The Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), SIUT was designated a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre (CC) for Bioethics in 2017. CBEC was the first CC for Bioethics in the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) of WHO. At present, there are – WHO CCs for Bioethics, including CBEC, in different regions of the world. These CCs are key institutions serving as essential resources in support of the WHO’s implementation of its ethics mandate. The scientific validity of WHO’s work on ethics is enhanced by ongoing collaboration and dialogue among the CCs.
In August 2021, CBEC entered into its second term as a WHO CC. The Terms of Reference for this collaboration include:
TOR1: To support WHO in strengthening of capacity building activities in public health and research ethics
TOR 2: To assist WHO in developing materials for educational purposes in bioethics and public health ethics
TOR 3: To contribute to networking with other WHO bioethics collaborating centres, institutional partners and experts
- January 21, 2021 – Dr. Farhat Moazam and Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended the WHO Bioethics CCs Network virtual conference.
- March 2021 – Dr. Farhat Moazam performed an external review of WHO Guidance document “Emergency use of unproven clinical interventions outside research: Ethical considerations”.
- March 2021 – At the request of EMR Office CBEC produced the report “Mapping of Research Ethics Governance in Pakistan: A Pilot Situation Analysis”. This was submitted for publication in EMHJ in August 2021.
- April 13, 2021 – Dr. Farhat Moazam and Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended the virtual WHO Network of CCs for Bioethics meeting.
- June 17, 2021 – Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended the virtual Global Network of WHO CCs for Bioethics meeting
- June 12, 2020 – Dr. Farhat Moazam and Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended a virtual meeting of the Global Network of WHO CCs for Bioethics, the Regional Ethics focal points and HQ Ethics held on June 12, 2020.
- August 8, 2020 – As part of inter CC collaboration, a teaching session was organized by CBEC on Saturday, August 8, 2020 in which Prof. Keymanthri Moodle (Director Centre of Bioethics and Law, Stellenbosch University SA, a WHO CC) was invited to hold an online session on ‘Critical Care Constraints: Difficult Decisions in LMICs’ for CBEC’s Post Graduate Diploma and Master’s in Bioethics students.
- September 9 and 11, 2020 – Dr. Farhat Moazam and Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended the virtual 13th Global Summit of the NECs.
- September 25, 2020 – Dr. Farhat Moazam and Dr. Aamir Jafarey were invited to a virtual meeting of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Bioethics, the Regional Ethics focal points.
- October 14, 2020 – Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended ‘WHO: Launch of Guidance on Ethics & Vector-borne Diseases and Position Statement on Genetically Modified Mosquitoes’ virtual meeting held at Geneva, Switzerland.
- November 17, 2020 – Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended the WHO EMRO-RERC virtual meeting held at Cairo, Egypt.
- December 2020 – In response to a call from WHO HQ, a report was submitted on “Adapting National Research Review Process during Covid-19: Reviewers’ Perspectives from Pakistan”. This report was published as a paper in EMHJ in July 2021.
- December, 2020 – CBEC-SIUT was invited to assist in the dissemination of WHO’s Ethics & Vector-borne Diseases guidance document, which included conducting three webinars, focusing on EMRO, AFRO and SEARO series, development of a Concept Paper on a film ‘A Tale of Two Worlds’ and translation of the summary of the guideline from English to Urdu. The following three dissemination webinars were organized:
- December 9, 2020 – “Ethics and Vector-Borne Diseases: WHO Guidance” in collaboration with WHO HQ Geneva and WHO EMRO
- December 11, 2020 – “Ethics and Vector-Borne Diseases: WHO Guidance” in collaboration with WHO HQ Geneva and WHO regional office for Africa (AFRO)
- December 17, 2020 – “Ethics and Vector-Borne Diseases: WHO Guidance” in collaboration with WHO HQ Geneva, Western Pacific Regional office of WHO (WPRO), South East Asia Regional office of WHO (SEARO) and Asia-Pacific National Ethics Committee (APNEC)
- December 2020 (ongoing) – Dr. Farhat Moazam is a member of the working group “Developing WHO Best Practices on Integrating Vaccine Introduction and Research”
- January 9-10, 2019 – Dr. Farhat Moazam attended the Fourth Meeting of the WHO Collaborating Centres in the Eastern Mediterranean Region held in Muscat, Oman.
- February 2019 – Dr. Aamir Jafarey represented the Centre in the National Workshop on Collaborating Centres organized by WHO in Islamabad in February 2019. He shared with the other participants the experiences of CBEC as a CC and the process it took to obtain the status of a CC in Bioethics
- June 24-25, 2019 – CBEC-WHO Conference and Workshop – “Ethical Deceased Organ and Tissue Donor Programs and the Role of Transplant Coordinators” was organized at SIUT, Karachi.
- July 23-25, 2019 – Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended the final meeting of the Ethics & Vector-borne Diseases international consultation process held at the WHO HQ, Geneva.
- 2019 – Teaching video “Pushing Boundaries” was produced as a third contribution to the activity.
- 2019 – Teaching video “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” was produced by CBEC as part of this collaboration. This film was screened during the CBEC-WHO Conference and Workshop – ‘Ethical Deceased Organ and Tissue Donor Programs and the Role of Transplant Coordinators’ at CBEC-SIUT, Karachi.
- May 7 to 9, 2018 – Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended the Ethics & Vector-borne Diseases meeting in Vienna, Austria to formulate draft ethical guidelines to guide researchers and public health intervention experts regarding the actions to be taken in efforts to control vectors and the diseases they spread.
- November 1 and 2, 2018 – As a member, Dr. Farhat Moazam attended the first WHO Task Force Meeting on Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues held at Geneva, Switzerland.
- November 11 and 12, 2018 – Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended the EMRO-RERC meeting in Cairo and presented a report on the proceedings of the Ethics of Vector-borne Diseases group.
- October 12 and 13, 2017 – Dr. Farhat Moazam attended a meeting on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, held in Miami, to represent CBEC as a newly designated WHO Collaborating Centre for Bioethics.
- October 22 to 23, 2017 – Dr. Aamir Jafarey attended the newly constituted Research Ethics Review Committee (RERC) of the EMRO held in Cairo. The terms of reference of the newly constituted meetings were finalized and a road map developed for the future working of this committee.
- 2017 – Teaching video “Between Hope and Despair” was produced by CBEC with WHO collaboration.