The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) is an international organisation that provides research training, career development and networking opportunities for women scientists throughout the developing world at different stages in their career. It was founded in 1987 and was officially launched in 1993. The organisation was formerly known as the Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS). It is a program unit of UNESCO and based at the offices of The World Academy of Sciences in Trieste, Italy.The organisation aims to unite eminent scientists from the developing and developed world with an objective of supporting their efforts in the development process. It also aims at promoting the representation of its members in the sphere of scientific and technological leadership. It does so through different programs like memberships, fellowships, and awards.
Mass coral bleaching events are intensifying under climate change, yet their ecological consequences remain highly context dependent. We quantified shifts in benthic community structure, coral diversity and reef functionality during the 2023–2025 Fourth Global Mass Coral Bleaching Event (GCBE) in Tela Bay and Roatán, Honduras, two traditionally high-cover reef systems within the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR). Following three years of elevated heat stress (maximum DHW of 18 °C-weeks and 12 °C-weeks) both locations exhibited marked declines up to 60% in live coral cover, accompanied by increases of up to 58% in fleshy macroalgae cover, indicating shifts toward more algal-dominated benthic states. These shifts were accompanied by declines in coral diversity and reef functional index (RFI), suggesting reduced contribution of structurally important coral assemblages to key ecological processes. However, benthic community responses to bleaching were not uniform across sites. Increased multivariate dispersion following the event revealed substantial site-level heterogeneity, particularly in Tela Bay, where some sites retained greater coral cover and higher post-disturbance diversity indices, suggesting localized differences in resistance or early recovery potential. Coral community shifts were also strongly associated with declines in historically abundant taxa such as Agaricia tenuifolia, indicating that prolonged thermal stress can reduce the functional contribution of common and previously persistent coral taxa, not only structurally complex reef-building species. Our results show that even reef locations with high coral cover remain vulnerable to bleaching-driven reorganization of benthic communities and associated functional declines. Nevertheless, strong spatial variability among sites suggests that local environmental conditions and early-bleaching assemblage structure may mediate severity and recovery potential. These findings highlight the need to prioritize site-specific monitoring and management strategies in the MAR that identify and protect reefs with greater persistence potential under accelerating climate stress.
The current knowledge society has driven an unprecedented mobility of people, especially scientists, from emerging economies to developed countries. This mobility can allow the development of human talent and the access to first class infrastructure and resources, but it can also mean a loss for emerging economies due to the phenomenon of brain drain. To counteract this situation, some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have developed models for the articulation of their scientific diaspora in projects and programs, with the aim of exchanging knowledge and capitalizing on human and technical resources to advance science, technology and innovation systems. Likewise, science diplomacy has become a tool for interlinking the work of various actors in order to advance the solution of national, transnational or global problems through scientific advice. Scientific diasporas are vital in new structures of cooperation, enabling them to innovate and solve problems jointly, advising their countries of origin and articulating policies and programs. This research seeks to analyze the interactions and initiatives identified between the organized scientific diaspora from Latin America and the Caribbean and their countries of origin in relation to science diplomacy processes, providing recommendations and proposals for public policy to improve the interaction between the diaspora and the governments of their countries of origin. Results show that diaspora organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean engage with governmental and non-state actors and are active science diplomacy stakeholders promoting the scientific developments of their country or their researchers, as well as enabling access to research resources creating alliances for scientific, institutional and academic collaborations. In the cases studied, these efforts are planned and executed by the diaspora without responding to any science diplomacy strategy of the country. Policies and programs are needed to effectively link the scientific diaspora organizations to the interests of the countries.
Scientific collaborations among nations to address common problems and to build international partnerships as part of science diplomacy is a well-established notion. The international flow of people and ideas has played an important role in the advancement of the 'Sciences' and the current pandemic scenario has drawn attention towards the genuine need for a stronger role of science diplomacy, science advice and science communication. In dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, visible interactions across science, policy, science communication to the public and diplomacy worldwide have promptly emerged. These interactions have benefited primarily the disciplines of knowledge that are directly informing the pandemic response, while other scientific fields have been relegated. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists of all disciplines and from all world regions are discussed here, with a focus on early-career researchers (ECRs), as a vulnerable population in the research system. Young academies and ECR-driven organisations could suggest ECR-powered solutions and actions that could have the potential to mitigate these effects on ECRs working on disciplines not related to the pandemic response. In relation with governments and other scientific organisations, they can have an impact on strengthening and creating fairer scientific systems for ECRs at the national, regional, and global level.
a podcast session highlighting the impact of storytelling for researchers and scientists in improving their research visibility.AfricArXiv • TCC Africa webcasts Using podcasts in storytelling and increasing research visibility 3 Recording of the session: About The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World(OWSD) The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World is an international organization that provides research training, career development and networking opportunities for women scientists throughout the developing world at different stages in their career.Website: owsd.netAbout TCC Africa The Training Centre in Communication(TCC Africa), is the first African-based training centre to teach effective communication skills to scientists.TCC Africa is an awardwinning Trust, established
