delegates and various experts from more than 100 countries attended the World Solar Summit, where 300 solar energy projects in 60 countries were identified despite the absence of money needed to ensure that they can be started.

Also absent were the heads of states from the North, with whom lies much of the hope for funds for some of the projects proposed by the signatories to the recent Harare declaration on Solar Energy and Sustainable Development.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed lambasted industrialised nations which, he said, were the best placed in terms of financial and technological resources to develop solar energy, yet could not bring themselves to attend such an important summit. Presidents of developing nations hardly scored much better. Only seven travelled to the Zimbabwean capital. "The World Solar Programme ( wsp ) indeed has the potential to change the course of the lives of millions of people in the world,' said Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, chair of the World Solar Commission. But "without resources, this programme will remain a paper promise, containing nothing but principles and commitments which will fall to stand the test of time'.

The renewable energy projects to be carried out will cover areas such as rural electrification, global education and appropriate training for engineers, technicians and users of solar energy technology. The major benefits to be derived from the programme include the enhancement of the quality of life of large numbers of people and the creation of jobs through the development of new enterprises.

Foremost among the wsp 's targets are the more than two billion people in the world who have no electricity. The "energetic and committed implementation of the programme over the next 10 years will contribute immensely to bringing the majority of the underprivileged and deprived people, in the rural and isolated areas in many of our countries, into the mainstream of development,' said a hopeful Mugabe.