Your search
Results 256 resources
-
This guidebook codifies the principles and methods of applying systems change and portfolio approaches to complex development challenges with practical tools and examples. It is based on the empirical learning generated from the collaborative initiatives in UNDP Country Offices in Bhutan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Viet Nam with support from Regional Innovation Centre for Asia and the Pacific.
-
While over time theories of change have become synonymous with simple if/then statements, a strong theory of change should actually be a much more detailed, context-specific articulation of how we *theorize* change will happen under a program.
-
This guide is a basic reference on systems thinking and practice tailored to the context and needs of the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). It is an output of the FCDO Knowledge for Development Programme (K4D), which facilitated a Learning Journey on Systems Thinking and Practice with FCDO staff during 2021 and 2022. The guide offers a common language and shared framing of systems thinking for FCDO and its partners. It explores what this implies for...
-
Executive Summary When Christian Aid (CA) Ireland devised its multi-country and multi-year Irish Aid funded Programme Grant II (2017-2022), they opted to move away from a linear programme management approach and to explore an adaptive one. Across seven countries: Angola, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe, CA and partner organisations support marginalised communities to realise their rights, reduce violence and address...
-
This note explains what adaptive aid management is; why and when it should be considered; and how it should be applied. It covers all Danish development support channels and modalities, including bilateral country assistance, assistance to and through civil society, the private sector and to and through multilateral organisations. This guide has three chapters. Chapter 1 provides an executive overview of what adaptive management is. Chapter 2 goes deeper into five key operational principles...
-
DT Global is proud to introduce our new Guidance Note: Practical Introduction to Adaptive Management There is a growing consensus around adaptive management as an effective (even necessary) approach when programs are tackling complex development problems. While there is no standard definition of adaptive management, there is general agreement that such programs need to routinely engage with and respond to program context; constantly test what works in that context; and adjust approaches,...
-
This document is a an Introductory Toolkit for for civil servants. It is one component of a suite of documents that aims to act as a springboard into systems thinking for civil servants unfamiliar with this approach. These documents introduce a small sample of systems thinking concepts and tools, chosen due to their accessibility and alignment to civil service policy development, but which is by no means comprehensive. They are intended to act as a first step towards using systems thinking...
-
The UNDP Accelerator Labs were designed as an agile and dynamic Network to allow communication and information transfer between 91 Accelerator Labs in 115 countries, and with the global innovation ecosystem, UNDP as a whole, and thousands of partners including grassroots innovators and their communities. The accumulated knowledge of this Network creates new pathways to the solutions that hold the key to sustainable development problems. What it looked like and how it unfolded last year will...
-
USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL) and its support mechanism, LEARN, have developed a Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) Framework and Maturity tool to help USAID missions think more deliberately about how to plan for and implement CLA approaches that fit the mission’s context and assist them in achieving their development objectives. While the tool is intended primarily for USAID audiences to be used in participatory self-assessment workshops, the CLA Framework...
-
USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL) and its support mechanism, LEARN, have developed a Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) Framework and Maturity tool to help USAID missions think more deliberately about how to plan for and implement CLA approaches that fit the mission’s context and assist them in achieving their development objectives. While the tool is intended primarily for USAID audiences to be used in participatory self-assessment workshops, the CLA Framework...
-
Although collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) are not new to USAID and its implementing partners, they often do not happen regularly or systematically and are not intentionally resourced. The CLA Framework above identifies components and subcomponents to help you think more deliberately about what approach to CLA might be best tailored to your organizational or project context. The framework recognizes the diversity of what CLA can look like in various organizations and projects while...
-
The Method Positive Deviance (PD) is based on the observation that in every community or organization, there are a few individuals who achieve significantly better outcomes than their peers, despite having similar challenges and resources. These individuals are referred to as positive deviants, and adopting their solutions is what is referred to as the PD approach¹. The method described in this Handbook follows the same logic as the PD approach but uses pre-existing, non-traditional data...
-
This report presents six learnings from four pilot projects conducted by the Data Powered Positive Deviance (DPPD) initiative, a global collaboration between the GIZ Data Lab, the UNDP Accelerator Labs Network, the University of Manchester Center for Digital Development, and UN Global Pulse Lab Jakarta. The pilots seek out grassroots solutions to development challenges that range from the interaction between livestock farming and deforestation to gender-based violence and insecurity in dense...
-
The Programme Operating Framework (PrOF) sets the standard for how the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) delivers its programmes and projects.
-
This learning paper highlights how elements of outcome mapping were used by Save the Children Sweden in a project (2018-2020) that supports adolescents, affected by the Syria crisis, to become more resilient. The paper first outlines how the spheres of influence framework has been applied to develop an actor focused theory of change. It then describes how progress markers, as an alternative to SMART indicators, were formulated to monitor the programme’s results. The paper also outlines how...
-
Movement organizations work in inherently uncertain political environments. Whether an organization is advocating for a new minimum wage, working to close a private prison, or seeking to influence an election, the terrain they are operating on shifts nearly every day. That is increasingly true as political uncertainty rises in the 21st century, particularly for historically race-class subjugated communities. Any movement-based organization seeking to build, exercise, and win political power...
-
This guide has been developed to help build confidence and capability, distilling useful tips and considerations that may help teams think through programme delivery issues and interpret elements of the PrOF Rules. This PrOF Guide lays out: - The definition of beneficiary engagement. - The case for beneficiary engagement. - FCDO’s approach to beneficiary engagement. - Practical tips for how to integrate beneficiary engagement throughout the programme cycle, including guiding questions to...
-
Key takeaways. • Development is not linear or straightforward, but rather complex, uncertain and context-specific. This calls for international development actors to work differently, in ways that are based on deliberate experimentation, learning and adaptation, to inform decisions and drive effective development. • Although it might go by different names, adaptive programming has been used in a variety of areas and fields in both the public and private sectors. Development practitioners...
-
Relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability are widely used evaluation criteria, particularly in international development co-operation. They help to determine the merit or worth of various interventions, such as strategies, policies, programmes or projects. This guidance aims to help evaluators and others to better understand those criteria, and improve their use. It starts by describing what they are, and how they are meant to be used. Then the definitions...
Explore
Theme
-
Development Actors Perspectives
- AFD (Agence Française de Développement) (1)
- Canada - GAC & IDRC (12)
- China (3)
- DANIDA - Danish International Development Agency (2)
- DCED - Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (13)
- DFAT (Australia) (14)
- EU (1)
- FCDO/DFID (UK) (47)
- G7 (1)
- GIZ (Germany) (20)
- Hivos - Netherlands (2)
- IFAD (1)
- ILO (1)
- Irish Aid (4)
- KOICA (Korea's International Co-operation Agency) (1)
- New Zealand (1)
- NGO Perspectives (34)
- OECD/DAC - Results Based Management (16)
- Private Companies - Development Industry (6)
- Private Donors (OSF, Hewlett...) (7)
- SDC - Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (22)
- SIDA - Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (5)
- UNDP, UN Global Pulse, UN... (10)
- USAID (36)
- WFP (1)
- World Bank (17)
-
Adaptive Approaches [+]
(139)
- Adaptive Learning (9)
- Adaptive Management (72)
- Adaptive Rigour (1)
- Agile & Lean approaches (3)
- Capacity WORKS (6)
- CLA (Collaborating Learning Adapting) (9)
- Design Thinking / HCD (2)
- Doing Development Differently (3)
- Global Delivery Initiative (2)
- Implementation Research (1)
- MSD - Market Systems Development (9)
- Other Adaptive approaches (7)
-
Other sectors
(1)
- Government (1)
- PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) (2)
- PEA (Political Economy Analysis) (6)
- Positive Deviance & 2 loops model (1)
- Results Based Management (14)
- Systemcraft (1)
- Systems Thinking / Complexity (19)
- TWP (Thinking & Working Politically) (8)
- Cases (43)
- Courses (3)
-
Geography
(36)
-
Africa
(18)
- Central Africa (2)
-
Eastern Africa
(11)
- Kenya (2)
- Malawi (2)
- Mozambique (3)
- Rwanda (2)
- Somalia (2)
- Somaliland (1)
- Tanzania (1)
- Uganda (2)
- Zimbabwe (1)
-
Northern Africa
(1)
- Egypt (1)
-
West Africa
(12)
- Benim (1)
- Niger (3)
- Nigeria (4)
- Senegal (1)
- Sierra Leone (3)
-
Americas
(7)
-
Central America
(4)
- Costa Rica (1)
- Ecuador (2)
- El Salvador (1)
- Guatemala (1)
- Mexico (2)
-
North America
(1)
- Canada (1)
- South America (3)
-
Central America
(4)
-
Asia
(15)
-
Eastern Asia
(2)
- China (2)
-
South-eastern Asia
(6)
- Cambodia (1)
- Indonesia (1)
- Lao People's Democratic Republic (1)
- Myanmar (5)
- Viet Nam (1)
-
Southern Asia
(6)
- Bangladesh (4)
- Nepal (2)
- Pakistan (2)
-
Western Asia
(2)
- Israel (1)
- State of Palestine (1)
- Syrian Arab Republic (1)
-
Eastern Asia
(2)
-
Europe
(6)
-
Northern Europe
(1)
- United Kingdom (1)
-
Western Europe
(5)
- Germany (3)
- Netherlands (1)
- Switzerland (1)
-
Northern Europe
(1)
- Many geographies (1)
- Oceania (1)
-
Africa
(18)
-
MEL4 Adaptive Management
(70)
- After Action Reviews (3)
- Beneficiary Assessment/Engagement (4)
- Capacity Development (1)
- Context Monitoring (1)
- Contribution Analysis (1)
- Critical Friends (1)
- Desk based research/lit review (1)
- Ethnography / Rapid Ethnography (1)
- Ex-post Evaluation (1)
- Feedback Systems (2)
- Impact evaluation (4)
- Impact Oriented Monitoring and Evaluation System (2)
- Innovation System Analysis (1)
- Institutional Histories (1)
- Knowledge Management (1)
- Logical Framework (3)
- MEL in International Development (10)
- Most Significant Change (1)
- Outcome Harvesting (1)
- Outcome Mapping (2)
- Participatory Action Research (2)
- Participatory Evaluation (2)
- Participatory Learning and Action - PLA (2)
- Participatory Rural Appraisal - PRA, RRA (1)
- Peers/Peer-Group Review (3)
- Policy Scientific Approach (1)
- Portfolio Management (3)
- Positive Deviance (3)
- Process Tracing (1)
- Realist Evaluation (1)
- Rigour (2)
- Rubrics (2)
- Scenario Planning (1)
- Sense-making (1)
- Strategy testing (1)
- Systemic Change (11)
- Systems Mapping (2)
- TOC (Theory of Change) (4)
- Utilisation focused evaluation (1)
- Value for Money (2)
- Networks and Communities of Practice (4)
-
Practical
(46)
- Tools (6)
-
Sectors [+]
(78)
- Agriculture (4)
- Alternative Development (10)
- Behavioural Change (1)
- Children (3)
- Citizen Engagement (1)
- Climate Change (1)
- Economic development (7)
- Environmental Management (4)
- Fragile and Conflict Aflicted Settings (4)
- Gender (4)
- Governance and Accountability (13)
- Health (2)
- Humanitarian Aid (3)
-
Innovation (in Development)
(8)
- Funding (1)
- Institutional Capacity & Change (5)
- Institutional Reform (1)
- Judicial systems (1)
- Knowledge to Practice (2)
- Land Reform (1)
- Locally driven development (9)
- NGOs (9)
- Organizational Change (4)
- Peace Building (2)
- Philanthropy (3)
- Scaling up / Propagating (4)
- Social Accountability (6)
- Technology (in Development) (3)
Resource type
- Blog Post (17)
- Book (9)
- Book Section (4)
- Conference Paper (1)
- Document (1)
- Journal Article (12)
- Magazine Article (2)
- Presentation (4)
- Radio Broadcast (1)
- Report (188)
- Thesis (2)
- Video Recording (3)
- Web Page (12)