Evidence claims for informing decisions relating to socio-economic development | CEDIL Lessons Learned 2

The Centre of Excellence for Development Impact and Learning (CEDIL) develops and tests innovative methods for evaluation and evidence synthesis. Claims made in CEDIL studies are intended to inform socio-economic development in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), or research about LMICs. This paper provides an overview of how, in CEDIL-funded studies, claims arising from research (termed ‘evidence claims’ for brevity) have been justified and communicated in order to inform policy decisions relating to socio-economic development. This study addresses two important questions about research that is designed to produce findings for decision makers. First, how are the claims that arise from the findings justified? In other words, what are the criteria (evidence standards) that studies use, explicitly or implicitly, in order to justify their evidence claims? Second, how are those claims and justifications communicated in original research reports and other outputs that share the research more widely? Suggested citation: Oliver, S., Mincheko, D., Bangpan M., Dickson K., Stansfield, C., Tripney J. (2023) ‘Evidence claims for informing decisions relating to socio-economic development’. CEDIL Lessons Learned Paper 2, CEDIL, Oxford. Available at https://doi.org/10.51744/LLP2