Countries in the North have been making a major contribution to OWSD since 1988 when the first conference was held in Trieste, Italy to set up what would become OWSD. That conference was sponsored by CIDA (the Canadian International Development Agency) and hosted by TWAS, based at their headquarters at ICTP in Trieste, Italy. The Italian government continues to support TWAS (and thereby OWSD). Since 1997 the Swedish International Development Agency has provided all funding for our major fellowship programme. Institutes in the North have also begun to host our women PhD fellows for short visits during their PhD studies so that they can make important international contacts. OWSD expects to increase the number of host institutes, and collaborations in the North.