Establishing a coordinating body such as AFASSA was felt necessary because of the following main considerations:
- Most collaborations on multi-disciplinary natural products research are centered on South-North basis and rarely on South-South links.
- The expertise from the three continents of Africa, Asia and South America, if mobilized properly could not only contribute to, but also provide direction to the development of research initiatives in the South in the area of natural products.
- South-South collaborations need to be encouraged, since they could provide better solutions to research problems face by countried in the South.
Hence, a coordinating group focusing on South-South collaborations would be in a better position to collaborate if there is a coordinating group focussing on South-South collaboration.