In international development evaluation, ethics are rarely black and white. Between crushing time pressures, political sensitivities, data privacy concerns, resource constraints, and complex power dynamics, M&E professionals constantly have to make tough calls when working in this sector. Ethical dilemmas are messy, high-pressure realities. If left unaddressed, they can compromise participant safety, ruin reputations and derail organizational funding.
Join DevelopmentAid and the global research incubator Includovate for a candid conversation that moves beyond standard compliance checklists. Discover how global experts handle real-world ethical dilemmas and learn how mastering these challenges can make your future project bids more competitive.
DevelopmentAid, in collaboration with Includovate, invites development evaluators, M&E professionals, consultancies, NGOs, and policy practitioners to join the webinar on “When Ethics Get Messy: Real-World Dilemmas for Development Evaluators”, which will take place on Thursday, June 11, at 2 pm (Brussels) / 8 am (Washington, DC).
By the end of the session, you will be equipped to:
- Identify common ethical dilemmas that arise during data collection and evaluations in international development
- Analyze which principles cause tension, such as informed consent versus cultural norms, neutrality versus “do no harm”, incentives versus coercion
- Apply practical strategies you can integrate into proposals, CV narratives, safeguarding policies and MEL frameworks, strengthening both ethical quality and bid competitiveness.
Speakers
Hanadi Riyad, International Consortium led by Plan International Jordan
Hanadi is a research, monitoring, and learning expert with more than 10 years of experience in the humanitarian and development sectors. She currently serves as the MERL Technical Specialist at an international consortium led by Plan International Jordan. During her career, Hanadi has managed large-scale impact evaluations, national surveys, and proof-of-concept studies, ensuring methodological rigor, ethical standards, and meaningful community participation. In her work, she is always exploring innovative methods and approaches to engage young people and communities in research in organic and transformative ways.
Mousumi Sarkar, Founder at Well World Solutions
Mousumi brings more than 25 years of experience of conducting both qualitative and quantitative research at international, national, state, and local levels. Having worked with for-profit companies, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and political campaigns, Mousumi has extensive experience of working with stakeholders to develop and implement research and evaluation methodologies that answer the questions that are critical to an organization’s mission and helps them to use evidence-based decision-making to achieve their strategic goals. Most recently, she served as Senior Survey and Evaluation Methodology Advisor at USAID and as Assistant Survey Director at the U.S. Census Bureau. In these roles, one of her key responsibilities was ensuring that research and evaluation activities were conducted ethically and were centered on the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of the participants.
Andrea Mrazova, Vice-Chair of Includovate Institutional Review Board
Andrea is a Vice-Chair of the Includovate Institutional Review Board and a Senior Research Associate at Includovate. She holds a Master’s degree in Law and is currently pursuing her PhD at Griffith University, Australia. She brings extensive experience of navigating complex field-based research and ethical review processes. With a strong understanding of practical research challenges, she is particularly skilled at connecting real-world field dilemmas to formal IRB requirements, helping to ensure ethical oversight that is both rigorous and grounded in operational realities.
Host
Ion Ilasco, External Relations & Events at DevelopmentAid
