Lay summary
Community-level interventions are often recognised as having ripple effects, improving not only direct outcomes, but also influencing the wider determinants of health. Social return on investment (SROI) is a relatively new methodology being used in the domain of public health. It is defined as a systematic way of valuing social, environmental and economic outcomes and impacts. We propose a narrative review of health evaluations that have used this methodology, to understand i) how the methodology is being used and ii) identify pitfalls in its use, so that we can better address these in our future work. This review will lay the foundation for incorporating academically rigorous SROI methodology into future evaluations of health-related interventions. We will conduct stakeholder hui with up to 10 key informants, involving Māori evaluation practitioners and academics, to assess the alignment or tension of SROI with Indigenous research paradigms, such as Kaupapa Māori research methodology.