IIW History 1990-2015

Dr Cécile Mayer, IIW CEO, with Dr Emmanuel Gyasi (Ghana, left) and Dr Paul Kah (Cameroon) participating in the IIW Annual Assembly, Helsinki, 2015

In Africa, despite the efforts of the Southern African Institute of Welding (SAIW), it was proving difficult to attract developing nations to embrace the concept of welding improving the global quality of life. At this time only Libya and SouthAfrica were members of IIW. Great faith was placed in the possibility that things may change after the IIW International Congress held in Cairo, Egypt, in late November 2004. The event attracted 230 participants from 27 countries of which 15 were non-member countries from Africa (Benin, Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe). 21 Funding and opportunity, as always, were the key to addressing the problem of improving life on the African continent. Egypt, in understanding this, eventually did become a member of IIW in 2007. Israel, in also understanding the importance of welding to its economy, held an IIW International Congress in Tel Aviv in 2005 illustrating IIW’s outstanding impartiality with respect to the ongoing political situation in the Middle East. Nigeria was what can be called one of the success stories on the African continent. The Nigerian Institute of Welding (NIW) was formed in 1980 and since its establishment underwent several major transformations leading up to the time that it became a full member of IIW in 2006. Up to that point, and since, NIW had relationships with several IIWMember Societies, including AWS, DVS and Gesellschaft für Schweißtechnik international mbH (GSI) SLV-TR in Turkey, SAIW, and the WTIA. Understandably, as a result of this, NIW was considered to be an example for other developing countries in West Africa, particularly through its achievement in becoming an Authorised National Body of IIW’s IAB. 22

LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS