In pursuance of the deliberations of the 5th, 6th and 7th Conferences of the Heads of State or Government of the NAM Countries, respectively held in Colombo (1976), Havana (1979) and New Delhi (1983), and after the adoption of the Statute of the Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre) by consensus by the Meeting of the Plenipotentiaries of the Non-Aligned Countries in New York in February 1985, the Government of India proposed to host the NAM S&T Centre, which was subsequently established in New Delhi in August 1989 as an inter-governmental organisation. Out of the current 47 Member Countries of the Centre, 17 countries, namely, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are from the African Continent. During 30 years of existence of the NAM S&T Centre, African Countries have played a predominant role in the management and functioning of the Centre.

Two important landmarks in the partnership between the Centre and the African Countries are in the form of the establishment of (a) the African Centres for Lightning and Electro-magnetic (ACLE) in Kampala, Uganda and (b) the NAM Centre of Excellence for Mineral Processing and Beneficiation (CEMPB) in Harare, Zimbabwe, which have been set up through the dedicated support and efforts of the NAM S&T Centre. Further, a country specific ACLE-Zambia has also been recently established.

Fellowships

The NAM S&T Centre has initiated a Training Fellowship on Minerals Processing & Beneficiation jointly with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of South Africa. Under this programme, 20 fellowships are offered each year aimed at providing opportunity to the scientists and technologists from the member countries of the NAM S&T Centre for affiliation with MINTEK, South Africa for a period of three months to address the skills gap in the minerals beneficiation value chain and to get exposed to minerals processing technologies and undergo in-service training attached to the existing MINTEK programmes. This training programme provides direct and indirect benefits to the Fellows from the member countries of the NAM S&T Centre and the host country, South Africa through creation of networks and exposure to new developments in mineral processing and beneficiation.

The Centre has also concluded an Agreement of Collaboration with UNESCO/UNISA Africa Chair in Nano-sciences and Nanotechnology (U2ACN2), University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa for providing Research Associateships in Nano-science & Nanotechnology to five senior researchers from the developing countries.

The Centre had also implemented 2nd Phase (2012-2017) of the Research Training Fellowship for Developing Country Scientists (RTF-DCS) Fellowship Programme of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, which aimed at capacity building of the young scientists from the developing countries by giving opportunities for their affiliation with premier academic and research institutions in India for a period of six months. There has been tremendous interest from the African Countries for availing this prestigious Fellowship. ~65% of the selected Fellows are from the African region, who have immensely benefited from their affiliation with the Indian institutions.