Abstract:
This guide provides a rationale for synthesizing evidence from health policy and systems research (HPSR) to support health policy-making and strengthening of health systems. It introduces key challenges in synthesizing HPSR evidence and provides guidance on addressing these issues, including suggestions for framing a synthesis question, assessing context-sensitive evidence, understanding complexity, addressing health equity, selecting the appropriate synthesis approaches for HPSR questions, presenting the evidence, and making sense of the findings for health policy and systems decision-making. This guide examines various synthesis methods—quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods—and provides practical guidance to engage decision-makers in evidence synthesis, enhancing the policy relevance of syntheses and fostering the uptake of review findings in policy and practice.