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Background

There is a wide consensus in The Cochrane Collaboration that more needs to be done to extend the activities and outputs of the Collaboration to developing countries (DC). Although some Cochrane Centres and Branches are based in these countries, and some CRGs, Methods and Fields have very active members who live there, globally, less than 10% of the Cochrane Reviews are authored by people based in a developing country. Furthermore, many topics relevant to the developing world and addressing problems that affect large populations remain neglected, and an important divide exists also in access and use of The Cochrane Library.�??�?� 

During the past five years, a number of debates and proposals to address the above issues have been made. To channel the existing ideas and make appropriate proposals for translating the prevailing general willingness into practise, the Steering Group promoted a Developing Country Initiative (DCI) in 2001. The DCI was initially co-ordinated by Youping Li and later by Xavier Bonfill. In each Colloquium, several meetings have taken place in order to reach the necessary consensus before taking actions.�??�?� 

Although a range of suggestions for the Steering Group have arisen during this time, it became necessary to first have consultations with people living in developing countries about their needs and recommendations. Based on previous surveys and a seed grant from the Steering Group, a new survey was designed and conducted by the South-African Cochrane Centre in 2004 and its results were presented and discussed at the Ottawa Colloquium. At the Colloquium Melbourne meeting, discussions were focused on the proposal of constituting a Cochrane entity. It was contrasted the participation and flexibility of a Network with the operational capacity of an Advisory Group to the Steering Group (SG).�??�?� 

As a first step, it was decided to constitute a Co-ordinating Group representing all the developing countries areas in the world, as well as the convenor of the initiative (XB) and a member designated by the SG (Zbys Fedorowicz ). The aim of the Group was to prepare an action plan for the new entity in order to be widely discussed by the registered members and all Cochrane entities during 2006 and finally approved by the SG.�??�?� 

The Steering Group approved to fund the meeting of the DC Co-ordinating Group, that was held on February 2006, 27-28 in Barcelona (Spain). Following the survey results and some other previous documents and ideas received or proposed, an Action Plan�??�?� was agreed to by the following participants:
Xavier Bonfill (Spain), Zbys Fedorowicz (Barhain), Sreekumaran Nair (India), Joy Oliver (South Africa), Zulma Ortiz (Argentina), Charles Wiysonge (Cameroon).

Finally, in December 2006 the group was officially registered as Cochrane Developing Countries Network (CDCN).