Examples of benefit-sharing initiatives supported through the SABR and ARK projects. Clockwise, L to R: Portable generators for schools (photo taken by Sarah LeBaron von Baeyer); a home for senior citizens (photo taken by Michèle Ramsay); a community organization focused on youth and health (photo taken by Michèle Ramsay); distribution of communal water tanks (JoJos) (photo taken by Sandra Maytham-Bailey). Credit: Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-69674-9
South Africa is pioneering new ways to embed ethical benefit sharing in genomics research through community-led decision-making. Speaking at the World Congress of Bioethics (WCB) in Johannesburg on 8–10 July, Ngoni Ngwarai, assistant director of systems and operations at the SAMRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), presented an operational blueprint for researchers, universities, funders and industry partners seeking to translate ethical principles into practical action.
Now in its 18th year, the WCB was held on African soil for the first time. This is significant because the vast wealth of human genetic diversity held by African populations, and the genomic data generated on the continent, have been invaluable to the global scientific community's understanding of disease and the development of advanced therapies.
