South African Chemical Institute Statement on Diversity and Inclusion

The South African Chemical Institute is committed to diversity and inclusivity in chemical sciences. The Institute opposes discriminatory acts or threats based on race, ethnicity, citizenship, culture, language, disability, age, religious or spiritual beliefs, political opinion, gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation and economic class.

The Institute is dedicated:

1. to endorsing excellence and scientific credibility across chemical sciences conducted in academic, industrial, and governmental institutions, and
2. to nurturing the values of diversity, inclusivity, and equity in the chemical sciences in South Africa.

Hence, SACI will continue to play a leading role in assuring the professional competence and integrity of chemists and fostering international collaboration whilst upholding inclusivity and diversity.

South African Chemical Institute Statement on Sexual Harassment

The South African Chemical Institute will not permit any kind of sexual harassment (physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct) in the Institute or at events organised by or related to the Institute. The Institute is committed to and fully supports environments that are free of any form of unfair discrimination and harassment, including gender-based violence. Allegations of any form of sexual harassment will be dealt with seriously, expeditiously, sensitively and confidentially.

SACI-44 Convention Statement on DIversity

The Organising Committee the 44th SACI National Convention, in accordance with the Statutes of the International Council for Science, promotes equitable opportunities for access to science and its benefits, and opposes discrimination based on such factors as ethnic origin, religion, citizenship, language, political or other opinion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or age.

The 44th SACI National Convention organisers will work actively to ensure diversity at our conference. Balance will be achieved in the following ways:

1. We will aim to fully and accurately represent South Africa’s diversity in terms of race and gender in the speakers at the conference as far as possible.
2. We will aim for geographical diversity of participants and will actively seek presenters from historically under-represented regions.
3. We will pay particular attention to ensuring inclusion of presenters at different career stages, both in the oral and poster sessions.
4. We will keep a record of diversity data (speaker/attendee numbers according to gender, regions represented and so on), and pass this on to future organisers of meetings in this series to allow trends to be tracked.
5. We will publish data on speaker diversity actually achieved on the conference website after the conference.