Addressing inequalities in research capacity in Africa

All sides in partnerships must ensure that research aims to improve the health of all T his special theme issue includes a feast of high quality papers by African researchers on a range of topics of great relevance to health and health care in Africa. Despite our best efforts we did not achieve the geographical spread of submissions that we hoped for, mostly because we receive articles from authors in only a few African countries. We do not know the extent to which this reflects lack of research capacity or whether the prevailing political, social, and economic conditions in these countries militate against meaningful research. Whatever the reasons, the dearth of research done in Africa for Africa is untenable.