I want to start by making one thing clear: This wasn’t my idea. The credit there belongs to Andrew, a fellow MethodLogical contributor. But one thing I’ve learned through my experiences in my most-nascent career as a global health researcher, is that ideas are merely the beginning. Necessary, no doubt, but hardly sufficient. It is only through the systematic execution of ideas that knowledge can be found and progress made. Andrew had a great idea, but now it’s up to all of us—the MethodLogical team—to execute and produce a great blog.
I offer this example because it is core to the mission of this blog. We are a group of young individuals who share a vision of global health equity and sustainable development. While we could hardly be called “dispassionate,” we strive to be objective evaluators of evidence. There may not be one correct way to reduce diarrheal disease, to build roads, or to increase access to credit, but there are correct ways to evaluate these ideas. We will go beyond the conclusions reported in article abstracts and on cable news channels, in an effort to understand and illustrate the implications of research, global events, and daily occurrences.
In our posts, you will see analyses of the current research in the fields of global health and development and a vigorous debate of ideas. We will tackle current events and attempt to appraise the impact of elections, new laws, and even weather. We also will share some of our experiences working abroad and comment on the various projects we are undertaking. We will not always agree with each other and, perhaps, that will be where we have the most fun.
Some of us are researchers, some of us are policymakers, and some of us are practitioners. Many of us are students. What we share is a fierce sense of social justice and bit of a sense of adventure. We strive to be creative and innovative in finding solutions to those challenges facing the developing world. And we demand rigor in evaluating those ideas.In the coming months, we will post on the blog (hopefully daily), with rotating contributors offering their unique perspectives. We hope you join us and read this blog. And we hope you join the debate. Otherwise, this was nothing more than a good idea.
