Proceedings of the Seminar on Health Research Ethics in Africa

The first conference of the African Malaria Vaccine Testing Network (AMVTN) identified as a leading priority, the promotion of ethics in health research undertaken in Africa. The participants at the 1995 meeting expressed the need for mainly increasing awareness of ethics in health research and of reviewing current practices and existing guidelines. The conference also noted that there were very limited national health research capacity, and the continuing reliance on non-African participation in health research on African health issues, and the attendant short-comings thereof, including inherent ethics issues. From its founding about 5 years ago, AMVTN in all its capacity building endeavours, particularly in its workshops on study designs and methodology, good clinical practice (GCP), and data management, has identified promotion of ethics to be a top priority. This activity being such a major challenge required considerable preparations. which started in earnest during 1997. It was decided very early that a workshop would not suffice and a conference would lack sufficient focus. It was therefore decided to organize a Seminar on Health Research Ethics in Africa. After wide ranging consultations, the relevant topics and respective speakers were identified and invited. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.