The role of research committees is to evaluate research proposals with special attention to risk/benefit ratios, equity in distribution of benefits and burdens, potential conflicts of interest, the adequacy of information provided for subjects, and the protection of freedom of choice. Their second, equally important but less widely implemented role is to educate and assist faculty, researchers and other stakeholders in the community to understand and appreciate the ethics of research. A third, increasingly acknowledged but even less widely implemented, function is to monitor and audit research, and to provide accountability to the public.^[42]

Given the growth of research in developing countries and the relative lack of training in research ethics the United States NIH's Fogarty International Center has in recent years sponsored capacity building programmes in international research ethics and bioethics in developing countries.^[51]The contribution being made to …