WELCOMING ADDRESS

As the chairman of CODATA Senegal who is hosting this important meeting and on behalf of all the Local Organizing Committee members I would like to thank the following:

The International Scientific Committee who gave us advice on the programming of this meeting
The Office of Prime Minister and specially His Excellency Fode SECK, Secretary General of Primature, who was the very first one to understand our goals and began supporting us six years ago
The Ministry for Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Chief of Staff, Dr. Dialo DIOP for his outstanding dedication and enthusiasm
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad who has led to the signing of an Accord of Siege and a special status for CODATA AFRICA who is raised as a Diplomatic Mission in this country
The Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), the Committee on Science and Technology in Developing Countries (COSTED) of the International Council for Science and UNESCO, who have provided funds needed to bring all of the planned activities of this meeting to reality
Ms Cheryl LEVEY, Assistant to the President of CODATA. This lady was absolutely magnificent for her tremendous contribution to the success of this present event
All lecturers and poster presenters who have accepted our invitation to come to share their scientific knowledge and technical expertise with us and
All ladies and gentlemen of the Local Organizing Committee who have worked behind the scene to keep all of the logistics to be carried out very smoothly with a deep commitment.

The Workshop theme originally suggested by Dr. John Rumble Jr, President of CODATA was slightly changed to “Scientific and technical Data Handling and Exchange for Development” to meet some issues that are specific to our continent and challenges for African scientific community as well.

We very much hope that this workshop will foster friendship from which may develop some collaborative activities in the field of agriculture, health and environment, intellectual property rights in the post-genomic era, and information network serving the whole of Africa for a better and more integrated management of economical, social and natural crisis arising from natural hazard, by a set of reliable and validated scientific and technical data.

To identify and give perspective to what lies ahead, we must understand that technological innovation and economic transformation are likely to shape the next several decades in ways that are hard to imagine.

The media have a crucial role to play. In nations with high levels of illiteracy, television is more effective than newspapers, and radio more effective than TV. Scientists should help their government to adopt and implement comprehensive strategies to alleviate poverty, with explicit target for access to health, education, safe water, roads, energy and – specially – telecommunications. By the same token, an educated population is the surest way to guarantee democracy. Only education will help Africans enlarge their definition of human rights beyond their village or ethnic group.

Africans can make the 21^st century the African century, if we embrace democracy firmly and empower the African citizen, we will be able to turn Africa’s tremendous reserves of diversity and creativity into a positive force for the world, as we have already done with music and the arts. In so doing, we will provide not just growth and economic development for our people – but peace and stability, too for next generations.