More than 100 STM publishers, including Nature Publishing Group, and three UN organizations (WHO, FAO and UNEP) have announced the extension of programmes that provide free, or almost free, access to online peer-reviewed journals to several developing nations that lack access to information and training. Microsoft has also announced its support of technical assistance to enhance access to online research for scientists, policymakers, and librarians in these countries.

The three sister programmes – HINARI (research on health), AGORA (research on agriculture) and OARE (research in the environment) – provide online research access to more than one hundred of the world’s poorest countries. All three programmes have official commitment from their partners until 2015, marking the target for reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

In a World Health Organisation (WHO) survey conducted in 2000, researchers and academics in developing countries ranked access to subscription based journals as one of their most pressing problems. In countries with per capita income of less than $1000 per annum, 56 per cent of academic institutions surveyed had no current subscriptions to international journals. These three programmes aim to solve this problem and make research as easily accessible in countries such as Sierra Leone as it is in the United States.