The national ethics committee for life sciences and health is considering the creation of institutional ethics committees in the various universities of Côte d'Ivoire, within the framework of the project Considerations of Ethics in the implementation of research projects (CECABI).

The announcement was made by the co-investigator of the CECABI project, Professor Benjamin Koudou, on Thursday February 24, 2022, during a seminar organized in Grand-Bassam.

We want to have institutional ethics committees that are able to have the same performance and the same output as the national ethics committee for life sciences and health. We hope that these committees can also analyze research projects and give approvals that will be accepted by the national ethics committee,” he explained.

These committees, according to Professor Benjamin Koudou, will be made up of researchers from institutions and civil society, including lawyers, jurists, religious guides, non-governmental organizations.

For him, ethical considerations in research appear to be a complex activity that requires the involvement of researchers, institutions and universities. It consists, for the researchers, in evaluating the probable benefits of their research projects, on the one hand, and in determining the various possibilities of infringement of the rights and dignity of the participants, on the other hand.