Presidential Address: XXVI International Biometric Conference, Kobe, Japan, August 2012 education in developing countries--the role of IBS.

Here we discuss the building of statistical knowledge, mainly in developing countries. We highlight some words from Past IBS Presidents and IBS actions that show the role of IBS in education with an emphasis on developing countries. Some examples show that international exchanges are a well-known way of improving the quality of teaching, learning and research and stress the point that individual initiatives are very important (and fruitful) for education, but we should encourage some more general actions.