Brief Training Report on Research Ethics

Brief Training Report on Research Ethics

A very successful four days capacity building (training of trainers) on Research Ethics and writing articles or publication in the Social Science and Humanities was conducted from              24th to 27th January 2022 at Azzeman Hotel, Addis Ababa Ethiopia. The training was organized by Social Sciences for Severe Stigmatizing Skin Diseases (The 5-S Foundation Ethiopia) project in collaboration with the Ethiopian Society of Sociologists, Social Workers and Anthropologists (ESSSWA) and the Federal Ministry of Education (MoE).

The training brought together about 28 (4 females) professionals from ten ESSSWA regional chapter universities, 5S project staff and ESSSWA IRB members. The training was delivered by university professors and  senior professionals gathered from Addis Ababa University, National Research Ethics Review committee, Ministry of Education and ESSSWA IRB members.  

The main focus of the training was to equip researchers gathered from different universities with the fundamental ethical issues to be considered while conducting social science and humanities research.  This training was then organized with high expectation of these ToT participants to take the training back home and cascade to it their colleagues, government and non-government stakeholders in their respective regions/universities.

The training started with the welcoming speech by Mr. Sintayehu Dejene, Executive Director of ESSSWA. He welcomed all participants and commended the high turnout at the training. Following this, Professor Genet Tadele, Principal Investigator of the 5S foundation project Eth and President of ESSSWA Board, welcomed and expressed his sincere gratitude to the attendees and made a keynote address. Professor Getnet gave a brief background about the mission and objective of the 5S project and ESSSWA. He also highlighted the main purpose of the training and ethical issues need to be grounded within the broader socio-economic, cultural and political contextof a given society or indigenous Ethiopian/African moral systems, values, norms, thoughts, philosophy and realities on the ground. He expressed his heartfelt thanks to the resource persons who devoted their valuable time and expertise in delivering this training. Also, he paid tribute to those who contributed a lot in making the training happen. The training was officially opened by Dr. Solomon Benor, Director General of Science and Research Directorate at the Ministry of Education.

Various training topics have been discussed during the whole training period. Among others: History and Origin of Bioethics, Overview of the new comprehensive NRERC Guideline, Informed Consent, Privacy and confidentiality, Conflict of Interest and Risk benefit assessment in ethical issues, Research with vulnerable population, Registration of IRB/IEC, Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and Humanities (With a focus on principles of ethics, procedures and process of ethical approval). In addition to topics related to research ethics, a very interesting topic on Writing for Publication has been also discussed in the training.

Generally, as there was sincere interest by participants on the subject, the training was engaging and lively. To achieve the objective of the training, the trainers have used different training methodologies such as scenario illustration, group work, question and answer and case presentations. In addition to the training on research ethics, the training has opened the opportunity for networking among the trainees who come from different organizations.

 As a closing remark, professor Getnet thanked all participants for attending the training and National Institute of Health Research (BSMS and 5S Foundation) for the financial support. He also stressed that participant of this training need to apply the knowledge and skills they acquired on their research projects and take the training back home and roll it out to their colleagues and researchers in their respective regions/universities. Finally, professor Getnet issued certificates of participation for those who have successfully completed the training.