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This paper argues that within-project variations in design can serve as their own counterfactual, reducing the incremental cost of evaluation and increasing the direct usefulness of evaluation to implementing agencies. It suggests combining monitoring (‘M’), structured experiential learning (‘e’), and evaluation (‘E’) so as to facilitate innovation and organisational capability building while also providing accountability …

Wily aid practitioners have long understood the importance of adapting their programs to the political environment, and even use their activities to push politics in a progressive direction. But this magic was spun secretly, hidden behind logframes and results frameworks. Only recently has a range of programs been permitted to escape the dead hand of technocracy. But there was one corner of the development and humanitarian world that never needed to shroud its political ambitions; those...

This note presents the key components of a potential next generation of social accountability programming. The key aspects outlined emerge from a review of over 150 cases as well as tacit knowledge from dozens of practitioners (Guerzovich and Aston, 2023).The main thread of social accountability 3.0 and what distinguishes it from previous generations is a focus on its contribution towards more responsive systems and accountable social contracts. In particular, social accountability should be...

This updated guide provides practical guidance to practitioners in the human rights sector and beyond on how to integrate Applied Political Economy Analysis

SAVI has established its own framework for assessing Value for Money in annual performance – in relation to expenditure, economy, efficiency, effectiveness and equity. Routine tracking and analysis of expenditure and economy ensure that inputs are supplied and services delivered to partners in line with SAVI’s core values, whilst also meeting DFID requirements and competing...

This article presents preliminary results from a series of ongoing action-research projects involving the use of embedded diagnostic developmental assessments (called LectaTests™) in leadership education contexts. These findings are presented to support a particular metatheoretical approach to learning and education in which embedded assessments form a crucial part of ongoing virtuous cycles of action, feedback, support, and learning. We present two types of evidence. First, we compare...

Report back from a meeting of international NGOs to set up a research and practice network on 'Doing Development Differently' that can complement other actors

For over 40years, scenarios have been promoted as a key technique for forming strategies in uncertain environments. However, many challenges remain. In this article, we discuss a novel approach designed to increase the applicability of scenario-based strategizing in top management teams. Drawing on behavioural strategy as a theoretical lens, we design a yardstick to study the impact of scenario-based strategizing. We then describe our approach, which includes developing scenarios and...

The world changes too much for anyone who is invested in social change work to imagine that this work is linear and predictable. Opportunities come and go, whether caused by a pandemic or political shifts. This much most social movement leaders and activists intuitively understand. But what can be done with this realization? How might movement groups better prepare for moments of opportunity? We want to explore how we can create the changes we want to see by responding to the changes that are outside our control.

This guide provides a framework for Oxfam staff to design programmes and campaigns that contribute to resilient development. Oxfam defines resilience as ‘the ability of women and men to realize their rights and improve their well-being despite shocks, stresses

The complexity of issues addressed by research for development (R4D) requires collaborations between partners from a range of disciplines and cultural contexts. Power asymmetries within such partnerships may obstruct the fair distribution of resources, responsibilities and benefits across all partners. This paper presents a cross-case analysis of five R4D partnership evaluations, their methods and how they unearthed and addressed power asymmetries. It contributes to the field of R4D...

Learning is fundamental to work on transparency and accountability in complex environments. But how can funding practices best support learning?

We are a dynamic non-profit organization with a unique approach to managing change and catalyzing innovation to support global systems transformation. We know that to achieve equal, just, and safe communities, we must collectively challenge and change the systems that people rely on — especially those most vulnerable. Together, we must RE!BUILD a system's resilience and capacity to take on our biggest generational challenges. Justice, housing, health, and other systems in every country are...

The focus of this book is on how experts adapt to complexity, synthesize and interpret information in context, and transform or "fuse" disparate items of information into coherent knowledge. The chapters examine these processes across experts (e.g. global leaders, individuals in extreme environments, managers, police officers, pilots, commanders, doctors, inventors), across contexts (e.g. space and space analogs, corporate organizations, command and control, crisis and crowd management, air...

How and to what degree is the World Bank putting its new institutional citizen engagement (CE) commitments into practice? This question guides an independent assessment that the Accountability Research Center (ARC) at American University has undertaken as part of the Institute of Development Studies-led Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) research programme’s investigation into how external actors can best support local processes of and conditions for empowerment and...

In this essay, Andrew Natsios gives a first-hand account of what he finds most hinders USAID—layers of bureaucracy that misguide and derail development work.

World expert Bent Flyvbjerg and bestselling author Dan Gardner reveal the secrets to successfully planning and delivering ambitious projects on any scale.Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant new reality. Think of how Apple’s iPod went from a project with a single employee to an enormously successful product launch in eleven months. But such successes are the exception. Consider how London’s Crossrail project delivered five years late and billions over budget....

Background: Addressing today’s sustainability challenges requires adopting a systemic approach where social and ecological systems are treated as integrated social-ecological systems. Such systems are complex, and the international development sector increasingly recognises the need to account for the complexity of the systems that they seek to transform. Purpose: This paper sketches out the elements of a complexity-aware monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system for international...

In this sequel to "Rural Development: Putting the last first" Robert Chambers argues that central issues in development have been overlooked, and that many past errors have flowed from domination by those with power.Development professionals now need new approaches and methods forinteracting, learning and knowing. Through analyzing experience - of past mistakes and myths, and of the continuing methodological revolution of PRA (participatory rural appraisal) - the author points towards...