UNICEF Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis

To underpin its programmes, policy and advocacy work, UNICEF invests substantially in conducting, as well as commissioning, research, evaluation and data collection and analysis in order to create a strong evidence base to support the realization of the rights of every child, especially the most disadvantaged.

In light of UNICEF’s strategic agenda to harness innovation and deepen and widen the evidence base to drive and sustain global progress towards the realization of children’s rights, ensuring ethical conduct in evidence generation is imperative. This is necessary both in its own right and as a significant contributor to ensuring quality and accountability in the evidence generation process, especially when it involves children.

Ethical reflection and conduct in evidence generation is requisite in an equity-based framework. A focus on the most marginalized, and frequently, the most vulnerable population groups necessitates measures to ensure that participants are respected and that they are protected throughout the process. Further, efforts must be taken not only to mitigate against risks to participants, but also to staff and to the organization as a whole.

In order to ensure the protection of, and respect for, human and child rights within all research, evaluation and data collection processes undertaken or commissioned by UNICEF, this procedure is designed to achieve the following objectives:

• To establish minimum and binding standards for ethical research, evaluation and data collection and analysis processes in UNICEF globally; and 
• To ensure effective processes and accountability for ethical oversight of these processes.