Publication

This paper discusses the systematic review of international development policy and practice. Systemic review involves identifying, synthesizing and assessing all available evidence, quantitative and/or qualitative, in order to generate a robust, empirically derived answer to a focused research question. It argues that, rather than following a rigid SR methodology, a mixture of compliance and flexibility is needed: compliance with the broad SR principles (rigor, transparency, replicability) and flexibility to tailor the process towards improving the quality of the overall findings, particularly if time and budgets are constrained.