New organization to promote African health research.

A pan-African forum has been launched to promote health research for development in Africa. It will also strengthen the continent's voice in setting and implementing the global health research agenda. The African Health Research Forum (AfHR) was inaugurated in the presence of more than 700 health researchers attending the sixth annual conference of the Geneva-based Global November last year. The AfHR will be headed by Professor Raphael Owor, a pathologist, currently president of the Uganda National Health Research Forum (UNHRO), and will be managed by a steering and executive committee representing the whole of Africa. The body will include policy-makers and ''selected'' nongovernmental organizations, and will divide into sub-regional chapters along the lines of the existing Francophone Health Research Network. According to William Macharia, Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Nairobi and one of the architects of the Forum, 42 networks and organizations have been contacted as potential members of the new research body. ''While it is too soon to know what the overall response will be throughout Africa, it has been encouraging so far,'' says Macharia. The steering committee has proposed a three-year programme of activities. Three flagship projects will involve research ethics, leadership development, and a communication system for sharing research information throughout Africa. The AfHR will also investigate existing national health research systems, and the state of North–South collaboration. The Vice-President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr Ali Mo-hammed Shein, hailed the initiative saying, ''Research will have more impact if nations and regional groupings can create better functional networks for concerted action.'' The new research body would go a long way towards ensuring that Africa's voice ''is heard loud and clear at the global level, allowing us to take part in shaping the global health research agenda,'' Shein told participants. Without such a forum, Africa would find it difficult to fight for an equitable share of global resources, he said. So far, however, the new forum itself has received no substantial funding. ''We are living from hand to mouth'' said Professor Owor. Initial seed funding — mainly for committee meetings — came from the Ottawa-based International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED). The amount so far donated is about US$ 100 000. However, Professor Rose Leke, Associate Professor of Parasitology and Immunology at the University of Yaoundé medical school, Cameroon, and a member of the AfHR steering …