CCRREEA: establishment of RECs at partner institutions
The increased number of clinical trials taking place in Africa and the complexity of clinical research designs require that the local Regional Ethics Committees (RECs)/Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), and National Regulatory Agencies (NRAs) have the capacity to efficiently and effectively review the research protocols. The major objective of the CCRREEA project is to strengthen clinical research regulation and ethics capacity in the Eastern Africa Region with specific aims; (i) Develop and integrate online research information management system for the partner countries, (ii) Strengthen the capacity of the NRAs, National Ethics Committees (NECs), RECs in the Eastern Africa region towards better quality outputs and improved timelines, (iii) Strengthen the oversight role of NECs and NRAs in clinical research through regional harmonisation initiatives, such as integrating principles, tools and guidelines issued by AVAREF and WHO. They expect that activities in the CCRREEA project will improve the overall efficiency of the review and authorisation processes for clinical research in the region, ensure high-quality review by RECs/IRBs, NRAs and improve clinical research approval turnaround time (not exceeding 60 working days as required by AVAREF-WHO).
Through objective two of the CCRREEA project, the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) was able to share experiences with the partner institutions to assist in the establishment of RECs at Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital (MNRH) in Kenya and the University of Kigali (UoK) in Rwanda.
MNTRH is a specialised national referral facility for mental health patients, it offers quality professional skills in mental health care, training platform and research grounds to many universities and colleges (both private and public) on matters related to mental health in Kenya. The hospital was established in 1924. The University of Kigali is one of the private higher institutions of learning in Rwanda. It is a fully accredited chartered university by the Government of the Republic of Rwanda. It started its operations in October 2013 upon receiving a definitive license to operate as a private University.