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Home / Public Health Action, Volume 7, Number 1

Open Access Research ethics committees in the Pacific Islands: gaps and opportunities for health sector strengthening

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There has been a range of developments in recent years to stimulate increasing public health research activity throughout the Pacific. Development of local capacity for ethics committee review and oversight is, however, frequently underdeveloped. This is reflected in the number of Pacific Island nations where ethics committees have not been established or where only informal processes exist for ethics review and oversight. This is problematic for the optimal development of relevant and culturally appropriate research, and building up local ethics committees should be part of continued research development in the Pacific. Three areas in which local ethics committees may add value are 1) offering better capacity to reflect local priorities, 2) providing broader benefits for research capacity building, and 3) assisting to strengthen systems beyond research ethics. This article considers benefits and challenges for ethics committees in the Pacific, and suggests directions for regional development to further strengthen public health research activity.

Keywords: Pacific Islands; ethics; operational research; public health; research ethics

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: Victorian Tuberculosis Program, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Paris, France, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Tamaki, New Zealand 3: National Centre of Epidemiology and Population Health, Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia 4: Pacific Island Health Officers Association, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA 5: Regional Public Health, Hutt Valley District Health Board, Lower Hutt, New Zealand 6: The Pacific Community, Noumea, South Province, New Caledonia 7: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Paris, France, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK 8: College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Fiji National University, Suva, Fiji

Publication date: 21 March 2017

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  • Public Health Action (PHA), The Union's quarterly Open Access journal, welcomes the submission of articles on operational research. It publishes high-quality scientific research on health services, providing new knowledge on how to improve access, equity, quality and efficiency of health systems and services.

    The Editors will consider any manuscript reporting original research on quality improvements, cost-benefit analysis, legislation, training and capacity building, with a focus on all relevant areas of public health (e.g. infection control, nutrition, TB, HIV, vaccines, smoking, COVID-19, microbial resistance, outbreaks etc).

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