British Journal of Pain 6(2) 81 –84 © The British Pain Society 2012 Reprints and permission:

journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/2049463712444062 bjp.sagepub.com Ten years ago it was clear that pain education and management in developing countries was lagging behind that of more affluent areas of the world. For example, in 1998 a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborative study on primary care in devel-oping countries revealed that chronic pain was present in up to 35 % of those questioned.1 Pressure from sev-eral International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) chapters led to a review of the extent of IASP support for pain education in developing countries, which at that time consisted chiefly of funding for vis-iting lecturers, the provision of IASP books for main libraries and travel aid for those wishing to attend congresses. A decision was taken to expand the aid given, and in 2002 a Developing Countries Taskforce – later a Working Group (DCWG) – was formed. In 2005, a survey of education and training in developing countries was carried out to establish a baseline for A decade of improvement in pain education and clinical practice in developing countries: IASP initiative