ArticleBMJ open2020
Evaluating underpinning, complexity and implications of ethical situations in humanitarian operations: qualitative study through the lens of career humanitarian workers.
Article in BMJ open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systematic Review of Socio-Emotional Values Within Organizations.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Maritime Response and Emergency Care for Irregular Migrants: Experiences of Spanish Rescue Professionals.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Ethics in humanitarian settings-relevance and consequences for dialysis and kidney care.Clinical kidney journal · 2024Review
- Burdening and Protective Organisational Factors among International Volunteers in Greek Refugee Camps-A Qualitative Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionData regarding underpinning and implications of ethical challenges faced by humanitarian workers and their organisations in humanitarian operations are limited.
methodsWe conducted comprehensive, semistructured interviews with 44 experienced humanitarian aid workers, from the field to headquarters, to evaluate and describe ethical conditions in humanitarian situations.
results61% were female; average age was 41.8 years; 500 collective years of humanitarian experience (11.8 average) working with diverse major international non-governmental organisations. Important themes included; allocation schemes and integrity of the humanitarian industry, including resource allocation and fair access to and use of services; staff or organisational competencies and aid quality; humanitarian process and unintended consequences; corruption, diversion, complicity and competing interests, and intentions versus outcomes; professionalism and interpersonal and institutional responses; and exposure to extreme inequities and emotional and moral distress. Related concepts included broader industry context and allocations; decision-making, values, roles and sustainability; resource misuse at programme, government and international agency levels; aid effectiveness and utility versus futility, and negative consequences. Multiple contributing, confounding and contradictory factors were identified, including context complexity and multiple decision-making levels; limited input from beneficiaries of aid; different or competing social constructs, values or sociocultural differences; and shortcomings, impracticality, or competing philosophical theories or ethical frameworks.
conclusionsEthical situations are overarching and often present themselves outside the exclusive scope of moral reasoning, philosophical views, professional codes, ethical or legal frameworks, humanitarian principles or social constructivism. This study helped identify a common instinct to uphold fairness and justice as an underlying drive to maintain humanity through proximity, solidarity, transparency and accountability.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.