Ethics in Research

INTRODUCTION

What is ethics

Ethics is defined as a moral philosophy or code of morals practiced by a person or group of people.

An example of ethics is a the code of conduct set by a business. The study of standards of conduct
and moral judgment; moral philosophy.
Ethics is a system of principles that helps us tell right from wrong, good from bad. Ethics can give real and practical
guidance to our lives. Ethical values (i.e. honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility) help guide us along a pathway to
deal more effectively with ethical dilemmas by eliminating those behaviors that do not conform to our sense of right
and wrong – our best rational interests – without sacrificing others.
 INTRODUCTION CONT

• Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is an essential part of public health programmes. Since M&E is
the backbone of public health programmes, ethical considerations are important in their conduct.
• Some of the key ethical considerations are avoiding conflicts of interest, maintaining independence
of judgement, maintaining fairness, transparency, full disclosure, privacy and confidentiality,
respect, responsibility, accountability, empowerment and sustainability.
Ethical considerations in M&E

1. Avoiding/disclosing conflicts of interest.

There is the chance of conflict of interest at various levels in the M&E process. If the M&E is performed internally by
programme staff, the financial or intellectual interests of the staff in the programme may be in conflict with the M&E.
In the case of external evaluations also, there is a chance of conflicts of interest either in the form of financial stakes with
the funding agency or other intellectual interests of the external evaluators. These conflicts of interest can impair the
judgement of the person in charge of the M&E. Therefore the results may become unreliable.
2. Maintaining independence of judgement.
Recommendations based on the findings of M&E have to be free of any pressures or external influences. The
judgements made by the M&E team must be independent. There may be circumstances where members of the team,
funding agency or other stakeholders can influence the judgements of the M&E team. This may be the result of
financial, intellectual or other interests. Such influences should be removed or resisted.
3. Avoiding bias and being fair.
Fairness, impartiality and avoiding bias are very important ethical aspects of M&E. The process of M&E as well as the
results should be impartial to any group of the community or other stakeholders. Marginalised communities, women,
persons with mental illnesses, persons with disabilities, children, migrants and other vulnerable persons must be given
due importance and representation during the M&E process.
4. Transparency.
From the process of engaging stakeholders to planning and setting priorities, all steps must be performed in a
transparent manner. Such transparency fosters trust and active participation by the community in the M&E process.
Transparency also ensures credibility of the results. As well as transparency of the process, transparency of funding and
finances are also important.
5. Full disclosure.
The importance of full disclosure or complete truth telling cannot be overemphasised in the M&E process. Often positive findings
that are favourable to the programme are reported, whereas negative results, wrong doings and mishaps are concealed. This can
be detrimental to the process and philosophy of M&E. It hampers learning from, and improvement of, the programme.18 19
6. Privacy and confidentiality.
As in any research, M&E involves entering into individual lives and exploring aspects of their participation (or non-participation)
in the public health programme, their experiences and their opinions. It often involves gathering private information from
participants. Measures should be taken to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the information collected from the
participants. Measures to ensure privacy and confidentiality not only increase the credibility of the process of M&E, but also
allow the participants to share their opinions and details freely.18 19 The collected data should be stored with passwords and
access available only to those directly involved in data analysis.
7. Respect for individuals.
Another important ethical principle in M&E is respect for the agency of the individual participants in the process. Their opinions
must be treated with respect. The M&E team should have the attitude of learning from the individual who is participating in the
M&E.2 Obtaining informed consent from the respondents for participating in the M&E is essential. The participant should be
given enough information about the study that they are fully informed and can opt to participate or not. Another important issue
is compensation for the time of the participants. The issue of whether compensation should be provided for participants’ time
should be adequately discussed and decided on.
8. Responsibility to community.
The M&E team has a responsibility to the community in which they are conducting the process. They have the responsibility to do
what is good for the community. During the process of M&E, they may come across problems in the community and/or pitfalls in
the operation of the programme. It is the responsibility of the team to report, or take steps to rectify, these problems.18 21 22 The
M&E team may often not be directly in contact with the community other than in the process of data collection. In such instances,
the M&E team has a responsibility to engage the organisation in doing what is due.