A special kick-off conference of the international community of financial donors should be convened to review and refine the recommendations contained in this report. If they agree with the recommendations, a steering committee should be formed to develop the mechanisms needed for implementation. Multilateral institutions, national governments, foundations, the for-profit sector, and nongovernmental organizations should be represented at the conference. Some recommendations may advance faster than others, but it would be useful to quickly secure initial funding for the most attractive and least controversial among them. In that way, participants could start turning some of the recommendations into reality, thereby giving a boost to the whole endeavor.
The more advanced among the developing nations should participate in this conference and agree to play key roles in relevant projects that come to pass. The national governments of other developing nations and some of these nations' leading private-sector groups, for their part, should make commitments to support sectoral funds tailored to their nations' needs. Regional and national conferences designed to get the project moving should take place following the kick-off conference.
The international lenders (the World Bank and the regional development banks and funds), as well as bilateral donors and foundations, should declare their general willingness to provide funding for S&T capacity building in the developing world and, it is hoped, generally endorse the recommendations for sectoral funds, regional networks, and global funds.
