In 2020, huge progress was made in understanding the COVID-19 virus, its transmission patterns, and what was needed to develop an effective vaccine. These developments would not have been possible had Chinese authorities not shared the full sequence of the COVID genome with the world in early January 2020. However, since that initial open sharing, the situation has become more complicated. More recently, scientists have called for more open sharing of the genomes of the virus’s variants to enable swift responses to them. Issues pertaining to IP rights, recognition and acknowledgement of others’ research, and the privacy of individuals are currently impeding a more ‘open’ approach at a global level.

From the continents perspective, we are interested in how the theme of transparency is important during the COVID-19 pandemic in the following ways:

1. How disclosure (as manifested through Open Contracting or misuse/sharing of personal data for non-COVID-19 related purposes, for example) avoids bad practices and exposes bad conduct
2. Transparency is important in preserving data rights – not just because the laws/ policies say so, but also because it is believed that such rights are intrinsic human rights. We deserve to know what data is being used for
3. How can we be proactive (rather than reactive) in prescribing good practices when it comes to transparency? This involves looking at some case studies from the continent and moving on to creating ‘buckets’ where we can categorize some of the harmful practices and how transparency remedies these. (for example, vaccine companies that have harnessed research data publicly but then move on to charge expensively for them).
4. Lastly, how should transparency within the context of data rights be sustained?