On April 21, 2016 DME for Peace was pleased to host a talk with Dr Maliha Khan who discussed Responsible data in a digital world – why does international development need to worry about it?
In the world of monitoring and evaluation in international development we collect tremendous amounts of data from millions of people around the world. The populations we collect data on are some of most vulnerable in the world and the data is often on sensitive issues and topics. A leak in the data would violate many peoples privacy and may even potentially put people at risk, socially, financially or even physically. In most countries where the data is collected, there are few laws protecting the rights of the people around their data and what laws might apply are seldom understood or enforced. Most researchers and M&E professionals rely on standards and guidelines dating from the 1970s to ensure the ethical treatment of people as research subjects rather then as owners of personal data that have rights to privacy and protection. In an increasing digitalized world where the personal data of people has value and is vulnerable, how do international agencies handle data responsibly?
Recording:
M&E Thursday Talk – Responsible data in a digital world – why does international development need to worry about it? from DME for Peace on Vimeo.
About the Speaker:
Dr Maliha Khan is a development practitioner in the fields of monitoring and evaluation, and learning and accountability and has led in these functions for CARE USA, Oxfam America and Girl Hub (DFID and Nike Foundation initiative). She has been responsible for leading internal teams that provide technical support, maintain standards, lead innovation and provide thought leadership in the organizations. Currently she is working as a consultant with Rockefeller Foundation in supporting the formation of a community of practice on measuring resilience. At CARE she led the process for revamping the organization’s programming approach towards long-term rights based programs with rigorous theories of change and impact measurement systems. While at Oxfam she oversaw the organization’s ICT for Development initiative and the Oxfam confederation wide “Responsible Data Policy”. This was one of the first policies of its kind in any development organization and was approved by the executive directors of the confederation in August 2015. Prior to joining CARE, she was an associate professor of Sustainable Development at World Learning’s SIT Graduate Institute where she taught development professionals program design, monitoring and evaluation and research methods amongst other things. She has worked as a consultant for a variety of bilateral, multilateral and government organizations. Dr. Khan is from Pakistan, where she started her career implementing development projects. She has a PhD from the State University of New York and a MA from Quaid-I-Adam University in Islamabad in Social Anthropology.