Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 351, Issue 9116, 30 May 1998, Pages 1652-1654
The Lancet

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Health research in the tropics

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(97)10237-9Get rights and content

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Impact of health research in the South

Research priorities for the health and development of the North and the South are not the same.8 In a comparison of applications submitted to the Science Technology Development/Commission of the European Committees (STD/CEC) programme by scientists from the North and the South, European scientists proposed to work on a few major tropical diseases, whereas the South gave priority to preventative medicine and health difficulties related to environment and nutrition.9 This difference in priorities

Financial means and budget

African researchers are completely dependent on donors and scientific cooperation with Northern research partners. One of the African respondents said, “Lack of funds can be understood as lack of funds for local research initiatives. There are funds for Northern initiatives, and consultancies within the framework of Northern research programmes are well-paid”. The dean of the medical faculty in Maputo, Mozambique, said about collaboration programmes: “We have to accept their priorities and

Donor coordination and cooperation with Northern institutes

The dependence of the Southern researchers on Northern research institutes and donors makes the Southern researchers keen to cooperate with them. The Southern researchers protect their contacts jealously, and because of the lack of networking within their own countries, become isolated. In Benin, we interviewed three researchers, all of whom had investigated impregnated bed-nets for prevention of malaria, none aware of the initiatives of the other two. They each had their own donors and

Need for research programmes that put Southern requirements first

Rather than strengthening the research infrastructure, conventional research cooperation is often counterproductive for development of a sustainable research environment. First, such research cooperation pushes international or regional priorities that do not coincide with national priorities; second, it creates a division of work between the Northern and the Southern partners that impedes the transfer of knowledge and technology; third, it makes national cooperation impossible because

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