Search
Full Library 2,035 resources
-
This free guide aims to build the skills and confidence of people designing and facilitating participatory, productive, and engaging workshop sessions for work teams and communities of practice by providing them with a series of creative activities that can be run in-person or virtually. By the time they have gone through this guide, session leads will be able to: Describe ways in which creative activities can be of value to teams and communities of practice, Design both in-person and...
-
This free guide aims to build the skills and confidence of people designing and facilitating virtual meetings, including online community of practice sessions. By the time they have gone through this guide, community of practice facilitators will be able to: Design an engaging and participatory virtual session, Develop an effective, varied and realistic agenda for a virtual session, Apply a wide range of virtual facilitation techniques, and Using technology to facilitate virtual...
-
So you have just hear about systems thinking and systems innovation and are keen to know more, Ok sparky let's get started.We have structured all the content into four main areas that we think you ...
-
How can donors and grantees work together to create effective monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) practices that drive field-wide transformation? The Open Society Foundation’s Fiscal Governance Program found success by focusing on six key approaches, including empowering grantees and relinquishing power. In 2021, an external close-out evaluation by Intention to Impact of the program (which ran for 7 years and gave over $150 million in grants) revealed something pretty remarkable—the...
-
Scholarly attention in innovation in the public sector is growing rapidly, provoking analytical complexity. We developed a systematic literature review about Public Sector Innovation (PSI), analysing 169 articles published between 2001 and 2021, using PRISMA. We present a comprehensive approach to PSI testing and empirically develop an analytical framework based on the most common combinations of the studied dimensions. Additionally, we propose three main research avenues for the future of...
-
“Hacking by the prompt”—writing simple yet creative conversational instructions in ChatGPT's message window—revealed many valuable additions to the evaluator's toolbox for all stages of the evaluation process. This includes the production of terms of reference and proposals for the dissemination of final reports. ChatGPT does not come with an instruction book, so evaluators must experiment creatively to understand its potential. The surprising performance of ChatGPT leads to the question:...
-
Collaborative Learning — an approach which brings together people who face common challenges to share knowledge and jointly problem-solve — is a powerful way to support locally-led development and achieve impact. It provides a structured process in which change agents determine priorities, set the learning agenda, work together to identify strategies to address complex challenges, and provide ongoing implementation support to one another. Collaborative Learning — unlike traditional...
-
Over the last 15 years the concept of scale has become a foundational part of the apparatus of the social and environmental change sector. A business mindset of growth has been seamlessly transferred to the social and environmental problems we are collectively trying to shift in the world. Scaling up, (influencing policy) has been considered the strategic pathway to systems change. Scaling out (spreading new models) is seen as a pathway to success. The allure of these scaling theories lies,...
-
Effective learning is a key driver of market systems change, with the potential to enhance system competitiveness, resilience, and inclusiveness. Shifting the Locus of Learning: Catalyzing Private Sector Learning to Drive Systemic Change recently outlined a rationale for enhancing the scale and quality of learning in a system and identifying 10 strategies programs can contextualize to catalyze learning. These strategies are also backed with robust examples from 13 programs doing this work...
-
Innovation teams must navigate inherent tensions between different learning activities to produce high levels of performance. Yet, we know little about how teams combine these activities—notably reflexive, experimental, vicarious, and contextual learning—most effectively over time. In this article, we integrate research on teamwork episodes with insights from music theory to develop a new theoretical perspective on team dynamics, which explains how team activities can produce harmony,...
-
Digital transformation has become a buzzword that is permeating multiple fields, including public administration and management. However, it is unclear what is transformational and how incremental and transformational change processes are linked. Using the PRISMA method, we conduct a systematic literature review to structure this growing body of evidence. We identified 164 studies on digitally-induced change and provide evidence for their drivers, implementation processes, and outcomes. We...
-
Large language models (LLMs) are a type of generative artificial intelligence (AI) designed to produce text-based content. LLMs use deep learning techniques and massively large data sets to understand, summarize, generate, and predict new text. LLMs caught the public eye in early 2023 when ChatGPT (the first consumer facing LLM) was released. LLM technologies are driven by recent advances in deep-learning AI techniques, where language models are trained on extremely large text data from the...
-
This document offers practical guidance for assessing the Value for Money (VfM) of government- and donor-financed programmes and policy interventions. In line with OPM’s focus and mission, it has been predominantly applied in the international development sector, but the approach upon which it is based is also used in the context of domestic public policy and programmes.1 There is increasing scrutiny on VfM in international development, but a lack of appropriate methods to support its...
-
Motivation This paper explores adaptive approaches to development programmes that aim at improving service provision in underperforming sectors in fragile and conflict affected states (FCAS). It does this through a case study of the Integrated Maji Infrastructure and Governance Initiative for eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo's (IMAGINE) public-private partnership model for water provision. Purpose The processes and decisions that culminated in IMAGINE's model emphasize the need...
-
How can we measure and learn when promoting systems change? It’s a challenge that has inspired Laudes Foundation to develop a rubrics-based methodology to help us, our partners and the wider field of philanthropy, understand our contribution to change, while learning and adapting to new and unforeseen circumstances. Change cannot be captured by numbers alone because metrics put the focus on what can be counted, not always what’s most important. Rubrics are a framework that set a standard...
-
In the past three decades nonviolent social protest has become the most reliable path to democracy. However, not all nonviolent mobilization campaigns succeed. To examine why some nonviolent campaigns are more successful than others, we analyze the use of a particular type of activist campaign tactic, the "dilemma action." The dilemma action is a nonviolent civil-disobedience tactic that provokes a "response dilemma" for the target. Collecting original data on dilemma actions during...
-
Coalitions—groups of organizations and individuals that work together to pursue a common policy goal or reform—are crucial to development. Some of The Asia Foundation’s longest-standing and most successful development programs and portfolios have used coalition-building as an implementation modality. This paper examines successful initiatives in Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. By delving into each of these, we shed light on this coalition-building...
-
Systems thinking approaches are gaining traction as an effective way of understanding and working with increasing complexity. They are being put forward by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as well as the World Health Organisation as a way to tackle the complex and unpredictable environments we now operate in. As the world has become increasingly interconnected, national or local boundaries cannot isolate and control social problems. The climate emergency, war and...
Explore
Theme
-
Adaptive Approaches [+]
(967)
- Adaptive Learning (102)
- Adaptive Management (292)
- Adaptive Rigour (8)
- Agile & Lean approaches (109)
- Capacity WORKS (6)
- CLA (Collaborating Learning Adapting) (38)
- Design Thinking / HCD (103)
- Doing Development Differently (27)
- Global Delivery Initiative (3)
- Human Learning Systems (2)
- Implementation Research (2)
- MSD - Market Systems Development (16)
- Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (7)
- Other Adaptive approaches (29)
-
Other sectors
(58)
- Activism and Social Movements (2)
- Environmental (11)
- Government (1)
- Logistics & Product Development (11)
- Military (11)
- Organizational Management (19)
- Philosophical roots (3)
- Project management (2)
- Psychology (1)
- Sport (2)
- Participation (8)
- PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) (32)
- PEA (Political Economy Analysis) (28)
- Positive Deviance & 2 loops model (22)
- Results Based Management (14)
- Systemcraft (1)
- Systems Thinking / Complexity (199)
- TWP (Thinking & Working Politically) (78)
- Cases (151)
- Courses (15)
-
Development Actors Perspectives
(258)
- Adaptive Management orgs (1)
- AFD (Agence Française de Développement) (1)
- Canada - GAC & IDRC (12)
- China (3)
- DANIDA - Danish International Development Agency (2)
- DCED - Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (14)
- 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)
-
Geography
(144)
-
Africa
(83)
-
Central Africa
(8)
- Angola (1)
- Cameroon (2)
- Democratic Republic of the Congo (4)
-
Eastern Africa
(37)
- Ethiopia (1)
- Kenya (6)
- Malawi (4)
- Mozambique (8)
- Rwanda (3)
- Somalia (6)
- Somaliland (1)
- South Sudan (3)
- Tanzania (5)
- Uganda (6)
- Zambia (1)
- Zimbabwe (4)
- Northern Africa (3)
-
Southern Africa
(6)
- Lesotho (1)
- South Africa (4)
- West Africa (52)
-
Central Africa
(8)
-
Americas
(14)
-
Central America
(6)
- Costa Rica (1)
- Ecuador (3)
- El Salvador (1)
- Guatemala (2)
- Mexico (4)
-
North America
(5)
- Canada (2)
- United States of America (4)
- South America (5)
-
Central America
(6)
-
Asia
(55)
-
Eastern Asia
(10)
- China (10)
-
South-eastern Asia
(17)
- Cambodia (3)
- Indonesia (4)
- Lao People's Democratic Republic (2)
- Myanmar (7)
- Philippines (2)
- Thailand (1)
- Timor Leste (1)
- Viet Nam (2)
-
Southern Asia
(26)
- Afghanistan (1)
- Bangladesh (15)
- India (2)
- Nepal (13)
- Pakistan (6)
- Sri Lanka (1)
-
Western Asia
(3)
- Israel (1)
- Jordan (1)
- Lebanon (1)
- State of Palestine (1)
- Syrian Arab Republic (1)
-
Eastern Asia
(10)
-
Europe
(10)
-
Eastern Europe
(1)
- Ukraine (1)
-
Northern Europe
(2)
- United Kingdom (2)
-
Southern Europe
(1)
- Spain (1)
-
Western Europe
(6)
- France (1)
- Germany (3)
- Netherlands (1)
- Switzerland (1)
-
Eastern Europe
(1)
- Many geographies (3)
-
Oceania
(5)
- Australia and New Zealand (3)
-
Melanesia
(2)
- Papua New Guinea (1)
-
Africa
(83)
-
MEL4 Adaptive Management
(634)
- Action Inquiry/Collective Leadership (8)
- After Action Reviews (9)
- Appreciative Inquiry (7)
- Artificial Intelligence (4)
- Beneficiary Assessment/Engagement (8)
- Capacity Development (2)
- Case Study (11)
- Causal Mechanisms (16)
- Circular charts applications (radar, pie, sunburst, spiderweb, orbic, etc) (7)
- Community Led MEL (2)
- Comparisons/Benchmarking (1)
- Context Monitoring (1)
- Contribution Analysis (13)
- Cost-Benefit Analysis (3)
- Cost-effectiveness analysis (1)
- Critical Friends (3)
- Critical Systems Heuristics (7)
- Cross-sectional study (1)
- Data mining (1)
- Delphi Survey (1)
- Democratic Evaluation (3)
- Descriptive Statistics (1)
- Desk based research/lit review (3)
- Developmental Evaluation (14)
- Diaries (1)
- Empowerment Evaluation (5)
- Ethnography / Rapid Ethnography (5)
- Evaluability assessment (6)
- Evaluating Multi-project programmes (6)
- Ex-post Evaluation (6)
- Feedback Systems (5)
- Focus Group Discussions (3)
- Horizontal Evaluation (2)
- Humour (1)
- Impact evaluation (15)
- Impact Oriented Monitoring and Evaluation System (5)
- Indicator-based approaches (11)
- Innovation History (3)
- Innovation System Analysis (4)
- Institutional Histories (4)
- Knowing Unknowns (1)
- Knowledge Management (12)
- Logical Framework (16)
- Mapping Visualization Methods (11)
- MEL Bricolage (2)
- MEL in International Development (32)
- Most Significant Change (9)
- Narrative Based Approaches (2)
- Network Analysis (8)
- Objectives and options analysis (1)
- Outcome Harvesting (15)
- Outcome Mapping (32)
- Participatory Action Research (20)
- Participatory Evaluation (25)
- Participatory Learning and Action - PLA (12)
- Participatory Rural Appraisal - PRA, RRA (8)
- Peers/Peer-Group Review (4)
- Policy Scientific Approach (2)
- Political Economy Analysis (14)
- Political Settlements Analysis (2)
- Portfolio Management (18)
- Positive Deviance (9)
- Post Project Evaluations (1)
- Power Analysis (1)
- Principles-Focused Evaluation (1)
- Process Tracing (12)
- Public Management Theory (2)
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis (8)
- Qualitative data analysis and grounded theory (2)
- Qualitative Impact Assessment Protocol (4)
- Quality Improvement (1)
- Randomized Controlled Trials (14)
- Realist Evaluation (12)
- Remote Monitoring (1)
- Rigour (8)
- Rubrics (17)
- Rules of Thumb (3)
- Scenario Planning (9)
-
Sense-making
(18)
- SenseMaker (9)
- Social Media Metrics (1)
- Social Return on Investment (4)
- Stakeholder analysis (3)
- Stakeholder Feedback (3)
- Strategy testing (2)
- Success Case Method (5)
- Surveys (4)
- Sustainability (4)
- SWOT Analysis (1)
- Systemic Change (35)
- Systems Mapping (10)
- Tech 4 MEL (4)
- Theory-based evaluations (12)
- TOC (Theory of Change) (63)
- Trans-disciplinary Research (1)
- Trust-based evaluation (/philanthropy /learning) (4)
- Utilisation focused evaluation (8)
- Value for Investment (5)
- Value for Money (9)
- Networks and Communities of Practice (54)
- Organizations (4)
-
Practical
(150)
- Tools (27)
-
Sectors [+]
(647)
- Advocacy and Activism (8)
- Agriculture (4)
- Alternative Development (129)
- Behavioural Change (8)
- Cash Trasfers (2)
- Children (9)
- Citizen Engagement (63)
- Climate Change (5)
- Combatting violent extremism (6)
- Economic development (16)
- Education (4)
- Employment (2)
- Environmental Management (32)
- Fragile and Conflict Aflicted Settings (14)
- Gender (9)
- Governance and Accountability (159)
- Health (10)
- Humanitarian Aid (8)
- Inclusion/Disability (1)
-
Innovation (in Development)
(63)
- Funding (1)
- Institutional Capacity & Change (20)
- Institutional Reform (6)
- Judicial systems (3)
- Knowledge to Practice (34)
- Land Reform (1)
- Locally driven development (25)
- NGOs (28)
- Organizational Change (16)
- Pastoralism (1)
- Peace Building (12)
- Philanthropy (3)
- Private Sector Development (1)
- Research for Development (R4D) (6)
- Rural development (10)
- Scaling up / Propagating (27)
- Social Accountability (137)
- Social Change (3)
- Social Protection (1)
-
Technology (in Development)
(48)
- Appropriate Tech (6)
- Waste Management (1)
- Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) (1)
Resource type
- Artwork (1)
- Audio Recording (1)
- Blog Post (271)
- Book (225)
- Book Section (61)
- Conference Paper (31)
- Dataset (1)
- Document (15)
- Encyclopedia Article (1)
- Film (1)
- Forum Post (1)
- Journal Article (410)
- Magazine Article (27)
- Manuscript (1)
- Map (1)
- Newspaper Article (4)
- Presentation (17)
- Radio Broadcast (1)
- Report (861)
- Software (2)
- Thesis (7)
- Video Recording (20)
- Web Page (75)
Publication year
-
Between 1900 and 1999
(89)
-
Between 1940 and 1949
(1)
- 1948 (1)
- Between 1950 and 1959 (4)
- Between 1960 and 1969 (6)
- Between 1970 and 1979 (10)
- Between 1980 and 1989 (20)
- Between 1990 and 1999 (48)
-
Between 1940 and 1949
(1)
-
Between 2000 and 2024
(1,913)
- Between 2000 and 2009 (183)
- Between 2010 and 2019 (1,297)
- Between 2020 and 2024 (433)
- Unknown (33)