The Fifth ANSO Governing Board Meeting Held Online

ANSO

28 11, 2022

The 5th ANSO Governing Board (GB) Meeting was held online on 28 November 2022, attended by the heads or representatives from all the 9 GB organizations. Prof. BAI Chunli, President of ANSO, gave both a welcome and a concluding speech. Prof. Ferenc Hudecz, Vice President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), kindly chaired a major part of the meeting at the invitation of the presidium of ANSO. Prof. CAO Jinghua, Executive Director of the ANSO Secretariat, presented the ANSO progress report 2022. Prof. LIU Weidong, Deputy Director General of the Bureau of International Cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) also attended the meeting.

Prof. BAI Chunli expressed sincere gratitude to all the GB members for their strong support to ANSO. He once again emphasized the importance of solidarity, partnership, and collective efforts within the ANSO family in addressing various common challenges such as the pandemic, climate change and food insecurity, etc. and in the promoting of the advances of the UN SDGs. He called on a more active cooperation and synergy with other international science organizations to promote further growth and impact of ANSO.

The Governing Board reviewed the annual report of ANSO presented by Prof. CAO Jinghua who elaborated the strategic considerations of the ANSO Secretariat mapped out early in the year, major accomplishments and highlights, the progress of the ANSO programs and initiatives and the financial expenditure. He also put forward several strategic proposals and suggestions for 2023 and briefly touched upon a few issues of concern and challenges ahead.

The Governing Board reviewed and endorsed the annual report with satisfaction and commented that a good job had been done given the continuous challenge brought about by the pandemic. The Governing Board also reviewed and endorsed the 3 new member applications to join in ANSO submitted since the 2nd General Assembly (GA). It also agreed to hold the 3rd GA and the 6th GB in Beijing, China sometime in 2023 when the pandemic situation does allow. Reaching such consensus was due to the fact that the current international situation would not allow the decision previously made to actually take place.

As usual, the GB participants put forward lots of good advice and suggestions on the further development and continuous enhancement of international impact of ANSO. For instance, they suggested more engagement and collaborations with other international science organizations such as UNESCO, UN Technology Bank for LDCs and WAITRO to expand the ANSO impact and membership; to put more emphasis and efforts on actions and activities related to open science and other UN initiatives; to carry out and release more policy-oriented strategic reports at major international events; to give more emphasis on the study and investigation of green energy options, eco-environmental protection and green and circular economy; to put more collective efforts on science communication, etc.

“We shall actively promote the ‘Open Dialogue’ and communication among the ANSO members and we shall reflect what are suggested by our members and the GB in particular in our practical actions and in the improvement of the ANSO works”, concluded by Prof. BAI Chunli.

On this note, this briefing is also to seek advice and suggestions from all the ANSO members for the further development of ANSO and improvement of our performance for the global green and sustainable development.