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Evidence synthesis

Gender-based violence

Despite a wealth of research, accessing high quality evidence and making it readily available to policymakers and practitioners remains a challenge. Evidence synthesis is the process of bringing together information and knowledge from a range of sources to inform debates and decisions on policies, programming, and evidence generation.

 

  • Systematic reviews synthesize the findings of studies, for example on the effectiveness of interventions or on the key barriers and facilitators to success.
  • Rapid evidence assessments and rapid reviews synthesize the findings of studies quickly when facing urgent policy decisions, for example our Rapid Review on Pandemics, Epidemics and Child Protection. UNICEF Innocenti is also a partner in COVID-END, a network of organisations with expertise in evidence synthesis who are interested in supporting evidence-informed decision-making and improved coordination and timeliness of evidence synthesis in relation to the global COVID-19 pandemic response.
  • Evidence Gap Maps provide a visual and interactive overview of the existing evidence on a topic, theme, or sector. Using a matrix of intervention types and outcomes, an EGM maps empirical evidence to show where it is strong and where the gaps lie.

Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis

Our Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis series provides everything you need to know about conducting evidence synthesis research,  including guidance on how to undertake, commission, and manage evidence synthesis products such as systematic reviews, rapid evidence assessments, and evidence gap maps. The briefs highlight how evidence synthesis can play an important role in UNICEF’s knowledge management and evidence translation efforts by collating knowledge from multiple studies on what interventions work, and why and how they work.

 

Children and COVID-19 Research Library 

Our Children and COVID-19 Research Library is a database collecting research from around the world on COVID-19 and its impacts on children and adolescents. It gives users quick and easy access, in one place, to the latest scientific research on the impacts of the pandemic on children and adolescents.  

 

Research Digest on Adolescence 

The Research Digest on Adolescence reviewed the latest global evidence on adolescent wellbeing every quarter. Its aim is to promote awareness and uptake of new research on adolescent wellbeing amongst UNICEF staff, practitioners, policymakers and academics in the development and humanitarian sectors.