It has become increasingly clear that a mathematically-educated population is a powerful tool to spur economic development in all nations. Major challenges such as: disease, hunger, climate change, environmental remediation and energy development require strong mathematical, computational, statistical and other quantitative skills.

Given such challenges, more support is needed for those who wish to become educators and researchers in mathematics. Raising international mathematical literacy has been a goal of the IMU since it’s founding but the resources to achieve such a goal have been – for the majority of the history of the IMU – insufficient. A drive for funding from both the public and the private sector has been implemented to allow the IMU to take a more active role in supporting mathematics in developing countries.

For these reasons, the goals of the MENAO symposium were not only to hear the stories of mathematicians and advanced students of mathematics from the developing world but also to build partnerships between mathematical communities, their governments, international agencies, private business and foundations.

The status of such partnerships have been described in three "regional reports" covering Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. These reports were made available at the MENAO symposium, and can be found here. The reports also include new initiatives and projects which are in need of financial support. 

IMU- CDC is looking for cooperation partners or individual donations to support the “IMU Volunteer Lecturer Program“, the ICMI „Capacity and Network Project“ for Mathematics Education as well as the initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Southeast Asia and in Africa described in the three regional reports. 

If you are interested in making a donation or supporting one of the initiatives please contact: the CDC President.