Introduction

In autumn 1990 the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SAS), acting on behalf of the Conference of the Swiss Academies (CASS), set up the Working Group "For the Promotion of Research in Developing Countries" (PRDC) to draft a Swiss strategy for the sustained promotion of research in developing countries. It consisted of approximately twenty members, mainly from the Federal Administration, non-governmental organisations, science policy, as well as the Swiss Institutes of Technology and Universities. Their report was submitted in June 1993 and has since then been approved by the two commissioning agencies. - The present document contains the concepts for a comprehensive "Strategy" as well as for its most important, new part, the so-called "Special Programme".

An extended committee of the Working Group PRDC is currently preparing those resolutions which will have to be passed by the authorities and relevant agencies in the course of the next few months to implement the proposed strategy including the "Special Programme". To this aim, a new Commission for Research Partnership shall be set up which will initially focus their attention on a Central Bureau of Information and on the "Special Programme". With regard to information, the Working Group PRDC made a start by commissioning the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) in Geneva to produce a directory of Swiss scientists and institutions involved in research with or for developing countries. The first edition of this directory, Swiss Research and Developing Countries, has just been published .

The opportunity of putting to the practical test some of the ideas of the "Special Programme" presented itself in the possibility of linking it to Module 7 of the Swiss Priority Programme "Environment" (SPP-E) of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) (cf Section 3.7 of the present Report). Some 20 projects have been suggested for Module 7; they are scheduled to start end 1993, and it is hoped that they will yield valuable insights, also with regard to the "Special Programme".

Finally, more intense contacts have been planned for the near future with representatives of the potential partners. It is they who will have to tell us which types of research projects are currently most urgently required.

The proposed strategy will only be successful if it finds the support of a large part of the scientific community in Switzerland and abroad. We would there-fore like to invite anyone interested, but especially our colleagues active in scientific research, to share their thoughts and ideas on this subject with us.

Basle, July 1993

sig. Prof. Dr. Thierry A. Freyvogel, Chairman, Working Group PRDC
Former Vice-President, Swiss Academy of Sciences

Translated by Margret Joss, M.A. Translator SATTI, Ostring 8, CH-3006 Berne, Switzerland