Strengthening National Ethics Committees in West and Central Francophone Africa (SNECFA)

National Ethics Committees (NECs) are a critically important component of the infrastructure required to support productive and dynamic health research.

In Francophone Africa, NECs remain under-resourced and have yet to achieve the institutional maturity and portfolios of counterparts in Anglophone African countries.

This is true despite a rise in the volume of ongoing clinical and biomedical research in Western and Central Africa, and a recognition that the region is highly vulnerable to emerging infectious diseases that merit coordinated global responses.

There is a clear need to strengthen the capacity of NECs in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Mali, to support the timely and thorough review of research at all levels of the healthcare system.

NECs in Chad and Niger currently do not have standard operating procedures (SOPs) nor guidance documents to cover many key functions, and committee members frequently have not received basic training in health research ethics (HRE).

Similarly, although the NECs of Cameroon and Mali received some support for capacity building to update their SOPs, they have been unable, to date, to meet administrative goals nor the needs of their growing research communities.

Whilst there is strong advocacy for strengthening preparedness of NECs during public health emergencies, none of these countries have established guidelines for protocol review during an emergency situation.

The objective of this project is to strengthen the capacity of existing NECs in four Francophone African countries, namely Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger. The project will ensure that the majority of their members are trained in basic HRE.

Similarly, the project will ensure that each NEC will develop and adopt simplified SOPs both for routine and emergency situations, and that these SOPs are in compliance with International Regulations governing health research. Each NEC will obtain an active registration with the Federal Wide Assurance (FWA) programme.

In brief, we propose to: 1) Host customised short-term training courses in HRE for NEC members in four countries; 2) Organise workshops to support the development/revision of SOPs both for routine and emergency situations; 3) Develop/revise TRREE national supplements on regulation of health research in all four countries; 4) Organise a workshop to share experiences between the NECs of Francophone Africa; 5) Support NECs to register for or renew their Federal Wide Assurance (FWA) numbers.

Overall, this project will increase the ability of NECs in Francophone Africa to rigorously review clinical and biomedical research studies both in routine and emergency situations.