The TWOWS Secretariat, TWAS, and the TWOWS Executive Board (EB) all met recently to develop new activities in the framework of the 2007-2010 Strategic Action Plan. In the course of these discussions, it was agreed that an important strategy for achieving its goals is to build on collaborations with other women in science and technology organizations around the world, such as the Gender Advisory Board of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, the UNESCO Chair on Women in Science and Technology for Latin America, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and others.

Areas of focus will include:

• expanding and supporting TWOWS membership through e-networking;
• working with girls at younger ages;
• promoting women's leadership and leadership development in science;
• launching an international campaign on the role of women in science and technology for development; and
• supporting women's contributions to development at the grassroots level through technology.

TWOWS also convened its fourth EB meeting on 30 and 31 March in Trieste, Italy. All members of the EB were in attendance, and interesting and fruitful discussions ensued. The future strategy of the organization, priority actions to be taken, as well as new projects, national chapters, and fundraising for TWOWS and programmes, were discussed with great enthusiasm and optimism. One of the major activities for 2009/2010 is the TWOWS Fourth General Assembly and International Conference. This international event will be generously hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in June 2010, in Beijing, China with about 800 participants expected to attend.

Meanwhile, TWOWS's flagship postgraduate fellowship programme for young women scientists from sub-Saharan Africa and Least Developed Countries, sponsored by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and launched in 1998, continues to grow. In 2008, 24 young women scientists from 15 countries were awarded fellowships, and one more young woman scientist, Nadège Okémy-Andissa (see her photo and details below), completed her higher degree, bringing the total since the programme began to 72.