CEDIL Syntheses Working Papers

The CEDIL Syntheses Working Paper series publishes innovative research syntheses of the impact of interventions in low- and middle-income countries in the form of evidence and gap maps, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and other synthesis products.

Latest Publication

Making and justifying evidence claims: evidence synthesis of impact evaluations and systematic reviews in international development

Evidence from research leads to claims about the effects of intervening in people’s lives to improve specific outcomes. However, this raises the question of how such evidence claims are framed, justified and communicated. This review aims to address this important question by reviewing research findings from impact evaluations and systematic reviews to understand the nature and the scope of evidence claims in the global South.

The effectiveness of economic development interventions in humanitarian settings in low- and middle-income countries: A mixed-methods systematic review

This review looks at economic development interventions, such as livelihoods programmes, market support programmes, and local area development projects.

Access to justice evidence and gap map – studies of the effectiveness of justice sector intervention in low and middle–income countries

This evidence gap map maps the evidence base for evaluations of interventions to increase access to justice for the poor and disadvantaged across low- and middle-income countries.

Gender and social outcomes of WASH interventions: synthesis of research evidence

This systematic evidence synthesis aimed to collate evidence on the impact of WASH interventions on GESI outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It also aimed to synthesise evidence on violence-related outcomes, and to advance understanding of barriers to, and facilitators of, change in violence-related outcomes in the context of WASH interventions.

Development project evaluations in Malawi: A country evaluation map

The Malawi country evaluation map was created to promote the knowledge and use of development project evaluations in Malawi. It presents 576 project evaluations from nine databases and a targeted Google search.

Structural interventions aiming to enable adolescent use of contraception in low- and middle-income countries

Reducing adolescent pregnancy is a global public health priority and enabling contraceptive use is one way to achieve this. This paper describes an evidence synthesis to explore a) what structural interventions have been evaluated for their effect on adolescent contraceptive use in low- and middle-income countries and b) how such interventions may work.

The role of implementation in generalisability: A synthesis of evidence on targeted educational instruction and a new randomised trial

Targeted instruction is one of the most effective educational interventions in low- and middle-income countries, yet the reported impacts of this approach vary, from 0.07 to 0.78 standard deviations (SDs) across contexts. This paper studies this variation and the contextual factors associated with it by combining an evidence aggregation covering 10 study arms with a new randomised trial.

Evidence and gap map-studies of the effectiveness of transport sector intervention in low and middle-income countries

There are great disparities in the quantity and quality of transport infrastructure. This evidence and gap map identifies, maps and describes existing evidence on the effects of transport sector interventions related to all means of transport.

Development impact evaluations in Pakistan: A country evaluation map

This map presents the impact evaluations contained in the 3ie Evidence Hub for Pakistan in a framework with interventions adapted from the Pakistan 2025 strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as outcomes.