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African Bioethics in Practice: Governance and Responsibility

African practice. Global relevance. Shared learning.​

This theme explores how bioethics informs real-world decisions across health systems, research, innovation, policy, and community contexts.

Governance encompasses:

  • How decisions are made and justified

  • Who holds authority and accountability

  • What processes guide ethical deliberation

  • How power and responsibility are distributed

Responsibility addresses:

  • Individual and collective ethical duties

  • Institutional and structural obligations

  • Care for people, communities, and environments

  • Accountability for decisions and their consequences

Five Intersecting Pillars

The conference is organised around five pillars that provide coherence while enabling interdisciplinary exchange. Submissions may address multiple pillars. What matters is showing how ethical analysis informs decisions, governance, or responsibilities within a defined practice context.

Research Ethics & Governance

​Research Ethics Committees, consent processes, regulatory frameworks, policy implementation, community engagement in research, data sharing and ownership

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Example topics:

  • REC decision-making in complex cases

  • Community consent and engagement models

  • Data governance in collaborative research

  • Regulatory harmonization across countries

  • Ethics review capacity and quality

Health Systems & Clinical Ethics

Resource allocation, quality of care, health equity, end-of-life decision-making, informed consent in clinical settings, traditional medicine and biomedical interface, mental health ethics, pandemic response, community health worker ethics


Example topics:

  • Triage and resource allocation during scarcity

  • Traditional healing and biomedical integration

  • Patient autonomy in communitarian contexts

  • Quality of care and ethical responsibilities

  • Mental health treatment and dignity

Emerging Technologies & Science

Genomics, artificial intelligence in healthcare, reproductive technologies, data governance, digital health platforms, telemedicine ethics, biotechnology applications

 


Example topics:

  • AI governance in African health contexts

  • Genomic data sovereignty and benefit-sharing

  • Reproductive technology access and equity

  • Digital health ethics and data protection

  • Biotechnology regulation and oversight

Climate, Environment & Health Ethics

Environmental justice, planetary health, indigenous and local ecological knowledge, health impacts of climate change, one health approaches, extractive industries and community health, water and sanitation ethics

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Example topics:

  • Climate adaptation and health justice

  • Extractive industries and community consent

  • Traditional ecological knowledge protection

  • One Health ethics in practice

  • Environmental health rights​

Research Ethics & Governance

Publishing, peer review, authorship, research partnerships, open science, knowledge translation, community-based knowledge systems, decolonizing methodologies


Example topics:

  • Fair authorship and research partnerships

  • Open science and access in African contexts

  • Decolonizing research methodologies

  • Community knowledge validation

  • Publishing barriers and solutions

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