keywords poverty-related diseases, clinical trials, partnership, EDCTPThe European and Developing Countries Clinical TrialsPartnership (EDCTP) was founded in 2003 in response tothe global burden of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.Its mission is to accelerate the development of new orimproved clinical interventions against these diseases witha focus on supporting phase II and III clinical trialsincluding capacity development. EDCTP organises biennialforums that bring together researchers, programme man-agers, policy makers, funders and other stakeholdersworking on poverty-related diseases. These forums havebecome a major platform for discussing matters pertainingto poverty-related diseases in Africa. The theme of the FifthEDCTP Forum, held in Arusha, Tanzania, from 12 to 14October 2009, was ‘Fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis andmalaria – one world, one partnership’. This underpinnedthe principle of EDCTP of working in partnerships.Four hundred and fifty participants from 49 countriesincluding 26 from Africa, 15 from Europe and others fromAustralia, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Indonesia, Nepal, Peruand the United States attended. There were presentationsfrom many partners from the African AIDS VaccineProgramme (AAVP), the African Malaria Network Trust(AMANET), AERAS Global TB Vaccine Foundation, theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the EuropeanVaccines Initiative (EVI), the Enhancing Support forStrengthening the Effectiveness of National CapacityEfforts (ESSENCE), the International Partnership forMicrobicides (IPM), the Medicines for Malaria Venture(MMV) and the Wellcome Trust. There were also foursatellite meetings and workshops on Ownership ofResearch Outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa; UniversalStandards for Clinical Trials in Practice; ESSENCE fundersmeeting to explore synergy; and a Round-table Meeting ofAfrican Regional Economic Communities on the Africanrepresentation to EDCTP-EEIG General Assembly. EDCTPlaunched awards for outstanding African scientists: thesenior scientist award went to Alexis Nzila of KenyaMedical Research Institute, Wellcome Trust ResearchCentre. Dominique Pepper from the Institute of InfectiousDiseases and Molecular Medicine, University of CapeTown, South Africa, won the junior scientist award.The forum comprised plenary and parallel sessionsduring which 58 oral presentations, 81 short electronicpresentations and 69 posters were presented, covering awide range of topics. Keynote addresses were delivered onthe current state of affairs in research and control of HIV/AIDS by Dr Anatoli Kamali, of malaria by ProfessorAbdoulaye Djimde´ and of tuberculosis by Professor WillemHanekom. Articles based on these are published as reviewsin this issue of the journal.Forum participants met in the penultimate plenarysession to identify research gaps and needs and madeseveral recommendations to EDCTP. These were asfollows:HIV/AIDS• Continue with research on preventive HIV vaccinesand microbicides including exploring efficacy of anti-retroviral-based combinations.• Conduct more research to answer treatment strategyissues. These should include when to start treatment;effect of treatment on immune reconstitution inflam-matory syndrome (IRIS); when to switch and what toswitch to; management of HIV-TB co-infectionsincluding strategies on prophylaxis, vaccines, diagno-sis and treatment and reduction in mortality prior toand soon after treatment initiation.• High priority should be given to customised inter-ventions and the needs of specific populations such asdiscordant couples.• High priority should be given to research on imple-menting and scaling up interventions of proven