Towards making global health research truly global
Authors: Senjuti Saha, Md. Mohibul Hassan Afrad, Sudipta Saha, Samir K Saha
Journal: The Lancet Global Health (2019)

Lancet Global Health and Anne Roca and colleagues put forth a consequential editorial and comment on the importance of language, a word not enough used in global health research.1The Lancet Global HealthThe true meaning of leaving no one behind.Lancet Glob Health. 2019; 7: e533Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar, 2Roca A Boum Y Wachsmuth I Plaidoyer contre l'exclusion des francophones dans la recherche en santé mondiale.Lancet Glob Health. 2019; 7: e701-e702Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar Their core message echoes conversations at our research organisation in Bangladesh. Indeed, as in other non-Anglophone communities, language has shaped our day-to-day research and communication efforts in both obvious and imperceptible ways. We published a paper on barriers that researchers face in low-income and-middle-income countries pertaining to access to resources and literature.3Saha S Saha S Saha SK Barriers in Bangladesh.Elife. 2018; 7e41926Crossref PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar One of the authors was interviewed on a Bangla online platform on the impact of such barriers on local early-career scientists.4Sachalayatan.comGoogle ScholarInterview with eminent microbiologist Senjuti Saha.http://en.sachalayatan.com/node/57282Date accessed: April 20, 2019Google Scholar That interview attracted more attention in Bangladesh than the original English article because of its language of delivery. One viewer rightly questioned whether such an important article could reach the Bangladeshi scientists, policy makers, and stakeholders for whom it was most relevant, when written in English. Although we had ended that article with a call to make global health research truly global, evidently, we did not do so even as Bangladeshi authors. Realising our failures, we documented the barriers that language poses in our research context. A survey of 100 members of our organisation (including microbiologists, clinicians, and community health workers), revealed that 66% did not read any of the 22 papers that the organisation published in 2018, and about 5% read half of them. Language was a barrier for 69%. Our ignorance was palpable: in our quest to cater to the Anglophone and Euro and US-centric global health apparatus, we had overlooked our local members, the ones at the frontiers of public health. As outlined by Roca and colleagues, structural interventions are required for such challenges.2Roca A Boum Y Wachsmuth I Plaidoyer contre l'exclusion des francophones dans la recherche en santé mondiale.Lancet Glob Health. 2019; 7: e701-e702Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar However, easy changes within small organisations like ours are also necessary. For example, we have decided to disseminate translated synopses of articles published by our group and are starting monthly journal clubs for all, including community health workers and support staff, where the papers and other relevant work will be discussed in Bangla. We aim to reach out to other research institutions in our country as well. Through these changes, we hope to increase scholarly communication both within our organisation and with the community we strive to serve. As global health researchers from the "South", when we publish in the dominant language of the field, it is important that we do not forget our responsibility to ensure the work remains broadly accessible and relevant where it was generated. Only then can global health research be truly global and leave no one behind. SKS reports grants from Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi Pasteur outside the submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests. The Bangla version of this Correspondence is in the appendix. Download .pdf (.14 MB) Help with pdf files Supplementary appendix The true meaning of leaving no one behindSometimes it is important to go back to basics. For human interaction, one of the basics is language, the system of communication that, when applied at its best, allows us to understand each other, share, cooperate, and pull each other towards a better place. When on a collective journey towards a common objective such as the Sustainable Development Goals, with a rallying cry of "leaving no one behind" and a central aim of "reaching the furthest behind first", this system of communication is fundamental to move beyond just the rhetorical: to be truly reached, the furthest one behind will need to understand what she is being told, and most likely, that exchange will have to be done in her own language. Full-Text PDF Open Access