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Beyond ethical approval: fostering ethical research practices within inter-sectoral research projects involving academic and NGO sector partners
Date Issued
2019-11-11
Date Available
2022-07-12T11:01:17Z
Abstract
While research and innovation collaborations between NGOs and academic organisations can create considerable synergies with positive effects for the humanitarian sector, the inter-sectoral nature of such collaborations can generate challenges due to the varying mandates, objectives and ways of working of the organisations involved. By drawing on the experiences of a 4-year project involving a consortium of academic and NGO partners, this paper outlines three broad and inter-related ethical challenges that such projects can encounter and how they can be practically negotiated. Firstly, how are the knowledge-generation requirements of such projects addressed without engaging in the mere extraction of data from participants? Secondly, how are potential risks to participants arising from their participation balanced with the need to include their voices within the research project? Finally, how are the formal requirements laid down by institutional review committees, primarily within academic organisations, to be adhered to within field contexts in which there are well-established expectations and ways of working on the part of NGO partners and beneficiaries? While these dilemmas are merely illustrative of the potential ethical dilemmas that inter-sectoral collaboration might encounter, the paper highlights that ethical dilemmas ought to be addressed reflexively by all stakeholders in order to facilitate improved collaboration and, ultimately, better quality, more relevant and more ethically informed research.
Sponsorship
European Commission Horizon 2020
Other Sponsorship
Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Type of Material
Journal Article
Publisher
Springer
Journal
Journal of International Humanitarian Action
Volume
4
Start Page
1
End Page
8
Copyright (Published Version)
2019 The Authors
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2364-3412
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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Name
s41018-019-0065-8.pdf
Size
470.72 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
1b5d09e0443c1fd5271f554035ba6fdf
Owning collection
Mapped collections