Chris Murray, Catherine Michaud, and Sunil Chacko began their careers in the secretariat. David Bell, who passed away last month, worked tirelessly offering his guidance and wisdom. He is remembered today with gratitude, respect, and deep affection. The commitment, indeed passion, of these people forged the Commission. Our goal was to harness the power of knowledge for good health.
Research is a learning process, a search for truth, an endeavor unique to the human species.
While we adopted a global vision of the human family, our concern focused on the huge health disparities among and within countries. That is why we emphasized national research development for advancing equitably global health. The period of exclusive knowledge production in the North for technology transfer to the South was ending, opening a new era of bringing together research producers and users in the South to join the world health research system. One decade later, much progress has been made. The Bangkok conference was designed as a marketplace for dialogue of diverse perspectives and exchanges of new ideas.