Biomedical Research in Developing Countries - UNICRI

TRREE for Africa
Training and Resources in Research Ethics Evaluation for Africa is a European and
Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership - EDCTP - funded project. It is a
web based training and capacity building initiative for the promotion of ethics in
African research with human participants, which has been established in 2006 and
expected to deliver the training on November 2008. Meanwhile the research
material collected during the period, has been made available on the website on an
on-going basis.
TRREE for Africa main objectives are: to increase knowledge and professional skills
of people involved in research ethics evaluation, management and research
partnership; to promote partnerships among African partners; to facilitate the
circulation of information both in Africa and in Europe, in order to help the
strengthening of African ethics research capacity.
TRREE for Africa is a free of charge bilingual programme (English and French), based
on: e-learning, ethics training available on CD-Rom and on the web; e-resources,
international, regional and national resources that can be found on the web.
TRREE for Africa tries to ensure the respect of the highest ethical standards in
research for the protection of research participants. The e-training is open to
everybody working in research: research ethics committees members, investigators,
nurses, researchers, study coordinators, health authorities, funding agencies,
political authorities, media and the patients, in order to ensure a deep awareness of
research ethical issues.
A very useful document for the investigation of research ethics capacity in the
African continent, is the TRREE for Africa Report: “Networking for Ethics on
Biomedical Research in Africa (NEBRA)”, which collected data on research ethics
committees and regulations in many African countries.
http://www.trree.org/site/en_home.phtml
Tuskegee University, USA
National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care
Tuskegee University is an independent and state-related institution, engaged
primarily in disciplines which require a strong relationship between education and
work-force preparation in the sciences, professions and technical areas.
The National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care was established in
1999 as a sort of reimbursement from the US Government towards the city of
Tuskegee, for a clinical research on Syphilis conducted from 1932 to 1972, involving
mostly African American men, which has become an example of unethical research.
Starting from these considerations and in collaboration with local, regional and
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