Summary report of the Regional Consultation to follow up on the Mexico Ministerial Summit on Health Research, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, 29–30 November 2005

The 2004 Ministerial Summit on Health Research, Mexico City, Mexico, 16–20 November 2004, emphasized global cooperation to reduce the disparities in health between developing and developed coun- tries. Representatives of 58 ministries of health, half of them ministers, called for greater commitment to health research. It was a global initiative to strengthen national health systems and to increase efforts towards attaining the United Nations millennium development goals [1,2]. The Mexico Summit on Health Research served as a global platform to underscore persisting inequalities in health research (including the 10/90 gap in health research expenditure); it called upon all countries/ stakeholders to develop the political will and commitment to share resources, information and experiences to ensure that public health policies are developed according to the real needs of the people [3].