A global maternal health conference organized by the Maternal Health Task Force, based at the Harvard School of Public Health and led by Professor Ana Langer, was held in Tanzania in January 2013. The main theme of the meeting was the health of women during pregnancy and childbirth. Great emphasis was also placed on the importance of ethics in research.
Agnes Binagwaho, the Minister of Health of Rwanda, called for a code of conduct for research in low-income countries. The draft code proposes a core set of principles which should be present in any setting. While many countries have a code of conduct, given the increase in the volume of international research projects and studies, communities in which research is conducted are not always protected by the laws of the country in which the research is designed/funded.
