Global health challenges are ubiquitous. However, the Global South (Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, and the developing countries in Asia, including the Middle East) is disproportionately affected in comparison to the Global North due to economic inequities. Response to global health challenges calls for ethical considerations as it impacts vulnerable populations. Consequently, there is need for ethical guidance at the policy, public health, research and academic institutions' levels.
Global health is also transboundary. It covers the health issues of all people in all countries. Economic inequities allow some countries, usually those in the Global North, to be better resourced in addressing public health challenges. These inequities negatively impact on countries in the Global South. Not withstanding, challenges are not limited to countries with limited resources and as such global ethics examines the ethical challenges and responses in all countries while giving priority to and in consideration of the issues and needs of the Global South.
As there is dire need for increased institutional and personnel capacity in various aspects related to ethics in research, education, management and leadership in the Global South, there is also the opportunity to learn from the responses/approaches applied by policymakers/health-workers despite the constraints. The Centre for Global health recognizes the benefit of exchanging experiences in addressing ethical challenges by equitably engaging organizations/stakeholders/colleagues from the Global South.
A clear comprehension of ethical issues is needed to ensure successful interventions, policies and partnerships. In collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine and the Centre for Medical Ethics, the Centre for Global Health (CGH) will acknowledge and adopt ethics – that is, research and clinical aspects, as dimensions that must cut across its overall mission to advance capacity for global health research, education and communication.
The CGH will use ethics as a crosscutting theme to:
- advance education and learning in global health through in person and virtual forums;
- build networks and partnership to accelerate advancement of research and clinical practice ethics and integrity training and education;
- increase knowledge of best practices in academic, research, and health institutions’ ethical review boards;
- empower researchers in global health ensuring ethical and integral leadership and research;
- highlight and compare culturally diverse approaches to addressing ethical challenges in research and clinical settings;
- highlight research ethics/integrity challenges of doing research in resource poor countries;
- promote awareness on the ethical practices of open science;
- promote stakeholder engagement and community involvement in design, planning, implementation, evaluation of research studies and communication and dissemination of research findings.
Past Events
1. Integrity and International Collaborations in an Open Science Environment - Ethics in Global Health Crosscutting Theme leader, Rosemarie Bernabe, joined experts to discuss integrity challenges in international collaborations - January 27, 2023. (Recording coming soon!)
2. Bioethics and Global Health: What Should a Just Future of Health Entail? - The launch of the Ethics in Global Health Crosscutting Theme is celebrated with an online event discussing issues and solutions to advance the Sustainable Development Goals in which capacity development in research integrity and research ethics teaching in global health are especially relevant - June 15, 2022.
Launch Event - recording available
Leader
Rosemarie de La Cruz Bernabe
Professor, Center for Medical Ethics, University of Oslo
Rosemarie Bernabe is a professor of research ethics and research integrity at the University of Oslo and a professor of medical research ethics at the University of South-Eastern Norway. She coordinates/co-coordinates several projects, including Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe projects, on post-clinical trial access especially in low and middle income countries; open science and research integrity; research ethics and immersive technologies; and capacity building in research ethics and clinical ethics in Tanzania and Rwanda. Her research interests include research ethics issues in low- and middle-income countries, assessment of benefits and risks in clinical trials, the intersection of regulatory science and research ethics, ethical oversight of research, research ethics issues of emerging technologies, ethical and integrity issues of open science, issues of systemic injustice, among others.
Resource Group
The resource group will support the leader in advancing the CGH's ambitions for ethics as a crosscutting integrated theme.
Jan Helge Solbakk
Professor, Center for Medical Ethics, University of Oslo
Jan Helge Solbakk
Jan Helge Solbakk is trained as a physician and theologian, and he holds a PhD in ancient Greek philosophy. Currently he is Professor and Head of Research at Centre for Medical Ethics. During the last 15 years he has been involved in a lot of capacity building projects pertaining to research ethics and ethics teaching in Asia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Cynthia Khamala Wangamati
Researcher, Centre for Medical Ethics at UiO
Susana María Vidal
Guest Researcher at UiO
Susana M. Vidal is a medical doctor (Cordoba University, 1982) with specialization in internal medicine. She is also a specialist in Fundamental Bioethics and holds a Master in Bioethics (University of Chile, 2002). Since April 2021 she is guest researcher at Centre for Medical Ethics, University of Oslo. In September 2021 Vidal was elected president of Redbioetica UNESCO, (the UNESCO Latin America and the Caribbean network on Bioethics). She serves as adviser of several National Bioethics Committees in Latin America. From February 2008 to December 2021 Vidal worked as Program Specialist for Latin America and the Caribbean in Bioethics and Ethics of Science at the UNESCO, Montevideo Regional Office, Uruguay (2008-2020). At present she is also member of the Ethics and Human Rights Committee for COVID 19 (Ministry of Health, Argentina). From 2005-till April 2021 Vidal was the general coordinator of the Lifelong Learning Program in Bioethics and Research Ethics of Redbioética UNESCO. Vidal is guest lecturer at several Latin-Americans universities and she has published extensively in bioethics.
Shereen Cox Née Dawkins
Doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Medical Ethics at UiO
Shereen Dawkins Cox graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Technology, Jamaica in 2004 and Honors Diploma from the same University in 1998. She also received a Master of Arts in Healthcare Ethics and Law from the University of Manchester, UK. Since 2019, she is a doctoral research fellow and part-time lecturer at the Centre for Medical Ethics, University of Oslo. She also lectures pharmacy and research ethics at the Universities of the West Indies and Technology (Jamaica). She is the current President of the Bioethics Society of the English speaking Caribbean (BSEC) and a member of the Executive of Redbioetica UNESCO, (the UNESCO Latin America and the Caribbean network on Bioethics). She is also the immediate past- President of the Jamaica Association of Private Pharmacy Owners and former Executive member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Jamaica and the National Bioethics Committee. She worked as a Pharmacy Inspector with the Pharmacy Council of Jamaica and eventually was appointed a member of the same Council where she chaired the Standards Committee. She was an adjunct lecturer at Excelsior Community College School of Nursing where she taught Pharmacology.
Bushra Ishaq