Making and justifying evidence claims in international development

Abstract

In the last few decades, there has been an increasing use of, and demand for, high-quality research among decision-makers in international development. Wanting to know whether, how and where interventions work, they find statements made or implied to be supported by research evidence. These statements are ‘evidence claims’. Other people may question whether the evidence supporting the claims has been compiled or scrutinised appropriately. This raises the question of how such evidence claims are framed, justified and communicated. A new 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 produced from low- and middle-income country (LMIC) research. This evidence brief shares key findings from this review.