MMSZ Notebook
An occasional information sheet about instrumentation in developing countries.
Published and distributed by "MTA-MMSZ Ltd", P.O.Box 58, H1502 Budapest,Hungary;
Tel. and Fax: 36-1 203 4285;
E-mail: A_Menyhard@compuserve.com
Responsible publisher: J. Kiss;
Editor: A. Menyhard
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This newsletter, "MMSZ Notebook", aims to inform and bring together those who use, manage and maintain scientific instruments in developing countries. It is produced by MTA-MMSZ, an operation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It is supported by UNIDO and by the International Foundation for Science, Stockholm.
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Editor: A. Menyhard, MTA-MMSZ, PO Box 58, H-1502 Budapest, Hungary.
Tel and fax: +36 (1) 203 4285.
E-mail: < menyhard,100324.3233@compuserve.com >
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In this issue:
- Network for users of scientific equipment in Africa - NUSESA
- International chemistry programme - CHEMRAWN
- Instrumentation training in industrialised countries
- Communications journal - "Telecommunications in Africa"
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MMSZ Notebook - an occasional information sheet about instrumentation in developing countries
No 32 E-mail edition October 97
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NB32/159
Developments at NUSESA
NUSESA is the Network of Users of Scientific Equipment in Eastern and Southern Africa. We have recently received its first Newsletter.
NUSESA has come a long way since it was founded in the early 1990s. It began as loosely-knit cooperation between instrument specialists in research projects funded by the International Foundation for Science (IFS). Projects depend on good instrumentation and are held back if instruments don't work. By drawing attention to this IFS hoped to raise the awareness of laboratory managements and persuade them to provide facilities for proper maintenance. Training Workshops were organised in Zimbabwe (1989), Tanzania (90), Malawi (91), Mozambique (92), Botswana (95) and Zambia (96). Those who took part kept in touch, and so NUSESA took shape.
NUSESA Workshops were initially organised by IFS, with lecturers and funding from outside. But national NUSESA groups now raise funds in their own countries, trainees at NUSESA Workshops must pay course fees, and NUSESA members pay an annual subscription to their local branch. In recent Workshops all the lecturers came from within the Region. Outside sponsorship helped some of the particpants but NUSESA is increasingly finding its own resources.
At a meeting of national NUSESA representatives last year in Botswana it was agreed to establish a secretariat, to coordinate activities and circulate information. The secretariat office moves to the country of whoever is currently nominated as Secretary General. Secretary Generals are appointed for three years.
NUSESA's first newsletter includes reports from eleven national branches - Botswana, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. All give information about the state of instrumentation in the writer's laboratory. Some go further, using their problems as a basis for discussing the situation in depth. The report from Zambia is especially good, with contributions from members in nine different laboratories, and they pass on many telling insights.
NUSESA plans further newsletters, maybe two each year. One wonders what will they contain. The problems that come with instrumentation in developing countries are now well known. Can they be solved, and if so, where to look for solutions ?
Spare parts, for example. Repairs are blocked because something cannot be obtained. Let's have some detail. A few years ago the need was for minor components but now it's more likely for whole circuit boards. How much money are we talking about - what are typical costs, is foreign currency the main problem, or would local currency do ? Is it still difficult to communicate with suppliers in distant countries ? Or to specify correctly ? Or to get import licences ? Or to clear through Customs ? Some reports give the impression that the biggest difficulty of all is to persuade the writer's Administration to get on with whatever admin needs to be done.
We have heard some imaginative solutions to the spare parts problem. A Brazilian geologist knows an airline pilot who will pick up small parts in Europe and bring them back in his pocket. A firm in Sudan pays a student in London to buy spares and send them by post. A Kenyan technician with his own successful servicing business says it is no problem to get import licences, one just has to go about it in the right way....
We are grateful to NUSESA for sending this Newsletter. We look forward to future issues and to the stimulation they will surely bring.
(ct)
Contact: Mr Dzengo Mzengeza, NUSESA Secretary General, PO Box A958, Harare, Zimbabwe. Tel +263 (4) 302196, fax 302706.
Email < nusesa@samara.co.zw >. *********************************************************************
NB32/160
CHEMRAWN - Chemical Research Applied to World Needs
>From time to time we report on international initiatives to suppport science in developing countries. Such programmes can need a lot of instrumentation. The following notes, based on information about an initiative of the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) are abstracted from "Science International", the newsletter of the International Council of Scientific Unions (April 1997, pages 8-9).
IUPAC has been active for over 75 years. It brings chemists together to work on various problems and has organised many symposia, seminars, and conferences.
In the 1970's there was growing appreciation among IUPAC members that chemistry could, and should, be applied to solve practical problems of the developing world. This led to the CHEMRAWN concept - "Chemical Research Applied to World Needs".
When a problem is identified, and is felt by members of IUPAC's CHEMRAWN Committee to be amenable to help by the CHEMRAWN process, discussions are held with other groups to determine how they see its importance. If importance is agreed, a conference on the subject is formulated and a proposal is passed to the main IUPAC Executive for approval.
What are the conditions for a successful CHEMRAWN conference ?
Firstly, it must be truly international, with as many attendees from the developing world as possible.
Secondly, it should include businessmen, members of governments, civil servants, NGOs, UN Agencies, environmental groups, etc.
Thirdly, it must produce a clear summary of its recommendations, and most importantly, draft a Future Actions Programme. This aims to achieve at least some of the objectives identified by the Conference.
Some of the results of CHEMRAUN:
Conference VII was planned in response to the World Environmental Summit held in Rio in 1991. Immediately before the conference a group of 26 scientists from developing countries spent a week in the laboratories of the US Environmental Protection Agency to see at first hand the accurate measurement of various environmental parameters. The Conference itself was attended by some 400 delegates from 48 countries. Its Recommendations and Future Actions were delivered to every member of the US Congress and also to every Scientific Attache in all the embassies in Washington. Its subcommittees - Organizing, Programme, and Future Actions Committees - were instrumental in raising over $500,000 from all manner of sources, and also the help of the American Chemical Society. These funds supported the proposed actions.
One of the projects recommended, an innovative method for measuring the chemical components of the atmosphere by using kites, has already completed its first set of experiments and the results will be published shortly.
CHEMRAWN VIII was a success in a very different way. The main result was the founding of a new publication, "The Journal of Chemistry and Sustainable Development".
Most recently CHEMRAWN IX was held in Seoul, Korea, in September 1996. It secured sponsorship from at least two government departments as well as financial support from various sectors of Korean industry. Its Future Actions Committee is about to publish its recommendations.
Looking back over the first 20 years of CHEMRAWN, IUPAC notes that there is never enough funding for all the worthwhile projects it proposes. IUPAC regrets this but comments that, given the spread of the projects it wishes to support and the size of the subscriptions on which it depends, then a little has to go a very long way.
What of the future? CHEMRAWN X, on Chemical Education, now being planned, will be done in partnership with UNESCO. IUPAC suggests that the CHEMRAWN idea has proven that it is good, and urges its adaption to other disciplines. Its conclusion: "There are so many problems where the application of chemistry could help so much, particularly in the developing world. If only we could convince interested parties of what a good investment a bigger and more active CHEMRAWN programme would be !".
(ct)
Contact: CHEMRAWN Committee, IUPAC Secretariat, 2 Pound Way, Templar's Square, Oxford OX4 3YF, UK. Tel +44 (865) 747744, fax 747510.
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NB32/161
Where to get training in industrialised countries
Where to get training in instrumentation technology ? - many universities offer courses in electronics, but training specifically for instrumentation (analytical, medical, industrial, scientific generally) is harder to find.
The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) recommends a search through the publication "Postgrad 1997 - The Directory of Graduate Studies". We found this in the library of our local British Council office and were told it is held in such libraries in many countries. It's a good place to start.
A postgraduate degree (MSc or Postgraduate Diploma) can be gained in a year of full-time study. Among UK universities offering postgrad instrumentation courses are Dundee, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, and several in London. A typical syllabus reads:"Training in theory and practice of modern techniques of measurement to meet needs of industry; instrumentation and analytical science; options - analytical science, biomedical measurements, digital instrumentation and image systems, environmental measurements, optoelectronic instrumentation". Other universities offer variations on these themes.
You may also consult "Awards for postgraduate study at Commonwealth Universities", regularly issued and updated by ACU and available with British Council. Its index includes "Instrumental methods of analysis", "Instrumentation", and "Instrumentation Engineering".
Other industrial countries compile similar listings. These may be consulted in the overseas libraries of their cultural organisations. One may also write directly to a university. For example, Budapest Technical University offers postgraduate courses related to instrumentation and some of these are given in English language. In the United States, the Instrument Society of America (ISA) organises many forms of training in its field and is generous in providing literature about this.
What about funding ? ACU publishes a series of funding guides in its "ACU Awards Series". One of these, "Awards for Postgraduate study at Commonwealth universities", has 400 pages and costs *20 delivered (surface mail). An ACU leaflet outlines its contents: "... 1,070 entries describing scholarships, grants, bursaries, loans, etc for graduates of Commonwealth universities for postgraduate study or research at a Commonwealth university outside their own country. The directory is international with over 600 awards open to students of any nationality, and over 250 tenable in any country. Appendices cover awards tenable at non-university institutions".
(ct)
Contacts: Publications and Information Division, Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), 36 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PF, UK. Tel +44 (171) 387 2655, fax 387 2655. Email < pubinf@acu.ac.uk >.
Instrument Society of America (ISA), PO Box 12277, Research Triangle Park NC27709, USA. Tel (919) 549 8411, Email < info@isa.org >. *********************************************************************
NB32/162
"Telecommunications in Africa" magazine
This slim journal (20 pages) brings news about all aspects of telecommunications - phone, radio, Internet, satellite - and the organisations and policy-makers behind them. Published by AITEC in the UK it draws information from correspondents in most African countries. It appears six times a year.
Some items in recent issues: Satellite Update, Internet Development (Mauritius, South Africa, Benin, CAR, Madagascar, Gabon, Guinea, Angola), Supplier Profile (Altech/Alcatel in South Africa), Market Focus (Zimbabwe), South Africa's plans for submarine cables, "rural connectivity" (telephones), radio broadcasting direct from satellites, and reviews of general international trends. Advertisements, useful but not overwhelming, give pointers to where to look for equipment designed for use in Africa. A regular Diary section lists meetings and exhibitions on into 1999. For 1998 it announces "Computer, Communications, and Office Equipment" exhibitions in Kampala (April), Accra (May), Nairobi (June) and Dar es Salaam (September).
The energy and dynamism of this little publication are in refreshing contrast to the wordy approach of official publications. We have read elsewhere of a meeting on "Information, Society, and Development" held earlier this year in Midrand, South Africa, and attended by "high-level participants from nine developed countries, one transition country, 29 developing countries, and 21 intergovernmental organisations". It was concluded that "there is insufficient investment in developing information structures in most developing countries, despite the fact that there is extensive unmet demand for information and communication technologies and services". That may well be true, but, as we read in "Telecommunications in Africa", a lot is already being done and the Continent is moving fast towards getting itself fully wired.
"Telecommunications in Africa" lists on its cover the per-copy price in twenty African countries (for UK the price is *1.50) but offers free subscription to those with decision-making or purchasing power.
(ct)
Contact: For free or paid subs: AITEC, PO Box 2422, Pinegowrie 2123, South Africa. Tel +27 (11) 886 4033, fax 886 4165. Email < aitecsa@wn.apc.org >. For editorial matter & advertising: AITEC UK, AITEC House, Church Walk, St Neots, Cambridgeshire PE19 1JH, UK. Tel +44 (1480) 407477, fax 407677. Email < aitec.admin@dial.pipex.com >.
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