The financial position of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME) has always been modest. The decision to organise the First National Bioethics Conference (NBC) on the platform of IJME was, therefore, based on confidence and conviction in collaborative and collective efforts. We are happy to report that this confidence has been vindicated in the successful organisation of the conference as well as in achieving positive financial outcomes.

Conference expenses

The total conference expenses made by IJME and the Centre for Studies in Ethics and Rights (CSER), a collaborating organisation, were Rs 23,25,089.44 (Rs. Twenty three lakh twenty five thousand eighty nine and paise forty-four only). Details of this are given in Table 1. In addition, the other collaborating organisations also made expenses, but we do not have exact figures for the same so this report does not provide information on them (1).

The conference was largely driven by voluntary labour from a large number of individuals in Mumbai as well as from outside. Some of them had started working on its preparation from October 2004 onwards, but such contributions were honorary. Only from mid-2005 did the secretariat start paying a token honorarium to a few individuals who were giving a few days in a week for the conference preparation. As a consequence, only 2.3 per cent of total expenditure was on salaries and honoraria. Similarly, much of the communication expenditure was also borne by the individuals and institutions involved in this work. So we spent only 1.88 per cent of the total on communication. We must keep in mind that in future, as the organisation of the NBC is regularised, these heads of expenditure will increase.

Three heads accounted for the bulk (88 per cent) of the NBC expenditure – the main event, accommodation and travel. The success of future conferences depends upon how we keep mobilising funds for these three heads. We will need better facilities at the venue, more finances for travel and accommodation of plenary speakers and other guests and more conference fellowships to encourage more paper writers and workshop organisers to participate.

Financing of the conference

We employed four strategies to meet expenses of the conference.

First, we invited contributions from the collaborating organisers for the accommodation and registration fees of their delegates. Indeed, this was the basic premise on which the collaboration was worked out. Of the 20 organisations, 18 fulfilled these conditions.

Second, some collaborating organisers were requested (or they volunteered) to make extra contributions from their funds. The CSER and the Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT) through the Anusandhan Trust contributed the highest amount. They were followed by Samuha through its University of California at San Francisco project in Bangalore; and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Jaslok Hospital and the Independent Ethics Committee, all three in Mumbai.

The third source of money was that received from conference participants as charges for registration and accommodation. In this category, we raised Rs 4,40,000 from the Public Health Institute, Delhi, as full-cost registration charges for five participants and about Rs 91,000 from other participants.

Finally, IJME and Anusandhan Trust (through the CSER) mobilised the remaining amount through grants. IJME received two grants, one of Rs one lakh from the ICMR and another of Rs 1,32,626 from WHO-Geneva. CSER received two grants, one of Rs 11 lakh (approximately, for $30,000 Canadian, as funds have not arrived as yet) from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada), New Delhi, and another of Rs 3,83,544 from the Wellcome Trust, UK.

As shown in Table 2, a total fund of Rs 30,20,200 was raised by IJME and the CSER. Of this amount, various donor organisations contributed as grants to the conference 56.82 per cent of funds, while the collaborating organisers and the participants of the conference contributed the remaining 43.18 per cent Since total expenditure was of Rs 23,25,089.44, we are left with a surplus of Rs 6,95,110.56 (see Table 3). We had taken care that all grants received through the CSER/Anusandhan Trust were fully utilised, and so also the grants received by IJME, as they were specific project grants for the conference. Hence, the surplus available is from the other income of the NBC received by IJME.

Budget for the utilisation of surplus funds

We propose to use the surplus funds in two ways. First, the success of the conference was a testimony of the commitment of the collaborating organisers and participants to the long-term development of bioethics as a discipline and practice, and to the NBC as a vehicle for the same. Thus, the surplus should be employed for establishing and running a permanent and autonomous national secretariat of the IJME NBC. This secretariat can provide support to the local organisers for future NBCs. Second, the surplus fund should provide administrative stability to IJME as a platform for future NBCs and, in the process, help scaling up the circulation, scope and quality of the journal.

Keeping the above two principles in mind, we have made a budget (see Table 4) for the planned expenditure of the surplus funds for the next two years – 2006 and 2007. Our emphasis is on making key regular work of the NBC and IJME administratively and financially independent of institutions and individuals. This is because we need to ensure that the NBC and IJME are not structurally dependent upon any institution; they are to be autonomous, providing space to committed individuals from many institutions and organisations to make contributions in the development of bioethics. Thus, we would like to establish a separate, small office for the NBC and IJME with a competent full-time person to manage it on a day-to-day basis.

Note

1. In our estimate, such expenses would be about Rs 75,000 spent by TISS for the conference kits (bags, writing pads and pens) and travel reimbursement to some participants; and about Rs six lakh spent by the collaborating organisers directly for the travel and local transport of their delegates and towards the expenses borne for their representatives to participate in OC meetings.