Barely a year ago nearly 1,000 people from 80 countries gathered enthusiastically at the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana, Cuba, under the banner 'Innovating for the health of all'. They were attending the annual meeting of the non-profit organisation the Global Forum for Health Research (GFHR).
Now, less than a year after taking office, the forum's executive director, Anthony Mbewu, has resigned, and the forum itself is in failing health. Why did this international organisation, set up in 1998, founder so spectacularly and so quickly when the need for health research remains so great?