The making of the Lancet Series on health in the Arab world

Abstract

Conducting research to provide evidence that can contribute to improving health in a region engulfed in war and ongoing turmoil is not an easy matter. Researchers in our region must struggle with and overcome several constraints, including heavy teaching loads and institution-building priorities, leaving little time dedicated to research; absence of institutional incentives and support for conducting quality research; dearth of publicly available datasets; and absence of funding and government commitment to encourage research. But above all, we must sometimes confront enormous challenges brought about by wars and confl icts, injustice, fragmentation, insecurities, and uncertainties, which can at times suddenly dwarf our research agendas and make them irrelevant. In response to this predicament and to remain engaged, productive, and relevant we learned the impor tance of working in teams and building networks to support each other. And so, over the past decade, a group of us came together on the basis of a common understanding of the importance of the social and political contexts of health; an interest in developing frameworks of analysis that are relevant to the realities and refl ective of the needs of our region; and with the aim of giving voice to a regional perspective on issues of health and wellbeing, now hardly existing in the international literature.