By Adnan Rafique
ISLAMABAD: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in collaboration with the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) and other science-based institutions will arrange an event to celebrate the World Science Day for Peace and Development on November 16 (Wednesday). The Organization of Islamic Cooperation Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH), the Economic Cooperation Organization Science Foundation (ECOSF), the Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) and the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS), will be among the other partner organizations.
The event will consist of remarks on the work being done by the organizing institutions with regard to promoting basic sciences followed by a panel discussion of distinguished experts from different areas of basic sciences including Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Disruptive Technologies/ICT. According to an official of COMSTECH, the celebration will be organized at the COMSTECH Auditorium and live streamed as well at 0900 am (Pakistan Standard time). Scientists, students, teachers, researchers, science communicators who work in science centres and science museums, independent science communicators and science journalists, policymakers, independent think tanks, government officials and academicians from the OIC member states, and other countries will participate in the event. The participants can register for virtual participation register at the following link: https://forms.gle/6TWDKfXQrhxcJ3Pj8, the official conveyed.
The World Science Day for Peace and Development, celebrated every year on November 10, was established by UNESCO in 2001 to highlight the important role of science in society and the need to engage the wider public in debates on emerging and important contemporary issues relevant to science. The theme of World Science Day for Peace and Development on November 10, 2022, is Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development. It is being celebrated within the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, which kicked off on July 08.
‘The applications of basic sciences are vital for advances in medicine, industry, agriculture, water resources, energy planning, environment, communications and culture’, affirmed the United Nations General Assembly on December 2, 2021, when it endorsed the proposal for an International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.
World Science Day is contributing to the Year 2022 by celebrating this theme.
“We need more basic science to achieve.
The 2030 agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals”, the United Nations General Assembly noted in December 2021.
It is true that the share of domestic research expenditure devoted to basic sciences varies widely from one country to another. According to data from the UNESCO Science Report 2021 for 86 countries, some devote less than 10% of their research expenditure to basic sciences and others more than 30%.
Having a capacity in basic sciences is in the interests of both developed and developing countries, given the potential for applications to foster sustainable development and raise standards of living.
