TDR: a Knowledge Management and Network Organization

At the dawn of the 3rd millennium, the world is quite different from 25 years ago, when TDR was created. Scientifi c and technological advances, as well as economic, political, social, cultural and environmental changes, have dramatically modifi ed the global landscape. We live today in an Internet village, supported by powerful information and communication technologies. Biology has become ‘big science’, with its own Manhattan project – the sequencing of the human genome. Dolly, the sheep clone, has illustrated the power and challenges of the biotechnological revolution and the implications it will have for the future of humankind. The Berlin wall, symbol of a world split between military superpowers, has given place to a globalized economy. The 20th century also brought about a global transformation in human health, unmatched in history, with overall improvements in health and human development. But over one billion people entered the 21st century without having benefi ted from the health and human development revolution, their lives scarred by a ruthless disease categorized under code Z59.5 in WHO’s International Classifi cation of Diseases: Extreme Poverty.1