2007 has been an extremely productive and strategic year for the Global Forum for Health Research. The 2007 Review describes the challenges the Global Forum is tackling to enhance health equity through research and the progress made in 2007.

In particular, the Global Forum helped

• identify research gaps and promote their closure to enhance health equity
• set research priorities that meet the health needs of the poor and marginalized
• identify and eliminate social biases in research for health
• make effective, efficient and equitable investments in research and development for health
• strengthen research capacity.

This review of the Global Forum's activities in 2006 highlights its innovative and comprehensive approaches to health research, recognizing the complex and multi-sectoral origins of factors that determine people's health. It presents a synopsis of the Global Forum's work to make a difference in global health, including initiatives, networks, partnerships, collaborations, studies commissioned, publications and workshops in which the Global Forum has taken a leadership or supportive role.

The Global Forum for Health Research focuses on evidence-informed advocacy work, targeting cogent arguments to various audiences - governments, donor and development agencies, research institutes and research councils, the private sector and the media - and engaging with them in constructive exchange to promote research to improve the health of the poor. How the Global Forum has performed as an advocate of change, mainly during the course of 2005, is the subject of this publication.

The 10/90 Report on Health Research 2003-2004 covers progress in helping correct the 10/90 gap in health research. It was prepared by the Secretariat of the Global Forum for Health Research on the basis of presentations and discussions at Forum 7, held in December 2003 in Geneva, as well as those at Forum 6, held in October 2002 in Arusha, Tanzania, and on the basis of the work of the Global Forum for Health Research and its partners during 2003 and 2004.

The 10/90 Report is addressed to all those who can help change, in whatever way, the imbalance in the allocation of health research funding: those who fund research, those who set priorities, those who influence decision-making, those who provide information and evidence.

The 10/90 Report on Health Research 2001-2002 focuses on the crucial role of health and health research in the fight against poverty; progress in the definition of priorities for health research; the development of partnerships and networks in key research areas; and the application of a new tool for developing the priority research agenda.

The Report covers progress in helping correct the 10/90 gap in health research over the past two years and outlines plans for the coming years. It focuses on health and health research as sound economic investments; priority setting in health research; progress in measuring the 10/90 gap; research capacity strengthening; information networks in health research; gender, the Millennium Development Goals and health research; and networks in the priority research areas.

The 10/90 Report on Health Research 2000 is the second annual report of the Global Forum for Health Research. It describes the progress made by the partners in the Global Forum in the past year to help correct the 10/90 gap by focusing on research activities and initiatives that address health problems of middle and lower income countries and generating funds to support these initiatives. It also describes priorities for the years ahead.

Its audience is all those who can help change, in whatever way, the imbalance in the allocation of health research funding: those who fund research, those who set priorities, those who influence decision-making, those who provide information and evidence.

The 1990 Report of the Commission on Health Research for Development and the 1996 report of the WHO Ad Hoc Committee on Health Research concluded that the central problem in health research is the 10/90 disequilibrium (only 10% of the US$ 56 billion spent annually in health research are dedicated to problems of 90% of the population). The central objective of the Global Forum for Health Research is to help correct that disequilibrium by focusing research efforts on problems which affect the majority of the people world wide.

The 10/90 Report on Health Research, 1999 provides a detailed account of the goals and strategies of the Global Forum for Health Research. It builds upon the work carried out at Forum 1 and 2, and looks into the plans of action for 1999-2000 to help correct the 10/90 Gap.