Implementing Adaptive Approaches in Real World Scenarios: A Nigeria Case Study, with Lessons for Theory and Practice

Resource type
Authors/contributors
Title
Implementing Adaptive Approaches in Real World Scenarios: A Nigeria Case Study, with Lessons for Theory and Practice
Abstract
How does adaptive implementation work in practice? Drawing on extensive interviews and observations, this paper contrasts the ways in which an adaptive component of a major health care project was implemented in three program and three matched comparison states in Nigeria. The paper examines the bases on which claims and counterclaims about the effectiveness of these approaches were made by different actors, concluding that resolution requires any such claims to be grounded in a fit-for-purpose theory of change and evaluation strategy. The principles of adaptive development may be gaining broad acceptance, but a complex array of skills, expectations, political support, empirical measures, and administrative structures needs to be deftly integrated if demonstrably positive operational results are to be obtained, especially when undertaken within institutional systems, administrative logics, and political imperatives that are predisposed to serve rather different purposes.
Report Number
WPS8904
Place
Washington DC
Institution
The World Bank
Date
2019/06/18 14:52:04
Pages
1-37
Language
en
Short Title
Implementing Adaptive Approaches in Real World Scenarios
Accessed
05/07/2019, 10:02
Library Catalogue
Citation
Bridges, K., & Woolcock, M. (2019). Implementing Adaptive Approaches in Real World Scenarios: A Nigeria Case Study, with Lessons for Theory and Practice (No. WPS8904; pp. 1–37). The World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/300301560883977057