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Profiles

Shivit Bakrania

Knowledge Management Specialist

Shivit Bakrania is a Knowledge Management Specialist with the Research Facilitation and Knowledge Management Unit. He primarily works on the evidence synthesis and research capacity building aspects of the unit’s work, as well as research governance activities, such as overseeing the research quality assurance procedure implementation and other research knowledge management activities. He is a social research methods specialist and his thematic academic and research interests include: evidence synthesis and translation, political economy approaches to development, youth and political violence, security and access to justice, and governance in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. He has experience in producing evidence synthesis, including systematic reviews, rapid reviews and evidence gap maps, policy analysis, political economy analysis and conflict analysis. Prior to joining UNICEF, he had been operating as an independent research consultant for over 10 years, specialising in producing policy-relevant research and evidence tools to support governments, international development agencies and non-governmental organisations to implement evidence-based policy, programming and advocacy. This included roles as the Principal Investigator on high profile evidence gap map projects for UNICEF and UK’s FCDO, and as a researcher for other international agencies such as the European Commission, Australian DFAT and the British Council. Prior to that, he managed a knowledge management platform/global research network on governance, security and access justice based at the University of Birmingham.

Publications

The Impact of Interventions Targeting Caregivers, Health Workers and the Community to Alter Vaccine Behaviours and Childhood Vaccination Uptake: A Rapid evidence assessment protocol

Publication

The Impact of Interventions Targeting Caregivers, Health Workers and the Community to Alter Vaccine Behaviours and Childhood Vaccination Uptake: A Rapid evidence assessment protocol

Vaccination is one of the most effective measures for preventing illness, disability and death. In Europe and Central Asia, routine immunization rates vary between countries and over time. Behavioural determinants of vaccine hesitancy in the region include diminished trust among caregivers and health professionals; knowledge and awareness of vaccination; perceptions of risk; and health professionals’ skills, knowledge and attitudes. This rapid evidence assessment aims to summarize the impact of interventions targeting caregivers, healthcare workers and the community to improve intention and motivation to vaccinate and vaccination rates of children under 5 years old. The evidence will inform policy and programmatic recommendations.

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Effectiveness of Inclusive Interventions for Children with Disabilities in Low- and Middle-income Countries: Protocol for an evidence and gap map

Publication

Effectiveness of Inclusive Interventions for Children with Disabilities in Low- and Middle-income Countries: Protocol for an evidence and gap map

Of the nearly 1 billion people with a disability, 80% live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and 240 million are children. Children with disabilities remain one of the most marginalized and excluded groups in society. This protocol to the Evidence and Gap Map on the Effectiveness of Inclusive Interventions for Children with Disabilities Living in LMICs aims to identify the available evidence on inclusive interventions to improve access to health, education and social services for these children, and enable them to participate fully in society by addressing discrimination, improving living conditions, incorporating mainstreaming approaches and promoting empowerment. It highlights gaps in the evidence to prioritize future research and evaluation agendas; identifies contextual factors related to various populations and settings; and provides a database of peer-reviewed and grey literature in this area.

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The Impact of Educational Policies and Programmes on Child Work and Child Labour in Low- and-Middle-Income Countries: A rapid evidence assessment (Study Protocol)

Publication

The Impact of Educational Policies and Programmes on Child Work and Child Labour in Low- and-Middle-Income Countries: A rapid evidence assessment (Study Protocol)

There is increasing evidence on the importance of education access and quality for the abolition of child labour. However, to date, only a few evidence assessments have documented the effectiveness of educational policies and programmes with respect to child labour. This Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) aims to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive review of the effects of educational policies and programmes on child labour. With the objective to provide policy and programmatic recommendations, the review will focus on quantitative and mixed methods studies that identify causal effects. The REA will be complemented by an evidence gap map.

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Impact Evaluation in Settings of Fragility and Humanitarian Emergency

Publication

Impact Evaluation in Settings of Fragility and Humanitarian Emergency

Despite the challenges involved in fragile and humanitarian settings, effective interventions demand rigorous impact evaluation and research. Such work in these settings is increasing, both in quality and quantity, and being used for programme implementation and decision-making. This paper seeks to contribute to and catalyse efforts to implement rigorous impact evaluations and other rigorous empirical research in fragile and humanitarian settings. It describes what sets apart this type of research; identifies common challenges, opportunities, best practices, innovations and priorities; and shares some lessons that can improve practice, research implementation and uptake. Finally, it provides some reflections and recommendations on areas of agreement (and disagreement) between researchers and their commissioners and funding counterparts.

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Research Brief: Impacts of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection: Lessons learned from a rapid review in the context of COVID-19

Publication

Research Brief: Impacts of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection: Lessons learned from a rapid review in the context of COVID-19

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Impacts of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection: Lessons learned from a rapid review in the context of COVID-19

Publication

Impacts of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection: Lessons learned from a rapid review in the context of COVID-19

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Study Protocol: Impacts of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection Lessons learned from a rapid review in the context of COVID-19

Publication

Study Protocol: Impacts of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection Lessons learned from a rapid review in the context of COVID-19

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Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 1: Overview

Publication

Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 1: Overview

This series of eight briefs, produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, is intended to provide guidance on how to undertake, commission and manage evidence synthesis products such as systematic reviews, rapid evidence assessments and evidence gap maps. 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. It makes research more accessible and therefore can contribute to evidence-informed programming and policy decisions. The primary audience for these briefs is professionals, including UNICEF staff, who conduct, commission or interpret research and evaluation findings in development contexts to make decisions about policy, programming and advocacy. This brief provides an overview of a series of eight briefs that cover a range of evidence synthesis products that can contribute to different parts of the policy and programming cycle and strengthen evidence informed decision-making at UNICEF.

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Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 2: Introduction

Publication

Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 2: Introduction

This series of eight briefs, produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, is intended to provide guidance on how to undertake, commission and manage evidence synthesis products such as systematic reviews, rapid evidence assessments and evidence gap maps. 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. It makes research more accessible and therefore can contribute to evidence-informed programming and policy decisions. The primary audience for these briefs is professionals, including UNICEF staff, who conduct, commission or interpret research and evaluation findings in development contexts to make decisions about policy, programming and advocacy. This brief considers three different types of evidence synthesis products – namely, systematic reviews (SRs), rapid evidence assessments (REAs) and evidence gap maps (EGMs) – and how they differ and compare in terms of their uses and the time and resources needed for their application. It also provides guidance on how evidence synthesis can contribute to evidence informed decision-making, which is particularly important in the context of UNICEF’s evidence infrastructure and for ensuring that appropriate evidence is considered when making policy and programming decisions.

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Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 3: Developing and designing an evidence synthesis product

Publication

Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 3: Developing and designing an evidence synthesis product

This series of eight briefs, produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, is intended to provide guidance on how to undertake, commission and manage evidence synthesis products such as systematic reviews, rapid evidence assessments and evidence gap maps. 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. It makes research more accessible and therefore can contribute to evidence-informed programming and policy decisions. The primary audience for these briefs is professionals, including UNICEF staff, who conduct, commission or interpret research and evaluation findings in development contexts to make decisions about policy, programming and advocacy. This brief covers the development and design stages of producing an evidence synthesis product (including the activities that contribute to drafting and refining the research question and scope), how externally contracted research teams are engaged in these stages, the type of consultation and feedback that should occur during these stages, and the development of inclusion criteria and a search strategy. All of these activities lead to the development and publication of a research protocol, which helps to ensure that all important decisions are made in advance and helps to avoid the introduction of bias.

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Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 4: Collating and analysing studies for synthesis

Publication

Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 4: Collating and analysing studies for synthesis

This series of eight briefs, produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, is intended to provide guidance on how to undertake, commission and manage evidence synthesis products such as systematic reviews, rapid evidence assessments and evidence gap maps. 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. It makes research more accessible and therefore can contribute to evidence-informed programming and policy decisions. The primary audience for these briefs is professionals, including UNICEF staff, who conduct, commission or interpret research and evaluation findings in development contexts to make decisions about policy, programming and advocacy. This brief addresses the actual process of collating studies and the synthesis and analysis of these. It also includes an overview of tools and applications that can be used to help manage the process.

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Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 5: Commissioning and managing an evidence synthesis project

Publication

Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 5: Commissioning and managing an evidence synthesis project

This series of eight briefs, produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, is intended to provide guidance on how to undertake, commission and manage evidence synthesis products such as systematic reviews, rapid evidence assessments and evidence gap maps. 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. It makes research more accessible and therefore can contribute to evidence-informed programming and policy decisions. The primary audience for these briefs is professionals, including UNICEF staff, who conduct, commission or interpret research and evaluation findings in development contexts to make decisions about policy, programming and advocacy.This brief focuses on the key activities for commissioning and managing an evidence synthesis project.

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Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 6: The future of evidence synthesis and knowledge brokering

Publication

Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 6: The future of evidence synthesis and knowledge brokering

This series of eight briefs, produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, is intended to provide guidance on how to undertake, commission and manage evidence synthesis products such as systematic reviews, rapid evidence assessments and evidence gap maps. 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. It makes research more accessible and therefore can contribute to evidence-informed programming and policy decisions. The primary audience for these briefs is professionals, including UNICEF staff, who conduct, commission or interpret research and evaluation findings in development contexts to make decisions about policy, programming and advocacy. This brief focuses on emerging innovations and cutting-edge debates amongst the evidence synthesis community of practice. Unlike the other briefs, it does not give practical guidance, but, instead, highlights some of the new and critical thinking and tools employed by UNICEF Innocenti and others that are likely to influence the research commissioning or knowledge brokering process in the future.

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Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 7: Resources and tools for evidence synthesis

Publication

Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 7: Resources and tools for evidence synthesis

This series of eight briefs, produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, is intended to provide guidance on how to undertake, commission and manage evidence synthesis products such as systematic reviews, rapid evidence assessments and evidence gap maps. 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. It makes research more accessible and therefore can contribute to evidence-informed programming and policy decisions. The primary audience for these briefs is professionals, including UNICEF staff, who conduct, commission or interpret research and evaluation findings in development contexts to make decisions about policy, programming and advocacy. This brief provides a list of key tools, resources, websites and organizations for evidence synthesis.

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Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 8: Glossary

Publication

Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis. Brief 8: Glossary

This series of eight briefs, produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, is intended to provide guidance on how to undertake, commission and manage evidence synthesis products such as systematic reviews, rapid evidence assessments and evidence gap maps. 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. It makes research more accessible and therefore can contribute to evidence-informed programming and policy decisions. The primary audience for these briefs is professionals, including UNICEF staff, who conduct, commission or interpret research and evaluation findings in development contexts to make decisions about policy, programming and advocacy. This brief contains a glossary of terms used in evidence synthesis.

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An Evidence Gap Map on Adolescent Well-being in Low- and Middle-income Countries: A focus on the domains of protection, participation, and financial and material well-being. Study Protocol.

Publication

An Evidence Gap Map on Adolescent Well-being in Low- and Middle-income Countries: A focus on the domains of protection, participation, and financial and material well-being. Study Protocol.

The objective of this evidence gap map (EGM) is to provide an overview of the existing evidence on the effectiveness of interventions (at the macro, meso and micro levels) aimed at improving adolescent well-being in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Its focus is on the outcome domains of protection, participation and financial and material well-being. Outcomes relating to the enabling environment for adolescents are also included to capture the contextual influences that might affect the well-being of adolescents. This study protocol outlines the criteria used to consider studies for inclusion in the EGM. Only studies that are explicitly impact evaluations or systematic reviews were included and the target study population were adolescents aged 10 to 19 years. The geographic scope were LMICs as defined by the World Bank and all relevant studies written in English, French and Spanish, and published from the year 2000 onwards were included. The research team employed long-form or short-form search strategies, with search terms formulated around the proposed population, intervention, outcome, geographical focus and research design categories. The interactive EGM is available online at www.unicef-irc.org/evidence-gap-map. The EGM report is available at https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/931/

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Bridging the Gap to Understand Effective Interventions for Adolescent Well-being: An evidence gap map on protection, participation, and financial and material well-being in low- and middle-income countries

Publication

Bridging the Gap to Understand Effective Interventions for Adolescent Well-being: An evidence gap map on protection, participation, and financial and material well-being in low- and middle-income countries

This evidence gap map (EGM) collates the evidence base for adolescent interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with a focus on the outcome domains of protection, participation and financial and material well-being. Outcomes relating to the enabling environment for adolescents are also included to capture the contextual influences that might affect the well-being of adolescents. The EGM contains 74 studies (71 impact evaluations and 3 systematic reviews) of evaluated interventions targeting adolescents in LMICs. Most of the evidence is on financial support to individuals and households, where interventions predominantly include conditional cash transfers, and studies frequently evaluate their impacts on child labour and child marriage outcomes. The second largest evidence cluster relates to the impacts of socio-emotional learning and life skills on adolescent protection, particularly protection-related attitudes, skills and knowledge, while psychosocial support is the third most frequently appearing intervention. At the group and community level, the largest bodies of evidence are on financial literacy and savings schemes, and norm change interventions. The largest evidence gaps are at the policy and institutional level, the enabling environment for adolescent well-being, and the use of and access to information and communication technology (ICT) by adolescents. While coverage of gender is prominent in the literature, only one intervention specifically targets boys and men to promote attitudes towards gender equity. Recommendations for future primary research and synthesis are made. The interactive EGM is available online at www.unicef-irc.org/evidence-gap-map.

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Articles

5 Questions on the Impact of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection

Article

5 Questions on the Impact of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection

(23 July 2020) A new rapid review from UNICEF Innocenti collects and synthesizes the available evidence on the impacts of COVID-19 and previous pandemics, epidemics, and their control measures on child protection and offers key lessons learned for global and national responses to COVID-19 and recommendations for future research priorities.

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Blogs

Protecting children from harm during COVID-19 needs evidence

Blog

Protecting children from harm during COVID-19 needs evidence

Although much of the world is focused on the “silver lining” that COVID-19 does not appear to severely impact children’s health, UNICEF is raising the alarm about the potential damage of the hidden impacts on children’s health as well as the indirect socio-economic effects of the fallout from the pandemic. In response, UNICEF Innocenti is generating evidence to assist and inform UNICEF’s COVID-19 work. This blog is about a research conducted by UNICEF on the impacts of pandemics and epidemics on child protection, including topics such as violence against children, child labour and child marriage.

Journal articles

Protecting children from harm during COVID-19 needs evidence

Journal Article

Impacts of health-related school closures on child protection outcomes: A review of evidence from past pandemics and epidemics and lessons learned for COVID-19

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Protecting children from harm during COVID-19 needs evidence

Journal Article

Protocol: Impact of social protection on gender equality in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of reviews

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