July 1974: 8th Biennial Meeting of the Commonwealth Science Committee, Lusaka

In his opening address, the Secretary-General, Arnold Smith highlighted the impact of the recent oil prices crisis on developing countries.

The industrialised countries of the world are now being asked to pay the going rate for power, food, and minerals, which they have in the past obtained cheaply and used wantonly and with too little thought for tomorrow. But with belt-tightening and a few minor discomforts they will get by. The real victims are the small, and in some cases the not so small, developing countries that just do not yet have significant resources for export.

Illustrating the sharp increase in import costs these countries now faced, Smith feared the impact could lead to a stagnation or even reversal of economic and social development. His request to the scientific community was therefore to ensure that the results of relevant scientific research anywhere are made as widely available as possible to the developing countries so that they may have the practical use of adequate information on which to take fundamental decisions affecting their development policies.

Undertaking projects ranging from metrology, alternative energy, geology, rural technology, mineral development, biological resources, the reports of the Commonwealth Science Council (CSC) can be found in the Library and Archives of the Commonwealth Secretariat. 

Source:

Science in a Changing Society: address by the Commonwealth Secretary-General, H.E. Mr. Arnold Smith to the Meeting of the Commonwealth Scientific Committee, Lusaka, Zambia, 8 July 1974.