The effectiveness and efficiency of interventions supporting shelter self-recovery following humanitarian crises: An evidence synthesis protocol

Abstract

Habitat for Humanity (HfH) and University College London (UCL) - the ‘Review Team’ - have been commissioned to complete a systematic review on the 'impacts of different shelter and settlement strategies in the immediate aftermath of and recovery period following humanitarian emergencies'. Between August and November 2015 the Review Team undertook a scoping assessment in order to (a) map the breadth, depth and nature of documentation available in the shelter and settlements sector; and (b) engage with, and collect feedback from stakeholders to understand where there is demand for evidence synthesis (or primary research).

The scoping assessment identified that there is both evidence available, and stakeholder interest in, evidence synthesis on the topic of humanitarian interventions that aim to support affected populations' own shelter self-recovery processes. However, given the limited quantity and quality of documentation in the sector, and the level of quality data required for a credible and respected systematic review, it was decided that a review on this topic would take the form of an 'evidence synthesis' rather than a standard systematic review. This enables a broader question to be addressed and a greater number of valuable, but potentially lower quality or less objective documents to be included into the analysis (with the limitations of including such documents explicitly detailed).

The purpose of this document is to clearly describe the proposed research methodology so that it can be peer-reviewed prior to undertaking the study and replicated in future. Thus it describes:

  • the theoretical background to the study (Section 2). This includes definitions of key terms used in the research, a proposed theory of change model for how the intervention might work and the justification for this research.
  • the aim and research questions the study intends to address (Section 3).
  • the methodology for undertaking the review (Section 4). This includes the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the search strategy and the procedure for data collection and analysis.
  • the references used in this document (Section 5).
  • appendices containing further details on the scoping assessment and the proposed search strategy, data extraction form and quality appraisal checklist for this review (Section 6).

Citation

Maynard, V.; Parker, E.; Twigg, J. The effectiveness and efficiency of interventions supporting shelter self-recovery following humanitarian crises: An evidence synthesis protocol. Oxfam GB, Oxford, UK (2016) ISBN 978-0-85598-713-8

The effectiveness and efficiency of interventions supporting shelter self-recovery following humanitarian crises: An evidence synthesis protocol

Published 1 January 2016