22 May 2019| Volume 78 | Edition 4
UCT Adopts of the Global Code of Conduct for Research By Ntombi Khulu UCT has recently adopted the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings in an effort to counter ethics dumping.
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n the 18th of April this year it was announced that UCT has implemented the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings (GCC) as a means to set out important guidelines and ethical principles with regards to how researchers collaborate on their research. The Global Code of Conduct is a short and accessible ethics code that aims at combating ethics dumping and was written and compiled by a number of authors from the Global South. Many of these authors are womxn leaders, including Professor Doris Schroeder, lead author of the Code and director of the Centre for Professional Ethics at the University of Central Lancashire School of Health Sciences, and UCT’s South Africa Research Chair and Associate Professor Rachel Wynberg.
“Ethics dumping is about exploiting vulnerable populations” The practice of ethics dumping can be described as the practice of moving research from a place where it is restricted to a place where there may be fewer laws or restrictions in place. Typically, this involves moving research from the Global North to the Global South. However, ethics dumping is also about the principle of how higher-income researchers conduct themselves in low-income areas. Common practices of ethics dumping are animal experimentation and genetically modified crops where, according to Professor Wynberg, experiments on monkeys or crops “might be prohibited in European countries but less strictly regulated in a resource-poor context where there is less capacity or public awareness.” Furthermore, ethics dumping often includes exploiting the vulnerable populations of those in the Global South- such as research on indigenous groups of people like the San in southern Africa. This type of project benefits the researchers, but the San don’t receive anything in return for the knowledge and blood samples they provide. The Global Code of Conduct was written as a tool to provide researchers with an easily accessible set of values and principles to follow when researching in an effort to “do the right thing”, as Professor Wynberg puts it. The GCC is a four-page long document that encourages four main values of the code which includes: Fairness, Respect, Care, and Honesty. It is encouraged for not only researchers to familiarise themselves with the GCC, but also for people who are at risk of exploitation, so that they know their rights and can better combat
exploitation.
“The code hopes to bring about more transformation in the way research is conducted in resource-poor areas” The GCC has been adopted by the European Commission and UCT managed to get involved with the formation of the Code through Professor Wynberg as she is one of the partners on the TRUST project which developed the Code. South Africa has played a large role in the development of the GCC, with five partners in the country taking part, namely: UCT, Wits, the South African San Institute, the African arms of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and the Council for Health Research on Development. UCT has become the first university in the world to adopt the GCC and the first institution in the Global South to do so as well. The adoption of the GCC by UCT hopes to bring about more transformation in the way research is conducted in resource-poor areas. The Code is further shown to match the values of ongoing commitments to transforming and promoting ethical, engaging and relevant research practices that UCT aims to uphold. The UCT Senate further welcomed the Code by stating how “the Global Code complements the policies already adopted by Senate to ensure that UCT researchers maintain the highest ethical standards”. As UCT becomes the third adopter of the Code behind the European Commission and the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, there are moves afoot to implement the GCC at other African universities and institutions worldwide.
Source: Flickrlan Barbour