Response to Brand et al. (2022) ‘Data sharing governance in sub-Saharan Africa during public health emergencies’

Abstract

Various aspects of Brand et al.'s (S Afr J Sci. 2022;118(11/12), Art. #13892) overview of Africa's data protection legislation require clarification. Most pertinently, we provide the following clarifications:• Ghanaian law does provide for cross-border data transfers; statements about the law being "inadequate" ought to be well substantiated.• Nigerian law provides for adequacy decisions -not authorisations -in respect of cross-border data transfers.• Kenyan law provides for an important exception relevant to public health emergencies.• South African law currently requires, amongst others, prior authorisation from the Information Regulator for cross-border transfers of health data.• South Africa does not yet have a code of conduct for research.

A response to Thaldar et al. (2023): Data sharing governance in sub-Saharan Africa during public health emergencies

“…We thank the SAJS for affording us the opportunity to respond to a commentary 1 on our article 2 . We will focus on the principal points as raised by Thaldar et al 1 :…”