Science and education ministers of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) endorsed a draft strategy for developing science in the Muslim world on Monday (28 June). The main, and most controversial, recommendation is that governments should allocate a minimum of one per cent of their gross domestic product for scientific and technological development.

But many of the ministers admitted that a goal of one per cent was unrealistic. Delegate after delegate said that such a target would be too difficult for most OIC member countries to achieve.

The strategy document is the work of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the OIC's Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (Comstech).

Atta ur Rahman, Comstech coordinator-general, said that all developing countries had no option but to increase their investment in science if they want to lift themselves above the pile of underdeveloped nations. A pressing priority, he said, is human resource development. A second priority is regional cooperation.

“Forgive me for being blunt,” Rahman, a chemist, told the ministers. “I am a working scientist, not a diplomat, and am not blessed with the appropriate words with which to decorate this message: too often, meetings like this result in very nice-looking resolutions. But enough has been said, it is time to act.” Rahman will receive this year's Unesco science prize at a ceremony today.

Abd al Rahman al Awadi, of the Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences in Kuwait, called on the ministers to emphasize the “moral and ethical dimension” to science in their responses to the draft documents of the World Conference on Science.