Although humanitarian settings are extremely challenging environments, practitioners and policy-makers still need robust evidence to inform program design, allocate resources, and deliver effective, safe, scaleable and sustainable services. This research theme seeks to advance the ethical conduct of research in humanitarian settings to inform evidence-based action.

Under this thread, I have examined how to improve the measurement of hard-to-assess constructs, such as stigma against sexual violence survivors, developed toolkits for humanitarian organizations to standardize research approaches, provided guidance for researchers on how to pre-position rigorous evaluations in acute emergencies, and examined how ethical review boards may be better adapted for humanitarian specific research needs.

Check out:

• Falb and Annan (2021). Pre-positioning an evaluation of cash assistance programming in an acute emergency: strategies and lessons learned from a study in Raqqa Governorate, Syria. Conflict and Health.
• Falb, et al. (2019). The ethical contours of research in crisis settings: five practical considerations for academic institutional review boards and researchers.Disasters