The purpose of this review was to study evidence from five major domains of endeavour to identify a common set of interventions, initiatives, approaches and practices that increases understanding of what helps Maori succeed or improve outcomes in life. The investigation concentrated on reviewing studies that produced evidence that contributed to this understanding.

The domains of interest were economic development, education, health, whanau and wellness and the review covered a wide range of research evidence within each domain. The approach utilised a set of criteria to guide selection and analysis of literature and subjected the information and findings to a process of synthesis that was designed to identify the commonalities of success across the five domains. There were two stages of synthesis.

One was at the end of the analysis of each domain and the other was an overall synthesis that informed the discussion and conclusions section.