The Global Forum for Health Research

The global forum for health research was established in 1998 as an independent Swiss foundation, to promote health research on the problems of poor countries and people. The creation of the global forum responded to the growing awareness among policy makers in industrial and in developing countries that research related to the health problems affecting developing country populations was receiving inadequate attention on the global agenda. The global forum has devoted its energies increasingly to health equity as a way to focus the attention of researchers and policy makers on the problems of the poor. Annual expenditures on the core activities of the global forum have been about $3.5 million. Bilateral donors and the World Bank finance virtually all of the global forum's activities. This Global Program Review (GPR) assesses the quality and independence of the second evaluation of the global forum; provides a second opinion on the effectiveness of the forum; assesses the performance of the Bank as a partner of the forum; and draws lessons for the future. It contains data from the beginning of the forum to the present, including key developments during the last two years since the second external evaluation was completed. The global forum was chosen for a GPR because it provides lessons for the design and operation of other global programs, especially for advocacy programs, and for international support of health research more generally.