Evidence reviews

Overview

The IEU believes it is important for the GCF to use global evidence to learn what works, what doesn’t, for whom, why and by how much. The IEU’s evidence reviews assemble global evidence on topics that are relevant to the GCF. They are based on a structured literature search guided by a protocol. They appraise the quality of evidence and illustrate the evidence base in an easy-to-understand manner.

The IEU produces two types of evidence review:

Evidence gap maps (EGMs) depict high-quality evidence – or the lack thereof – in a thematic area. They usually use a theory of change and illustrate the landscape of evidence in a framework with interventions in rows and outcomes in columns.

Systematic reviews assess and synthesize high-quality evidence on a specific intervention. They can contain meta-analysis which aggregates findings across studies.

The IEU’s evidence reviews are a key component of its learning and advisory service functions. Both evidence gap maps and systematic reviews highlight important lessons from academic and practitioner literature.