Francophone African countries are among the most resource-constrained in the world. Citizens in these regions commonly struggle with a wide variety of health problems related to poverty, political conflict and social upheaval. Those involved in local efforts to improve health, in clinical medicine, biomedical research or public health initiatives, often find themselves in difficult situations of moral conflict. Managing these conflicts is challenging, partly because local health professionals may come to them unprepared due to bioethics typically not forming an explicit part of the medical curriculum and having little presence in common culture.
This training project, entitled Strengthening Bioethics Capacity and Justice in Health, seeks to increase awareness of ethical issues in biomedicine in Francophone Africa, and contribute to locally relevant bioethics education and practice in this region. Our project conducts workshops, organizes conferences, provides training in bioethics for local collaborators and interested scholars, publishes peer-reviewed articles on bioethical issues in Francophone Africa, and integrates bioethics content into existing curricula in key educational institutions. The target countries for our initiatives are the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Madagascar. Strengthening Bioethics Capacity and Justice in Health is a collaborative project among leading health institutions in the United States, Belgium, Madagascar and the DRC.
Site leaders
- Prof. Stuart Rennie, UNC-Chapel Hill
- Prof. Patrick Kayembe, Kinshasa School of Public Health, DRC
- Prof. Luc Samison, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar
- Prof. Laurent Ravez, University of Namur, Belgium
Key investigators
- Prof. Frieda Behets, UNC-Chapel Hill
- Mr. Darius Makindu, Kinshasa School of Public Health, DRC
- Dr. Robert Yemesi, Kinshasa School of Public Health, DRC
- Dr. Albert Fox, University of Namur, Belgium
- Prof. Francis Hunald, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar