The ability of developing countries to provide a sound tertiary chemical education is a key ingredient to the improvement of living standards and economic development within these countries. However, teaching undergraduate experimental chemistry and building research capacity in institutions based within these countries involves formidable challenges. These are not just a lack of funding and skilled teachers and technicians, but also take the form of cultural and language barriers. In the past three decades a diverse range of initiatives have aimed to address the situation. This article provides a summary of these while conveying realistic and concrete suggestions for how scientists based in industrialized nations can get involved, based on low-cost solutions with existing resources. The first step is being well informed about what has already been tried and what currently works.