Supporting the Development of Ethics Tools for Innovation in Humanitarian Contexts

Abstract

In humanitarian settings (such as natural disasters, conflicts, famines, etc), innovation can be as important as regular programmatic activities or research, and can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from either of these. At once experimental and responsive, innovation can be a welcome response to an unresolved problem, but also lack the oversight of research and the reliability of established practices. To help address the unique ethical tensions that arise in humanitarian innovation, the research presented in this dissertation was conducted as part of a consultancy-grant with the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF). The aim of this partnership was to support the development of evidence-based ethics tools for innovation in humanitarian contexts. In this dissertation I present three unique contributions to the body of knowledge surrounding humanitarian ethics research. The first article presents the overarching research architecture that was employed in partnership with the HIF, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of this approach to the development of ethics tools. The second article presents the findings from a scoping review of academic and grey literature focusing on ethics and humanitarian innovation, identifying ethical tensions across innovation stages as well as a common thread of solutionism. The final article presents a qualitative description of key stakeholder interviews, which highlighted the need for micro (tools for reflection), meso (funding structures), and macro (sectoral learning and transparency) level shifts to foster ethical humanitarian innovation. Taken together, these contributions point to a humanitarian innovation ecosystem that is very much still in its nascency, potentially vulnerable to exploitation by market interests, and has not established effective mechanisms to facilitate learning and collaboration between funders, innovators, and affected populations. This research and the associated toolkit begin to respond to the immediate need for resources, and provide empirical support for larger sectoral change. Further research and the establishment of a community of practice surrounding these tools will be critical to the continued pursuit of humanitarian innovation in an accountable, ethical, and impactful manner.