UN/ESA Workshops on Basic Space Science: An Initiative in the Worl dwide Development of Astronomy

Abstract

In 1990, the United Nations, in cooperation with the European Space Agency, initiated the organization of a series of annual Workshops on Basic Space Science for the benefit of astronomers and space scientists in Asia and the Pacific, Latin American and the Caribbean, Africa, Western Asia, and Europe. This article summarizes accomplishments of these Workshops (1991-1998) and their follow-up projects with a view to enhance the worldwide development of astronomy and space science. The Workshops are being considered unique and a model for such an endeavor.