Synthesizing practices of evidence appraisal in the humanitarian field

This paper synthesises evidence appraisal practices to inform evidence syntheses in the Humanitarian Evidence Program. It is addressed to all audiences interested in humanitarian evidence, including but not limited to researchers, humanitarian practitioners, and policymakers.The paper helps answer the question, ‘How confident are we in the quality of evidence supporting a finding?’

Evidence appraisal is integral to the review process: when clear and context-appropriate, it contributes to the transparency and rigor of the review.2 Rather than prescribing a particular evidence appraisal approach, the Humanitarian Evidence Programme summarises evidence appraisal practices relevant to the humanitarian field and offers some suggestions in critically applying them to the realities of humanitarian data analysis, synthesis, and interpretation.