SciDev.Net

This website reflects the activities of Practical Action's New Technologies programme. It links to news, briefing papers, reports and articles about nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology — with particular emphasis on how these affect people in developing countries. The website also provides information on the organisation's individual projects, including the use of nanotechnology to provide clean drinking water and the use of telecentres and podcasting to disseminate information in poor areas. And readers can participate in discussions about new technologies and their potential role in development through the website's blog.

SERVIR is a regional environmental imaging and monitoring system — operating in Africa and Latin America — built on satellite and geospatial data. It can monitor and forecast ecological changes and natural hazards. The website publishes interactive maps including near real-time satellite feeds of regional weather and ecological conditions, and real time updates on fires, floods, red tides and weather conditions. It also provides access to 3D imaging software.

SSI was set up in 2001 to facilitate sharing of resources among research groups in Africa, Asia and Latin America in order to increase competitiveness and optimise scientific opportunities. It provides assistance for proposal development through annual workshops and helps organise annual training courses on leading-edge technology for tropical disease research application in disease endemic countries.

The principal aim of TWAS is to promote scientific capacity and sustainable development in the South through research as well as South–South and North–South collaborations. It was founded in 1983 by a group of Southern scientists, under the leadership of Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, as an autonomous international organisation. Fellows are citizens of the South; associate fellows are citizens of the North who were born in the South or have made significant contributions to science in the South.

The Commission is an intergovernmental and international organisation aimed at the uplift of developing countries through applications of science and technology. Established in 1994 at the instigation of Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, it has 21 member countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It runs meetings and workshops as well as a network of centres of excellence in selected areas of science and technology.

OpenDOAR is a directory of open access repositories — institutional and subject-based archives of academic papers, books, datasets, conferences, patents and multimedia that are free to access.

The directory covers 29 topics including agriculture, technology, health, environment and medicine in over 50 languages.

Repositories listed in the directory can be searched — and statistically analysed with the help of OpenDOAR charts — by topic, language and content or software type.

IARC's mission is to undertake research on the causes of human cancer, the mechanisms of carcinogenesis, and to develop scientific strategies for cancer control. It develops strategies at a theoretical level, however, and does not get involved in direct implementation nor contribute to the formulation of policies or legislation. The agency also does not on the whole contribute to research in to cancer treatments.

The agency publishes several key publications on epidemiology (especially of the disease in developing countries), pathology and genetics. To encourage research, the agency offers several fellowships, scholarships and training courses.

TWOWS is an international forum aimed at uniting eminent women scientists from the South with the objective of strengthening their role in development and in scientific and technological leadership. An independent, non-profit, non-governmental body based at the offices of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World in Italy, its activities include providing fellowships and maintaining an inventory of women scientists in the South.

These country-level reports, published by the Climate Systems and Policy research cluster at the University of Oxford, provide data on observed and projected climates in 52 countries in the developing world.

Each report contains maps, diagrams, tables and a narrative of the data, putting it in the context of the country's general climate. Files in text format with datasets containing underlying and model data can be downloaded for further use.

Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1978 and hosted by the UN Development Programme, the unit’s primary mandate is to promote, coordinate and support South–South cooperation and cooperation with the UN. It focuses on policy dialogue and development, public–private partnership and southern development exchange.

The WHO Global InfoBase has, for the first time, assembled in one place, country-level risk factor data stratified by age and sex, with complete source and survey information. The current version of the InfoBase contains over 130,000 data points from more than 2,800 sources. Currently the InfoBase contains reports on 180 out of 192 WHO Member States. A unique feature is that each record can be linked back to all its survey information, including the primary source.

The database is updated daily and provides users with comparable country-level mortality, mean systolic blood pressure, mean body mass index, and overweight/obesity data. A search function allows users to customise their data search based on specific criteria, and shows data in text tables and graphs.

The foundation's aim is to raise awareness of diabetes worldwide, with a special emphasis on developing countries. A key activity is funding projects (142 so far) that raise awareness, improve education and build capacity at local, regional and global levels. The website contains details of all ongoing projects, including details of the project budgets and individuals responsible for running them, the expected impacts and results so far. Importantly, the foundation prioritises monitoring and evaluation of its projects to learn key lessons for the future and minimise the risk of project failure.

As with any disease, and particularly those in developing countries, the health economics are important. The website has a useful tool for calculating the economic cost of diabetes in a particular country that allows the user to change variables such as population, prevalence and so on.

This section of the WHO's website includes factsheets on chronic diseases, details of the agency's relevant activities and programmes, and detailed technical information about action plan that the agency backs.

Also included are links to key reports on chronic diseases (detailed in the Reports section of Key Documents)