Human Subjects Approval

You must apply for IRB approval before any activity involving human subjects. The World Bank does not have an IRB. Typical IRB approval is sought from partner academic / research organizations (e.g. universities, Innovation for Poverty Action). Many countries maintain a national ethics or human subjects review board; research local regulations at the start of the impact evaluation.

All members of the research team who will manage surveys and work with personally identified data must complete training on conducting research with human subjects before IRB approval. The National Institute for Health (NIH) offers a free course on "Protecting Human Research Participants". [1]