International Journal of Health Research and Innovation

Underfunding Health Research: Failure of Diplomacy or Lack of Political-Will?

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• Abstract

  The recent report of the Global “Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination” (CEWG) calls upon Governments to commit at least 0.2% of its GDP to health research in general and 0.01% to research and development needs in developing countries. The 0.2% of GDP will allocate a total of 140 billion dollars per year to government-funded health research worldwide (calculations are provided in table 1). Moreover, the report recommends that Member States to establish a legally binding agreement pursuant to Article 19 of WHO's constitutions to provide effective and sustainable financing mechanism for health research. Here we discuss the current difficulties facing CEWG implementations and provide a way forward that may be considered before the upcoming World Health Assembly (the main governing body of the WHO).