DSAA Webinar

Welcome to The DSAA monthly webinar series! 

Development is a dynamic space, bringing together research and practice across a range of disciplines. Our webinar series explores this diversity, bringing a new speaker who shares their expertise on a critical theme of interest every month. Each session will explore diverse topics, from building a CV for the international development sector to conducting community-based research and decolonising research practices. Through these interactive webinars, we aim to support HDR and ECR students in expanding their networks, gaining real-world insights, and advancing their academic and professional journeys. 

You can replay previous webinars from our YouTube Channel @DSA_Australia

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Centring community knowledge and leadership in research ethics on the Thailand-Burma/Myanmar border 

Join our first DSAA webinar of 2026 on community-led approaches to research ethics, featuring members of the Community Ethics Advisory Board (CEAB) from the Thailand–Burma/Myanmar border. The session will bring together May Lyar Soe, Nway Nway Oo, and Saw Than Lwin (CEAB) with Sophia Htwe (University of Melbourne), and will be moderated by Dr Anne Décobert (University of Melbourne / DSAA) – please see Zoom details below.  

The Community Ethics Advisory Board (CEAB) was established on the Thailand–Burma/Myanmar border as a locally led ethics advisory mechanism that complements formal institutional ethics systems within and beyond the region. CEAB was created to enable community members to provide guidance on research proposals and activities in their communities, in response to longstanding concerns about extractive and externally driven research practices that often marginalise local knowledge and leadership. 

In this webinar, we will be joined by CEAB founders and members, as well as one of their research partners, who will discuss some of CEAB’s successes and challenges in ensuring ethical research within a context shaped by conflict, authoritarianism, and structural violence. The discussion will highlight how CEAB grounds research ethics in local knowledge and realities; reframes ‘do no harm’ in ways that consider structural drivers of harm and that emphasise community benefits; and enhances community rights and leadership in research ethics and practices. It will unpack challenges that CEAB members face in translating their vision into practice; how CEAB has recently worked with research partners to document and promote their work; and what these dynamics reveal in terms of ongoing struggles over whose knowledge and leadership ‘count’ in research processes. 

Naw May Lyar Soe is a public health and humanitarian professional working at the intersection of humanitarian response, community protection, and grassroots governance in Myanmar. She currently serves as a Program Officer at Myanmar Trust UK, supporting local organizations working on human rights, civic space, and non-violent democratic change. With over eight years of experience along the Thailand–Myanmar border, she has worked closely with ethnic health organizations and grassroots networks to strengthen health systems, research capacity, and community-led initiatives. She holds a Master of Public Health from Khon Kaen University (2018) and is an Equity Initiative Fellow (2023). She also serves as one of two coordinators of the Community Ethics Advisory Board (CEAB) in Mae Sot, promoting ethical and community-sensitive research practices. 

Nway Nway Oo has been working at Mae Tao Clinic for more than ten years. She uses her vast skills and experience in the area of Child Protection, where she has been the Program Manager since 2006. Her Current position is Deputy Director of Women and Children Protection at Mae Tao Clinic. She holds a BA in Psychology and MPH from Khon Kaen University, Thailand. Her current work includes women and child protection systems, program designs and implementation, Policy development, program monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building. She is also involved with an international University and an agency on research and advocacy. She is also a member of the Community Ethnic Board. 

Sophia Htwe is a PhD candidate in Conflict and Peace Studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Her doctoral research examines the politics of peacebuilding in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, focusing on how local actors construct and contest peace amid protracted conflict, authoritarian governance, and deep ethnic divisions. Beyond academia, Sophia has worked with local and international organisations on development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding initiatives in Myanmar. Through policy dialogue and applied research, her work bridges scholarship and practice to support locally grounded approaches to peacebuilding and governance in conflict-affected contexts. 

Saw Than Lwin, originally from Karen State, Myanmar, joined Mae Tao Clinic in 2003. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yangon Technological University (2002), and a Master of Public Health (International Health) from Khon Kaen University (2017). Since 2022, he has served as Deputy Director of Organizational Development, overseeing organizational policy development, staff capacity-building and engagement initiatives, including Occupational Health and Safety, and collaborating with the Border Public Health Learning Center to strengthen the migrant health system. With 23 years of dedicated experience working closely with diverse migrant communities, he remains deeply committed to community-centered service and to improving the well-being of vulnerable individuals and families across all ethnic groups in Myanmar. 

Our moderator, Dr Anne Décobert, is the current President of the Development Studies Association of Australia and a Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Melbourne. She has worked as a researcher and practitioner in and beyond Myanmar for more than 15 years, with her work focusing on conflict, peacebuilding, and locally led humanitarian, development and health programs, and the struggles of minority and marginalised populations for rights, justice and self-determination. 

Date: Friday 20th March 2026
Time: 2-3pm AEDT
Format: Zoom (see details below to join)

We invite you to join us for this important conversation on how community-led initiatives are reshaping research ethics in challenging political and social contexts. 

For more information, you can check our website or subscribe to our YouTube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@DSA_Australia] 

Link to join meeting: 

https://deakin.zoom.us/j/82051854304?pwd=cbYqkZZBo9fN4YUy0Va8aG0RevFSBq.1  

Meeting ID: 820 5185 4304 

Password: 04577250 

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