Procedural and participatory ethics: community-based evaluation in practice

This article argues that it can be beneficial for institution-based, procedural ethics review of evaluation design in the planning stage to be followed by community-based oversight of ethical issues in the field. Deferring to an institutional review board (IRB) for ethical assessment when a project is underway can be impractical for community-based projects that are designed to be responsive to local needs and interests, especially when community leaders expect to have a meaningful say in determining what is the right thing to do. This article discusses a 2-year project in New Zealand, where community leaders and the project funder formed a project steering group to, among other things, provide ethical oversight. Ethical issues that arose during the project and the steering group’s role in considering the most suitable response are discussed and linked to literature about participatory ethics.