Seven University of Washington faculty members recently joined more than 200 researchers from 40 different countries in a call to action to protect the independence and integrity of global health research.  The editorial, published in the most recent issue of BMJ Global Health, highlights the pervasiveness of donor and NGO influence on program evaluation findings and dissemination.  The signatories outline an approach to move toward independent research, calling on evaluation commissioning bodies, researchers and research institutions, ethics and research governance committees, and academic journals and editors to each play a role in embracing “more sophisticated and thoughtful mechanisms of accountability” in order to avoid “biased evidence [that] can harm health programme beneficiaries and public trust in research.”  UW faculty signatories included: Nora Kenworthy, James Pfeiifer, Amy Hagopian, Kenneth Sherr, Rachel Chapman, Sarah Gimbel, Bradley Wagenaar.

Read more at BMJ.