Welcome
Sudan is one of the least developed countries in the world. According to the Human Development Index published by the UNDP, Sudan ranks number 138 out of 150 countries. The UNDP published a Technology Achievement index (TAI) in 2001 as part of the Human Development Report (2001). The TAI uses variables like literacy rates, electricity consumption, the number of telephones per capita, the percentage of citizens using the Internet and the percentage of those educated in advanced sciences to rank. Sadly Sudan ranks number 68 of 72 countries with a TAI of 0.07 compared to Ghana (0.14), Kenya (0.13) Sri Lanka (0.2) and Iran (0.26). Finland tops the list (0.74). The report makes the important statement that in this age of networking, failing to make effective use of technology will find a nation falling behind in human development and marginalized in the economy. It is therefore obvious that Sudan is behind in human and technology development. Improvement on the current situation can only be achieved through strengthening and promoting our research institutions and education system and by the establishment of organizations and platforms dedicated to the promotion of science and technology. One instrument that proved useful in promotion of science and technology for development in many parts of the world is a National Academy of Sciences. It is therefore essential to establish an Academy of Sciences in Sudan. The Academy shall be an independent none-profit making and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) consisting of outstanding Sudanese scientists in the country and abroad and some eminent foreign scientists. It shall be the highest academic institution in the country.
Welcome to the Sudanese National Academy of Sciences’ new website. In a letter from the president of SNAS published in our first newsletter I discussed why it was time to establish an Academy in Sudan. This is a summary of that letter.
There is no doubt that developed countries have achieved their high status of development through progress made in the fields of science and technology and their application for economic and social progress. The end of the last century and the beginning of the present have witnessed unprecedented explosion of scientific knowledge that promises to have a profound positive effect on the way we live and think if properly harnessed and used. Most of the new gains in knowledge were made in the developed countries. It is vital that developing countries should share in this global endeavour not only for the sake of their own communities but also for the benefit of mankind and the world’s cultural heritage to which they should be able to contribute.
