Theme 3: Ethical, Social, Cultural and Commercialization
In January 2003, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the US National Institute of Health announced 14 Grand Challenges for Global Health that, if solved, would lead to important advances in diseases that disproportionately affect the poorest 2 billion people in the world. We had assisted in identifying the 14 Grand Challenges' through a panel of 20 scientists and public health experts from 13 countries, including several from the developing world.
The Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative (www.grandchallengesgh.org) was created to identify bottlenecks in science and technology that need to be resolved in order to help address the most critical health problems in the developing world. With 44 successful projects totaling over $436 million in funding and involving scientists from 33 countries, the technologies resulting from the Grand Challenges in Global Health (GCGH) projects will have a profound impact on the major diseases of the developing world.
The ESC Program
Recent historical examples in global health research demonstrate the need for attention to ethical, social and cultural (ESC) issues in order to successfully complete large-scale research projects and optimize the successful and appropriate adoption of resulting technologies. To achieve the desired impact of the GCGH projects, the ESC issues related to the research projects and the subsequent adoption of the resulting technologies need to be addressed. The ESC Program for the Grand Challenges in Global Health was launched in November 2005. Based in Toronto, and with team members throughout the developing world, the ESC Program collaborates with experts in developing countries to devise ways to address potential ethical, social and cultural issues raised within the projects under the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative.
Objectives
1. To provide an Advisory Service for GCGH Projects on ethical, social and cultural issues in the short- to mid-term
2. To facilitate the successful and appropriate achievement of milestones in the GCGH projects, in the short- to mid-term, and to generate knowledge that will facilitate the appropriate and successful adoption of technologies resulting from GCGH projects by communities in need, in the long-term
The ESC Program encompasses the following 6 areas:
Water Efficient Maize for Africa
The Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project is a public-private partnership managed by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) with the goal to develop drought tolerant and royalty-free maize varieties for Africa (http://www.aatf-africa.org/UserFiles/File/WEMA-brief.pdf).
The goal of the Ethical, Social, Cultural and Commercialization (ESC2) Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project is to facilitate the successful and appropriate achievement of milestones in the WEMA project, and, concurrently to fill gaps in knowledge that will facilitate the successful and appropriate adoption of the technologies resulting from the WEMA project, and other global agro-biotechnology initiatives, by communities in need of this new technology.
To achieve the project goal, we will have both a service and a research program. The service program will involve the provision of ESC2 auditing services to the WEMA project. The research program will involve knowledge generation to facilitate appropriate and successful adoption of WEMA crops, and other global agro-biotechnology initiatives.