ABSTRACT
Social indicators paint an initially positive picture, with the North-South gap closing for infant mortality and illiteracy rates, and for access to clean water and health services. One purpose of organising the conference on ‘Science and Technology in Third World Development’ was therefore to reassert the importance of technology in development. A water source often ignored has been municipal and industrial waste-water. Access to food is, of course, a basic need of all human existence. However, agriculture in many rural areas of developing countries has moved beyond subsistence farming and it therefore plays a vital part in poverty alleviation by providing income and employment. Recipients are a key part of the technology transfer process because, as noted by Frank Almond in his summary paper, equipment is only one element in the process with a larger part being played by the organisational environment and by recipient skills.
