We seek to collaborate with analytical chemists in developing countries to build their capacities as staff members and managers of analytical laboratories. These chemists are expected to produce test results that are accurate, reliable, and acceptable internationally, since the results are involved either in monitoring a country’s environment (air, water, and soils), or ensuring the quality and purity of agricultural or manufactured products intended for export.

The need to monitor the environment in developing countries arises from the activities of development--industrial production, mining, etc.--which cause increasing levels of pollution that threaten the safety and health of their people. The need to obtain reliable and trustworthy testing results arises from the hope of developing countries to enter world markets by exporting their agricultural or manufactured products. Foreign buyers require these products to meet various international standards of purity or quality.

Our principal strategies are to

1. Organize workshops with analytical chemists and laboratory managers in developing countries to train them in analytical methods, metrology, and good laboratory practice; and
2. Work directly with selected laboratories in developing countries to identify difficulties that prevent them from obtaining test results of sufficient accuracy and reliability when testing commodities for export. IOCD would then plan to provide appropriate remedial measures to the laboratories.

Assistance to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS). In agreement with the Ugandan Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry (MTTI), this Working Group is partnering with UNBS to strengthen its capacity to test export commodities to international standards. Read about the origins of this project here.

Support to Workshops Organized by African Analytical Chemists Themselves. IOCD is providing financial support to capacity-building meetings organized by African scientists. Two recent examples are the workshop of the Southern and Eastern Africa Network of Analytical Chemists (SEANAC) in Botswana in mid-July 2007, and the conference of the Eastern and Southern Africa Laboratory Managers Association (E-SALAMA) in Zimbabwe on 8-11 December 2007.

From left: IOCD Scientists Al Pohland, Walter Benson, and Patrick Wilson consult with Ugandan economist Nicodemus Rudaheranwa.

Assistance to Ugandan Commodity Testing Laboratories. In October 2005, IOCD scientists provided technical consulting to seven Ugandan laboratories engaged in testing commodities for export. The trip was organized in collaboration with the Ugandan Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry (MTTI). Click here to read more about this visit. You can also access an article describing the visit and its findings published in Chemistry International, the IUPAC newsmagazine.

Cameroon Workshop on Scientific Instrumentation. In 2002 IOCD cooperated with the International Science Foundation (IFS) in convening a workshop of scientists from several African countries at the University of Buea (Cameroon) to discuss challenges to identifying, purchasing, maintaining, and repairing scientific equipment. Click here to access the Workshop report and learn more about equipment initiatives for the developing world. For an exhaustive analysis of the state of science in Africa, see the UNESCO Science Report 2005, pages 177-201.

Workshop on Problems Related to Mining in Africa. Held in September 2000 at Potchefstroom University and co-sponsored by the South African Chemical Institute (SACI).

Workshop for Regulatory Chemists and Laboratory Managers in Central and Eastern Europe. Held in Prague in 1999 and co-sponsored by the Czech government, the Czech Chemical Society, and Charles University.

Workshop for Analytical Chemists in Latin America. Held in March 1998 in Montevideo, Uruguay, and co-sponsored by the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Uruguay.