Background In Cameroon, ethics review has made remarkable progress since 2009 thanks to a stronger political will and support from national and international partners. This progress however remains limited because existing regulations are not fully elaborate on ethical/administrative evaluation of clinical research and the protection of participants. The coverage and decentralization of the national ethics review system is still limited to ensure the evaluation and monitoring of protocols according to recommended standards while respecting socio-cultural particularities of communities.

Methods The first phase of the BREEDSAFCA (Building Capacity for Research Ethics Evaluation and Drugs Safety Monitoring) project was implemented in Cameroon from 2018 to 2022 with funding from EDCTP to contribute to; among others aims to strengthen the regulatory framework of Cameroon’s ethical and administrative evaluation of clinical research, and to improve the national coverage with Research Ethics Committees (RECs). An assessment of the needs in terms of coverage and functioning of ethics committees as well as the reinforcement of regulatory aspects was conducted and the results presented to the competent actors.

Results The progress attributable to the BREEDSAFCA project included; the increase of regions covered by an ethics committee from 2 to 6 out of the 10 Cameroon regions; contributing to the development of the law on the protection of health research participants; the development of master SOPs for the establishment and functioning of RECs and for ethical and administrative review of research protocols; the training of existing RECs members in Cameroon in the evaluation of research protocols, the setting up of independent RECs financing system; and the providing of office space for all officially existing RECs.

Conclusion The BREEDSAFCA project contributed to improving the regulatory framework of the ethics review system in Cameroon, the national coverage of regions by ethics committees and strengthening the capacity and skills of ethics committees to evaluate protocols.