Research Ethics

Introduction

Impact evaluations often involve the direct manipulation of people's personal or economic situations, collection of personal and/or sensitive data about people, and publication of results that have direct implications for political or economic governance. Ensuring that these tasks are undertaken in a way that is both protective of the individuals who are part of the study population as well as broadly ethical for the research question and context is a critical responsibility of research designers and a requirement for institutional, IRB, and government approval and support of any study.