COHRED is one of the partners organising the 2008 Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health (Bamako 2008). This is a joint initiative between COHRED, the Global Forum for Health Research, UNESCO, the World Health Organization, World Bank and the Government of Mali. It will be held in Bamako, Mali, on 17-20 November 2008.

The meeting will bring together stakeholders and supporters of research for health, including ministers, researchers, academics, representatives from research funding agencies and civil society, and the private sector.

COHRED’s unique contribution to the meeting and the consultative processes leading up to it, is to bring increased focus on the needs of low and middle income countries, and bring a stronger ‘voice of the south’ to the global debate on health research needs for developing countries and neglected diseases.

Elements of the COHERED programme that will feed into the Bamako 2008 consultations and meeting are:

• Supporting countries to develop strong health research priorities and systems for health research.
  
• Encouraging better donor coordination to focus on the real health research needs of developing countries.
  
• Highlighting the role that all actors can play in setting a national health research agenda - civil society, communities, the media and traditional health research institutions.