LIFTED: Our unique synthesis method

Why we need to make the evidence base more inclusive and accessible

For decades, effective education policymaking has been constrained by limited access to diverse, high-quality evidence—particularly local and non-academic perspectives. Overreliance on academic research often sidelines voices from Low- and Middle-Income Countries and is frequently inaccessible to policymakers due to paywalls, technical language, and limited practical relevance.

Our white paper revealed an even deeper issue: 80% of education evidence is never academically published, leaving a vast reservoir of potentially valuable insights untapped.

Yet this wealth of information still needs to be assessed for quality—not all evidence is useful or reliable.

To tackle this challenge, together with our partners, we set out to develop an evidence appraisal method aiming to improve policies and programmes by facilitating the analysis and synthesis of large quantities of diverse sources of evidence.

We then turned this into a tool that could be used for synthesis. LIFTED - The Locally Inclusive Framework for Transforming Evidence into Education Decision Making - finds and connects the most useful evidence from around the world.

In our latest synthesis, LIFTED unveiled insights from 39 countries that would have otherwise been excluded. Many of these countries contain high numbers of school children.

Circle size corresponds to the amount of evidence per country.

LIFTED unveiled insights from 39 additional countries-2.png

What is the impact of the LIFTED approach?

LIFTED surfaces overlooked evidence on refugee learners, girls, youth transitions, and social-emotional learning.

We are more likely to include the work of researchers and non-researchers from from the Global South when we look beyond English written academic sources, though there is still much to be done to reach true equity.

By facilitating the analysis and synthesis of large quantities of diverse sources of evidence LIFTED has increased the number of countries included in our latest synthesis from 25 to 64; the number of organisations with evidence included from 50 to 129; number of sources with evidence on girls grows tenfold from only 8 academic sources to 83 with non-academic sources included.

If we were to only use peer reviewed English-speaking journal articles, we would be blindfolded in some areas which of course don’t have well developed research in the region.

- Javier González, Founding-Director, SUMMA

The work of researchers and non-researchers from the Global South is also more likely to be included by using the LIFTED approach, though there is still much to be done to reach true equity.

For more on why we need to widen the evidence base and the impact of the LIFTED tool read our piece for the NORRAG Global Education Centre.

How does LIFTED work?

Through LIFTED we collect a wide range of evidence:

NGO reports
multilateral agency briefs
academic papers
government reports
programme evaluations
donor reports
and others

And we assess it for:

Relevance: To what extent does the source contribute new and relevant insights that address our research questions, hypothesis, or conceptual framework?
Quality: How transparent is the source about its methodologies, potential biases, or limitations?
Inclusivity: To what extent does the source represent the perspectives of marginalised and/or local groups in the countries of interest?

As a result, we're able to develop actionable guidance that:

Is contextually relevant
Amplifies local knowledge & experiences
Is usable for education decision makers

LIFTED connects actors, combining appraised non-academic and academic evidence to build relevant insights and actionable guidance:

How did we get here?

2023

In collaboration with , , , , , and other partners, we launched the International Working Group () to tackle a central challenge: limited access to diverse, high-quality educational evidence—particularly local research and non-academic insights, both published and unpublished.
The brought together policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and synthesisers to co-design a more accessible, inclusive, and actionable evidence ecosystem.

2024

The developed a framework and guidance on how to classify, search for, and appraise a wider array of evidence, including non-academic evidence and non-research.
Throughout 2024, civil servants, implementers, and academics in Kenya and Sierra Leone piloted the method to test its adaptability, relevance to local needs, ability to amplify marginalised voices, and potential to strengthen evidence-based policymaking.

2025

Education.org also applied the tool in its evidence synthesis on accelerated education programmes, eventually leading to the development of LIFTED—the Locally Inclusive Framework for Transforming Evidence into Education Decision-Making.

What's next: AI-powered LIFTED

AI will supercharge the speed of insight generation from a mass of evidence. But if we don’t fundamentally change how we do evidence synthesis, AI will continue to replicate past problems, leaving valuable evidence undiscovered and insights unused.

At Education.org, we're exploring the power of AI-powered LIFTED to take our approach to the next level—scaling and speeding LIFTED with Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology.

Our aim is to unlock richer insights across more countries, actors, and languages—surfacing local knowledge that traditional methods often miss.

AI can actively search for the most relevant, up-to-date information from compiled, trusted sources—appraise it using Education.org’s LIFTED approach—before generating insights that can be quality assured by experts.