Participation Programme for South-South Technical Cooperation 2007

Introduction

One of the most critical challenges facing developing countries is the gap that exists between the North and the South in the production and utilization of scientific and technological knowledge. However, by virtue of the differences in opportunity, location, level of investment and state of the economy, countries in the developing world are not at equal levels of development. Some countries have excelled in IT, for example, but lack expertise in the Energy sector. Others may have sound technical capacity in modern agricultural while they may lag behind in the Health sector. There is an innate opportunity in this situation which forms the foundation of South-South cooperation. A cooperative scheme could enable one country to transfer knowledge and expertise that it has to another country which would in return impart expertise that it possesses. This synergistic relationship stands to benefit both countries.

It falls in the mandate of the Commission to initiate, encourage and strengthen technical cooperation amongst its member countries in particular and developing countries in the South in general. Therefore COMSATS-UNESCO Partnership Programme 2007 is an attempt to further strengthen the South-South cooperation for capacity building. In order to build and strengthen technical capacity in the COMSATS’ Centres of Excellence to meet the challenges of socio-economic development Training workshops are being organized in Egypt, Sudan and Pakistan. These training workshops include:

1. Workshop on "Application of Predictive Maintenance Methods to General Industry", Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre (IRCC), 3rd - 7th November, Khartoum - Sudan
2. Training Workshop on the "Concept of University-Based Technology Parks in the Light of Global Experience", 9-10th December, 2007, International Centre for Chemical & Biological Sciences (ICCBS), Karachi - Pakistan
3. Workshop on "Human Stem Cell: Principles and Applications", 24-25th December, 2007, National Research Centre (NRC), Cairo - Egypt

Objectives

This programme would strive to achieve the following objectives:

• Expanded technical expertise and improved human resources in relevant sectors amongst participating COMSATS member countries.
• Strengthening of linkages between COMSATS Centres of Excellence. All three Centres of Excellence in the participant countries will be enabled to strengthen the network linkages. Capacity is expected to build up for expanding this networking in other developing COMSATS’ member countries.
• Demonstration to member countries of the importance and benefits of South-South cooperation and S&T knowledge sharing.
• Contributing towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Enhanced capacity through trained personnel will work in their respective countries in diverse cross-cutting areas as reflected in the objectives of the MDG’s.

On the successful completion of these training workshops the South-South Cooperation programme will be extended to other COMSATS’ member countries as well.