Call for Governmental Support for Science and Technology

Meeting of the Academies of Sciences of Latin America and the Caribbean Region

Mexico City, August 15-16 of 2003

The undersigned, participants in the meeting of the Academies of Sciences of Latin America and the Caribbean Region, assembled in Mexico City in 15 and 16 of August of 2003, under invitation of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, submit to our Academies the following communication:

  • A common and growing conscience on the role that plays and must play science and technology in the social development of our people has been developed among our academic communities.

  • This consciousness has led to the implementation of important regional efforts that have made viable the building-up of a serious and mature scientific community, the development of high-level capacity building programmes, of significant infrastructures, and of networks and systems of communication and cooperation.

  • The programmes and the countries have obtained significant success from all points of view. There are several examples on how national capacities to deal with specific problems have improved, due to the knowledge and advancements generated by this effort.

  • The impact of the results of research developed by our groups is not restricted to the region, it has an international repercussion.

Notwithstanding, in spite of recognizing these facts, we must also indicate others that call our attention for they limit the potential for future regional scientific development. Among these:

  • The repeated breach of commitments and intentions specifically contracted in forums such as the Summit on Sustainable Development held in Santa Cruz, in 1998, and of several policies and plans for national development.

  • The incomprehension present at the high levels of decision-making that, beyond economic crisis, which are frequent in the region, choose to cut-down the already scarce budgets available for scientific research and higher education, affecting the continuity of programmes and projects that can only present results in the mid and long terms.

Considering these, the representatives of the Academies here undersigned make a call to the governments to:

  • Exert a decisive and effective support to the scientific community of our countries, fulfilling the agreements and the goals assumed in summit meetings and national plans, supporting theirselves on these for their own development.

  • Increase investments, assure continuity to the existing programmes, and try to implement new programmes that are important for development.

  • Propitiate, in the international scope, access to knowledge, free circulation of scientists and student mobility.

If this call does not receive the adequate attention, the effort developed through many years for the constitution of a scientific community and the construction of an adequate research infrastructure will be lost. More painful still, the brain-drain of young talents, formed with the effort of our countries, will be increased.

Jorge Crisci
General-Secretary
National Academy of Exact, Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Argentina

Antonio Saavedra-Muñoz
President
National Academy of Sciences
Bolivia

Eduardo Moacyr Krieger
President
Brazilian Academy of Sciences
Co-chair of the IAP Executive Committee

Hernan Chaimovich
Director
Brazilian Academy of Sciences


Paulo de Góes Filho
Secretary of International Affairs
Brazilian Academy of Sciences

Harold Ramkissoon
President
Caribbean Scientific Union

Winston Mellowes
President
Caribbean Academy of Sciences


Moisés Wasserman
President
Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences
Colombia

Ismael Clark
President
Cuban Academy of Sciences

Sergio Jorge Pastrana
Secretary of International Affairs
Cuban Academy of Sciences

Maria del Carmen Samayoa
President
Academy of Physical and Natural Sciences
Guatemala

José Antonio de la Peña
President
Mexican Academy of Sciences

Alberto Giesecke Matto
President
National Academy of Sciences of Peru

Claudio Bifano
Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Venezuela

Hugo Aréchiga
President
Latin American Academy of Sciences

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