The tropical disease research programme has a coherent plan

BMJ 1995;310:596 (4 March)

Letters

The tropical disease research programme has a coherent plan

EDITOR,--At times when reading Fiona Godlee's articles analysingthe performance of the World Health Organisation I have hadthe feeling that journalistic enthusiasm for piercing criticismhas taken precedence over the need for constructive suggestion.A case in point is the article on WHO fellowships,¹ which refersto a report that I wrote in 1993 for the tropical disease researchcapacity strengthening programme.

In my report I underscored the difficulty in evaluating capacitybuilding activities in the absence of a universally accepteddefinition of such activities.² ³ Capacity building may be targetedat organisations, organisational units such as institutions,or individual practitioners and scientists and should, if successful,enhance effective and efficient performance of tasks. In myreport in 1993 I noted that the programme's goals and objectivesas set out in the strategic plan were clear and that institutionalperformance could be evaluated; evaluation was more problematic,however, at the . . . [Full text of this article]