Background

Between 2007 and 2013, UNICEF commissioned 133 evaluations of UNICEF-supported basic education interventions. UNICEF’s evaluation portfolio serves a broad purpose and includes a wide range of evaluation types, including process evaluations, formative evaluations, impact evaluations, and policy level analysis to assess the efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, and sustainability of UNICEF-supported basic education interventions.

Synthesis Review of Education Interventions

AIR conducted a synthesis review to determine the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, and sustainability of these 133 basic education interventions. The synthesis review uses the internationally accepted evaluation principles of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development–Development Assistance Committee as the framework for assessing whether each study adequately addresses the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, and sustainability of basic education interventions. In addition, AIR differentiated the results on the basis of the methodology, so that policy makers can make decisions are based on valid findings.

AIR also contributed to UNICEF’s evaluation strategy by advising UNICEF on how, when, and for what to invest limited resources in rigorous evaluations of the impact of basic education interventions. For this purpose, AIR provided a conceptual framework to help guide which type of evaluation to conduct during the lifecycle of designing, implementing, and taking to scale an intervention.