Key to successful global health collaborations: research, ethics and community engagement and involvement

Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people, according to the ancient Greeks and Abraham Lincoln. Similarly, health research needs to be of low- and middle-income country (LMIC) people, by LMIC people and for people in LMICs, as well as of, by and for people in high-income countries (HICs). Vestigial views of ‘global health research should be driven by our agenda and the outputs belong to us since we pay for it’ can still be heard despite the calls for and drive towards more equitable partnerships in global health. Organisations such as the US NIH (Working Group on Promoting Equity in Global Health Research Collaborations)1 and the UKRI (UK Collaborative on Development Research ‘Building Partnerships of Equals’)2 are working towards fairer research partnerships. There has been much written on equitable partnerships, recognising the importance in its own right,3 4 as well as in ensuring sustainability, efficiency and yielding better outcomes.5 One of the early writings on conducting ethical research in developing countries by Emanuel et al 6 emphasised the need for minimising exploitation and collaborative partnerships. More recent writing by Kumar et al discussed the systemic inequalities reinforcing inequities and the need for individual and institutional empowerment in combating such inequity.7 Our experiences indicate three areas upon which equitable global health partnerships are built: equity in research, ethics as a mandatory requirement and community engagement and involvement (CEI). ### The role of research in global health: bidirectional knowledge flows We believe research is the way forward to address this inequity in global health. Research collaborations among HICs and LMICs can be the way forward to close the health, research and publication gap between Global North and Global South.5 In the current context of the 10/90 (LMIC/HIC) divide in resource allocation, research funding and publications, as well as the disproportionate …