The Alliance is an initiative of the Global Forum for Health Research in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and has 310 members in over 70 developing countries. Concerned with the effectiveness of health policy and systems research, the Alliance recognises that health systems currently vary greatly in their performance. It considers that there is an urgent need to improve understanding about how societies organise themselves to achieve health goals, including how they plan, manage and finance activities to improve health, the roles played by different actors in these efforts, and the need to provide scientifically sound, socially relevant and ethically acceptable guidance. The site links to a number of useful resources, including relevant reports, the online international journal for equity in health and online tutorials.