It
had been a passage full of struggle for the financial resources, but in the last
two decades the Centre has emerged triumphant with support of many well wishing
countries and scientific community at large and has provided a highly engaging
mechanism for the promotion of South-South (now extended to cover even
North-South) cooperation through the interventions of science and technology and
successful execution of a large number of programmes in diverse scientific
areas. The Centre now has a noteworthy global identity of its own in bringing
the developing countries to the frontiers of science through networking, sharing
of knowledge and pooling of resources. A report titled 'Two Decades (1989-2009) of NAM S&T Centre - The Model for South-South Cooperation in Science & Technology' has been prepared by Mr. M. Bandyopadhyay, Senior Expert & Administrative Officer of the NAM S&T Centre on successful completion of the 20 years of the existence of the Centre.
The report gives an overview of the background, activities and achievements of the NAM S&T Centre in the last twenty years of its working. Chapter I is the introductory section of the report, giving a short historical background and discussing the rationale in creating the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which is followed by the background for the establishment of the NAM S&T Centre and its aims, objectives and functions. Chapter-II deals with the functioning of the Centre, including its administrative structure, member countries, benefits and privileges to the members, NAM S&T- Industry Network and the linkages that the Centre has established over the years with a large number of other inter-governmental and international organizations for collaborating on undertaking various activities and pursuing its objectives. The range of scientific activities and accomplishments of the Centre have been illustrated with interpretation of the large amount of data arising out of such activities in Chapter-III. Chapter-IV deals with the financial and administrative issues relating to the working of the NAM S&T Centre including various sources of revenue, the expenditure pattern, efforts made to economise on administrative overheads, increasing expenditure on scientific activities and generating surplus for use in case of unavoidable circumstances in the future. Chapter-V is the Concluding Chapter which gives a short overview and analysis of the achievements of the Centre and the future perspectives on its functioning. Efforts have been made to include in the report all the relevant information so that it becomes a complete and comprehensive document on the NAM S&T Centre which can be used as a ready reckoner and a reference material by various stakeholders, including the member countries, network members, and the scientific communities in the developing countries at large.