Our work with the World Health Organization

We are a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Bioethics (CC). We were the very first CC and received our designation in 2002. We have continued to receive our redesignation in the interim years.

In 2009, we co-founded and were the inaugural chair of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Bioethics, which now comprises of 12 WHO CCs. The aim of the Global Network of WHO CCs is to create a collaborative initiative to improve global health by increasing policy impact of bioethics on a global scale.

WHO CCs are key institutions with relevant expertise distributed throughout the world.

The purpose of the network is to provide WHO with the extended and integral capacity to implement its ethics mandate. Ongoing collaboration and knowledge exchange with WHO CCs enhance the scientific validity of WHO’s work on ethics.

Collaborating for positive bioethics outcomes in public and global health

As a WHO CC and member of the Global Network of CCs, we have been actively engaged in collaborative policy work on key ethics topics in public and global health.

Our faculty have participated in a number of working groups such as WHO Ethics Working Group on Ebola, which developed early guidance on the conduct of research in the midst of this humanitarian crisis. We have also engaged in WHO consultations related to epidemics and contributed to the drafting of WHO document on ethics and infectious disease outbreaks, and chaired working groups for WHO Guidelines Development Group on Ethics and Public Health Surveillance.