We provide a ‘how to’ guide to undertake systematic reviews of effects in international development, by which we mean, synthesis of literature relating to the effectiveness of particular development interventions. Our remit includes determining the review's questions and scope, literature...

This is a list of impact evaluations of interventions in low-income and middle-income countries published between January and September 2010, and not previously listed in this year's volume (Journal of Development Effectiveness, Volume 2, Issues 1-3). If you would like to submit a newly...

Thus far, most systematic reviews commissioned to inform international development policy have focused on questions of ‘what works’, drawing on experimental and quasi-experimental studies of the effects of interventions. This article argues that systematic review methods can be applied to...

Theory-based systematic reviews, which summarise evidence on what works, when and why, strive for greater policy relevance. Reviews that answer these questions adopt a mixed methods approach and draw on a range of study types. Answering the ‘what works’ and ‘what doesn't’ questions means...

Substantial and increasing amounts of funding are available for countries to undertake climate change interventions. This article argues that to ensure effective allocation of these resources, the selection and design of climate change mitigation and adaptation interventions should be based on...

This article presents a synthetic review of impact evaluations examining the effectiveness of community-driven development (CDD) and curriculum interventions in improving social cohesion in sub-Saharan Africa. The review found weakly positive impacts of CDD and curriculum interventions on social...

This paper presents a synthetic review of impact evaluations examining effectiveness of water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions in reducing diarrhoea among children. The evaluations were conducted in 35 low- and middle-income countries during the past three decades. The paper challenges the...

To condition or not to condition; that is a question that preoccupies social protection experts and policy-makers alike, and one that divides rights-based camps from the incentives-based ones. This commentary argues that this debate may be a red herring. The line between conditional and...

The conditional cash transfer revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean, beginning in the mid-1990s and continuing to this day, heralded a new prominence and acceptance of applying rigorous impact evaluations to social programmes. Over the last decade, sub-Saharan Africa has begun its own...

Carefully designed and implemented evaluations can improve people's welfare and enhance development effectiveness. This paper investigates institutions in Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, and shows that for the successful inception of an institutionalised system for evaluation, three common factors...