Exporting 'failure': why research from rich countries may not benefit the developing world
- Resource Type
- other
- Authors
- Miranda, J Jaime; Zaman, M Justin
- Source
- Revista de Saúde Pública. February 2010 44(1)
- Subject
- Descriptors
Biomedical Research, trends
Technical Cooperation
Developed Countries
Developing Countries
Evidence-Based Medicine
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0034-8910
The '10/90 gap' was first highlighted by the Global Forum for Health Research. It refers to the finding that 90% of worldwide medical research expenditure is targeted at problems affecting only 10% of the world's population. Applying research results from the rich world to the problems of the poor may be a tempting, potentially easy and convenient solution for this gap. This paper had the objective of presenting arguments that such an approach runs the risk of exporting failure. Health interventions that are shown to be effective in the specific context of a Western industrialized setting will not necessarily work in the developing world.