The time: four days, 25 working sessions, six round tables, six joint plenaries and “networking” lunches. The people: hundreds of international delegates, 29 ministers of health, and 29 ministerial representatives. The result: three firm action points, seven vague ones. The reason: political expediency.

The Mexico Summit on Health Research was a historic gathering of health ministers—let's not quibble that only 29 bothered to turn up—and just as many ministerial representatives. The ministers spoke with passion, and surprising understanding, of challenges facing health systems research. The advocates—public health specialists, researchers, and technocrats from the World Health Organization—put their case to ministers with clarity, and surprising persuasiveness.

But what will the millions of poor people in our world make of the Mexico Agenda for Health Research, a document agreed by …