FOUNDING PURPOSE STATEMENT
To advance ethical and scientific rigor in research and evidence generation... strengthening governance, policy and practice...informing human rights action, humanitarian response, health, education, heritage stewardship, and sustainable development...delivered by governments, international agencies, INGOs, civil society organizations (CSOs), commercial entities, consortia and alliances, and individuals.
Nepal. Empowerment of women and girls is perhaps the single, most powerful strategy t0 drive achievement of the SDGs/Agenda 2030. But there is still much work ahead to develop and articulate the evidence informing effective and sustainable empowerment. [Photo credit: David R Curry]
STRATEGIC CONTEXT
The movement to evidence-based practice in the spheres of human rights, humanitarian response, health, and development is growing, welcome, and clearly justified – in terms of efficacy, ethics and equity.
For example, we see the adoption of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its supporting Indicator Framework as a milestone in this movement. As we strive to achieve the aspirations of the SDGs [17 goals, 169 targets, 230 individual indicators], the associated tracking of progress and impact will drive an unprecedented level of new and re-engineered monitoring, data collection, research and analysis globally. [see, for example, Annex 2 on SDG Indicators associated with children and adolescents]
Complementing this forward trend, there has been significant evolution in the last two decades in the body of international conventions, laws, professional codes, statements of principles, and other formulations guiding the ethical conduct of research, evaluation, data collection and secondary analysis involving human participants (or datasets derived from such work). [see Annex 1 for a compilation]
Equally, there has been growth of various types of ethical review bodies and regulatory mechanisms to provide assessment of and guidance on scientific rigor, ethical resilience, and other dimensions of research activity. Many of these ethical review bodies operate within academic institutions or governmental/regulatory contexts, while others operate within international agencies or INGOs, or independently.
Despite the legal/treaty/conventions framework and oversight mechanisms referenced above, our assessment is that much research, evaluation, data collection and analysis in these fields proceeds without any independent ethical review, and/or with research design and methodologies that are insufficiently rigorous and not well-aligned to the research question involved and the specific geographical/ cultural context where the work will proceed.
In response to the above, we have formed a new Foundation to host a global, independent, virtual ethics review and research services capability with the purpose stated above. We believe that researchers and their organizations will engage independent review of their proposed work if it is available via an efficient, timely, and cost-effective process, and further supported by consultative services to strengthen research design, assure ethical resilience, and forge solutions where needed across the evidence generation life cycle.
![Haiti. Smallholder farmers are at the center of value chains which ensure food security, economic development, and poverty reduction. [Photo credit: David R Curry]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57912df3d1758e246cfaaf9c/1469159213279-EX8CGBJPPCFJBFNF1STS/image-asset.jpeg)
Haiti. Smallholder farmers are at the center of value chains which ensure food security, economic development, and poverty reduction. [Photo credit: David R Curry]
Centers & Programs
The Foundation operates through a portfolio of Centers AND PROGRAMS described below. we invite you To support our work,
03: GE2P2
CENTER FOR VACCINE ETHICS AND POLICY (CVEP)
Founded as the Ethics of Vaccine Project in 2006, CVEP engages the full life-cycle of issues around global immunization and vaccines:
building and refining the ethical frameworks that help assure that policy proceeds from values and aligns with their implications,
analyzing and communicating about vaccine evidence, ethics and policy in scholarly journals, the media and in other fora,
innovating new analytical, visualization and decision approaches to address these issues, and
convening the full vaccine community to consider evidence, ethics and practical solutions, addressing opportunity and performance.
CVEP also offers a knowledge-sharing service through publication of Vaccines and Global Health: The Week in Review.
This comprehensive weekly digest aggregates news, events, announcements, peer-reviewed articles and research in the global vaccine ethics and policy space. Content is selected from key governmental, NGO, international organization and industry sources, key peer-reviewed journals, and other media channels.
This Week in Review now reaches over 2,500 leaders in the vaccine space globally each week through direct email distribution. These leaders operate in diverse spheres including government, the NGO/ONG community, UN agencies and other intergovernmental bodies, think tanks and policy organisations, academia, philanthropy, and industry.
Our continuing intent is to support broad literacy and current awareness at the leadership level across the global vaccine community. Specifically, we believe that this digest – delivered each weekend – supports stronger, evidence-based policy analysis and decision-making, enhances research strategy, and functions as a productivity tool for leaders whose time to devote to reading broadly is limited.
If you would like to learn more about the work of CVEP, please click here. If you would like to support the work of the Center for Vaccine Ethics and Policy, click here. If you like to support for our weekly digest -- Vaccines and Global Health: The Week in Review -- click here.
NEW: Please see our January 2021 statement: An Informed Choice/Consent/Right-to-Refuse Imperative :: Statement on Immunization Involving COVID-19 Vaccines Under Emergency Use Authorization/Listing [EUA/L]
Center for Informed Consent Integrity
The Center for Informed Consent Integrity will address informed consent broadly and holds that “consent” – grounded in open, evidence-based, accessible, understandable and materially-complete information – is the bulwark of human rights, fundamental freedoms, and responsible governance.
The Center will focus on consent in research contexts across all the Foundation’s action sectors including health, human rights, humanitarian response, education and literacy, sustainable development, and heritage stewardship.
This work includes producing knowledge sharing services Informed Consent :: A Monthly Review which aggregates and distills key literature and analysis around IC including governance, ethics review and oversight, content approaches, technology and assessment strategies/performance metrics.
More information here: https://ge2p2global-centerforinformedconsentintegrity.org/
Informed Consent for the Genomic Medicine Era - Current Practice, Normative Frameworks, Effective Solutions
Initiative Vision :: A global framework for informed consent practice across genomic medicine – initially focused on gene therapy development and clinical translation – which is medically responsible, operationally sound, ethically resilient, and supported by a toolkit of open-source IC templates, content modules and assessment strategies.
Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Ethics
Our Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Ethics is in formation and will focus on ethics, evidence generation, and policy involving health interventions, human rights, and humanitarian response to the full range of natural and manmade disasters and complex emergencies.
Donal O’Mathuna, PhD, a Senior Fellow of the Foundation and a member of its Board of Directors, will lead this new Center as its Founding Director, and be responsible for building a team of GE2P2 Global Foundation Fellows and Associates who will conduct the research and analytical work of the new Center, and provide consultation to international agencies, INGOs, civil society organizations and donors involved in disasters and humanitarian action.
If you would like to support the work of the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Ethics click here.
GE2P2 Global – Independent Bioethics Advisory Committee [IBAC]
IBAC is a capability hosted by the GE2P2 Global Foundation which provides research, analysis and advisory recommendations on issues which may arise across the life cycle of research and evidence generation, including how it informs operational integrity in governance, policy and program activity.
Specifically, IBAC is evolving to engage such issues across our stated areas of focus – health, humanitarian response, human rights, sustainable development, education, and heritage stewardship.
IBAC’s work is most mature in the health sphere, engaging issues across the full clinical development life cycle for medicines, vaccines, gene therapies and other health interventions. This life cycle approach includes clinical trial protocol development and implementation, compassionate use/expanded access, market introduction and licensing, deployment and access in humanitarian and low-resource contexts, and more.
IBAC conducts its work by convening teams from the Foundation’s community of practice that are well-aligned to the issue/case/challenge engaged. For example, an IBAC team for an issue in the health sphere will typically include bioethicists, clinicians, HCPs, patient advocates and other domain knowledge experts appropriate to the problem at hand.
IBAC’s analyses and recommendations are developed as independent work products, which, in turn, provide the basis for papers, presentations and other ways of generalizing the learnings from this advisory work.
NEW AT OCTOBER 2021: IBAC will consider requests from non-commercial organizations and projects globally under which it will provide its bioethics advisory capability to respond to specific challenges where we can make a material contribution. Such engagements are limited by IBAC capacity at any given time, and will be provided without fee/pro bono. To explore whether this capability might align with your challenge, or for more information about IBAC overall, please contact David Curry, Foundation President, at david.r.curry@ge2p2global.org
Collaboration among international agencies, INGOs. civil society organizations, donors, country leadership and, not least, the communities and people themselves, requires continuing research to assure coherence, efficacy, equity and ethical resilience.
FELLOWS of the Foundation
To address our purpose and mission, the Foundation engages the competencies, experience, and insights of a global network of elected “Fellows" of the Foundation.
To engage its purpose/mission, the Foundation draws on the competencies, experience, and insights of a global network of “Fellows" of the Foundation who contribute to strategy, research, governance and programs.
Fellows will include academic, agency and government leaders, field practitioners, scientists, researchers, ethicists, domain and cultural context experts, scholars in the social and bio sciences and the humanities, knowledge management experts, and many others. Fellows may be independent or be functioning in government, academic, agency, NGO, or commercial contexts.
Fellows and Associates are elected for one-year terms and such terms may be extended by the Board at its discretion.
All Fellows and Associates participate under the leadership and direction of the President, contribute to governance by providing guidance on strategic direction as facilitated by the board, and are selectively convened as team members around specific research, projects and consultative work.
Fellows and Associates are recognized on the Foundation website and convene from time-to-time and at least annually via electronic or physical meetings for knowledge sharing, to review strategy, and to affirm member guidance to the Board.
The Board is considering a membership class for organizations – providing NGOs, CSOs, international agencies and commercial organizations with a means to support and participate in the Foundation. Such organization members would have a designated individual as their official, voting representative. More on this soon...
GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIP
The Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors. The composition of the Board strives to represent a broad range of disciplines and research agendas across human rights, humanitarian response, health, heritage stewardship, education and development, and across major geographies and organization types.
FINANCIALS & REPORTING
We will post our annual reports, financial statements and other content supporting our commitment to full transparency.
GE2P2 Global Foundation 990 - 2019
Senegal. Young people should have every confidence that "programs" and "initiatives" intended to support their healthy growth anddevelopment are based on evidence which measures efficacy, and assures equity and ethical resilience. [Photo credit: David Curry]
Statement of Independence
January 2022 | The GE2P2 Global Foundation, its programs and operating units are focused on advancing ethical and scientific rigor in research and evidence generation to inform governance, policy and practice in human rights, humanitarian response, health, education, heritage stewardship, and sustainable development.
We are open to collaboration, affiliation and alignments with academic, agency, NGO, CSO and other organizations as may further the purpose of the Foundation, and clearly communicate about such affiliations
Our work depends on in-kind and financial support from a range of sources, including foundations, NGOs, academic institutions, governmental bodies, international agencies, commercial organizations, and individual donors.
We strive to balance and diversify the sources of support we accept in pursuing project work, publishing, convening symposiums and meetings, and conducting research.
We are committed to transparency in acknowledging the sources of support for work we undertake.
Regardless of the source, form or scale of support we receive, we do not accept and will not operate under any conditions which interfere with our independence in electing, designing or conducting our work, or in publishing and disseminating our findings.
We are particularly mindful of actual and potential conflicts of interest which may affect the ability of anyone associated with the foundation to participate in specific work.
We will uniformly communicate any and all conflicts we identify to assure that all work products are transparent on this as well sources of support to assure maximum transparency.