Displaying items by tag: Research & education

This briefing paper reflects upon the use of systematic reviews in international development research. It attempts to identify where a systematic review approach adds value to development research and where it becomes problematic. The question of ‘what works’ in international development policy and practice is becoming ever more important against a backdrop of accountability and austerity. In order to answer this question, there has been a surge of interest in ‘evidence-informed policy making’. Systematic reviews are a rigorous and transparent form of literature review, and are increasingly considered a key tool for evidence-informed policy making. Subsequently, a number of donors – most…

A researcher in Geneva, a UN worker on the road, a Red Cross official in Ethiopia, a US military officer: what could bring this diverse group together to discover new ways of improving the difficult but vital work that they all do in conflict-affected communities? The answer is the new Transforming Civil Conflicts (TCC) course jointly developed by The European Network University (TNU) and the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Bradford University, UK. The underlying impetus for creating the online course was to equip those professionals – in fields such as development, humanitarian aid, journalism and peacekeeping – who don’t have…