UNESCO's “Assisting Bioethics Committees” Project: 3rd Training Session in Ecuador

From 10 to 13 May 2016, the third National Bioethics Committee Training in Ecuador will take place within the framework of Memorandum of Understanding signed on the 7 April 2014 for the capacity-building of its members by UNESCO for a three-year period. The activity is organized by UNESCO's Regional Bioethics and Ethics of Sciences Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean.

It will have the participation of high national and international authorities in the subject, among them, Mr. Victor Manuel Pacheco, President of the National Bioethics Committee of the Ministry of Health, Susana Vidal, Responsible for the Regional Programme on Bioethics and Ethics of Science of UNESCO for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO Office).

NBC Trainings are an opportunity to give follow up to the commitment of each of its members and foster collective processes of the different Committees. The goal is to support them in the development of working methodologies and bioethics integral knowledge adequate to local conditions. International professors Roque Junges (Brazil) and Victor Penchaszadeh (Argentina), experts of the Redbioetica Network will be in charge of the presentations together with Susana Vidal from UNESCO.

The National Bioethics Committee of Ecuador was created in 2013 by ministerial agreement. It initiated its operations in January 2014. It is formed of 15 people from different disciplines, who are selected by open call and on their merits. Their work is coordinated through the General Coordination of Health Strategic Development of the Ministry of Health of the country.