Your search
Results 109 resources
-
Foreign aid is about charity. International development is about technical fixes. At least that is what we, as donor publics, are constantly told. The result is a highly dysfunctional aid system which mistakes short-term results for long-term transformation and gets attacked across the political spectrum, with the right claiming we spend too much, and the left that we don't spend enough. The reality, as Yanguas argues in this highly provocative book, is that aid isn't – or at least...
-
Global efforts to improve energy access and quality and to tackle climate change need a different approach to addressing poor energy governance. In 2015, leaders from around the world agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030.1 The seventh goal (SDG7) is “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” In the same year, the world’s leaders concluded the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, which will require a global...
-
The CLARISSA Social Protection Intervention was set us as an innovative social policy intervention for tackling social ills, with a...
-
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...
-
Over the last half century, repeated calls for adaptive learning in development suggests two things: many practitioners are working in complex situations that may benefit from flexible approaches, and such approaches can be difficult to apply in practice. • Complexity thinking can offer useful recommendations on how to take advantage of distributed capacities, joint interpretation of problems and learning through experimentation in complex development programmes. • However, these...
-
Development cooperation has spent decades wrangling over the merits, evidence, and implications of what we may term “the learning hypothesis”: the idea that increased knowledge by development organisations must logically lead to increased effectiveness in the performance of their development activities. Organisations of all stripes have built research and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) departments, adopted a multitude of knowledge management systems and tools, and tinkered with...
-
• There is considerable interest in the concept of adaptive development and what it may look like in different sectors, including health. • Adaptive types of programming from the health sector are relatively advanced; as we work towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), experiences in health can provide useful lessons for other areas of development. • The international health community may not use the label ‘adaptive development’, but many are already conducting adaptive work....
-
On June 24th under GLocal’s UNConference, “Co-creating our future stories of hope and action”, Jindra Cekan, Holta Trandafili, and Isabella Jean presented their work on sustainability evaluations and exit strategies via local voices. We chaired a 2-hour discussion session on the following topics: Sustainability of global development projects and exit from them, The importance of valuing local partners’ and participants’ voices, How to embed ex-post evaluation of sustainability into the...
-
What can middle-level theory do? Middle-level theory (MLT) has several uses in development planning and evaluation. It helps predict whether a programme can be expected to work in a new setting. It offers insights into what design features are needed for success. It provides invaluable information for monitoring to see if the programme is on track and to fix problems that arise. It reveals the causal processes and related assumptions to be tested in an evaluation and helps identify...
-
Programmes that aim to tackle complex societal issues, such as the worst forms of child labour, require rich partnerships that bring together different perspectives. CLARISSA’s consortium partnership adopts an empowerment approach to the interventions we deliver and our ways of working together. Part of this approach involves ongoing reflection and learning about how we work together in our partnership, and how this can be adapted if needed. This learning note focuses on a method used in...
-
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly shifted the context in which aid and development is being delivered. The global scale of the pandemic and the speed at which it is spreading mean that the ‘normal’ economic, ideological and organisational influences which shape (if not determine) aid delivery are in flux. This means that – for a relatively short-period – there is scope for aid actors to work collectively to embed more locally-led, politically-informed and adaptive forms of MERL in aid...
-
Over the past 10 years or so the “Field” of “Mixed Methods Research” (MMR) has increasingly been exerting itself as something separate, novel, and significant, with some advocates claiming paradigmatic status. Triangulation is an important component of mixed methods designs. Triangulation has its origins in attempts to validate research findings by generating and comparing different sorts of data, and different respondents’ perspectives, on the topic under investigation. Respondent...
-
Demonstrating results has been a concern in international development cooperation ever since it was started and in recent years there has been an increased focus on achieving and reporting on “results”. Despite the fact that everyone involved in development cooperation wants to make a difference there has been a growing criticism from practitioners about the “results agenda” based on a concern that the approaches used are not fit for purpose. In the EBA-report, Cathy Shutt, at the...
-
The United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) aimed to address global challenges to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals through 12 interdisciplinary research hubs. This research documents key lessons learned around working with Theory of Change (ToC) to guide Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) within these complex research for development hubs. Interviews and document reviews were conducted in ten of the research...
-
This paper explores the current state of thinking among a range of aid actors (multilaterals, bilateral, applied scholars and international non-governmental organisations) on how to promote empowerment and accountability in fragile, conflict and violence affected settings. It seeks to identify trends, gaps and weaknesses in that thinking, and propose research questions and hypotheses to test. Three underlying sources of confusion are identified that are hindering progress on both...
-
The logical framework approach (LFA) has come to play a central role in the planning and management of development interventions over the last twenty years. Although the logical framework has become universally known, it is far from universally liked. It has been the subject of much criticism over the years, concerning both the theoretical basis of the approach, and the way it is applied in practice. In this review, we have attempted to take stock of the current views of international...
-
Evaluative Tools for Improving Campaign Effectiveness Public health campaigns aim to control disease or deliver essential health services and products through time-limited and periodic channels. Many countries use campaigns to augment or replace routine service delivery, to target certain populations, or to accelerate progress towards coverage targets. The Root Cause Analysis and Rapid Evaluation, Action, and Learning toolkits present a systematic but flexible approach to identifying the...
-
Theory of Change is thought to be very useful for learning and adaptive management of complex interventions such as advocacy. Nevertheless, the use of Theory of Change is also under critique. One common criticism is that Theory of Change is often used as a framework that fixes agreements rather than as a living, guiding tool that helps reflection and adaptation. However, while such criticism stresses forms of control, little research has looked at the way Theory of Change and advocacy...
-
The practice of using rigorous scientific evaluations to study solutions to global poverty is relatively young. Although researchers continue to advance our knowledge of the mechanisms at work, confusion about their role and value persists. Having evidence from specific studies is fine and good, but for policy makers, the point is not simply to understand poverty, but to eliminate it. Do decisions always need to be informed by evidence from the local context? What potential and limits do...
-
This Green Paper intends to review key elements of the problem that Development actors will confront as a new decade opens up ahead of us. It will articulate a solution that we believe should become an inherent feature of Development programs and initiatives. This is the outcome of an intense period of experiences and reflections in the Development space across different geographies and institutional mandates and activities, during which the Foundation has collaborated with institutions such...
Explore
Theme
-
MEL4 Adaptive Management
- After Action Reviews (2)
- Capacity Development (2)
- Case Study (2)
- Comparisons/Benchmarking (1)
- Context Monitoring (1)
- Contribution Analysis (3)
- Cost-Benefit Analysis (3)
- Cost-effectiveness analysis (1)
- Critical Friends (1)
- Cross-sectional study (1)
- Data mining (1)
- Delphi Survey (1)
- Descriptive Statistics (1)
- Desk based research/lit review (3)
- Diaries (1)
- Ethnography / Rapid Ethnography (4)
- Ex-post Evaluation (2)
- Feedback Systems (1)
- Focus Group Discussions (3)
- Impact evaluation (5)
- Impact Oriented Monitoring and Evaluation System (1)
- Innovation System Analysis (1)
- Institutional Histories (1)
- Knowing Unknowns (1)
- Knowledge Management (4)
- Logical Framework (3)
- MEL in International Development (10)
- Most Significant Change (1)
- Network Analysis (2)
- Objectives and options analysis (1)
- Outcome Harvesting (1)
- Outcome Mapping (1)
- Participatory Action Research (9)
- Participatory Evaluation (3)
- Participatory Learning and Action - PLA (2)
- Participatory Rural Appraisal - PRA, RRA (2)
- Peers/Peer-Group Review (1)
- Policy Scientific Approach (1)
- Political Economy Analysis (6)
- Portfolio Management (4)
- Power Analysis (1)
- Process Tracing (3)
- Public Management Theory (1)
- Qualitative data analysis and grounded theory (2)
- Quality Improvement (1)
- Randomized Controlled Trials (2)
- Realist Evaluation (3)
- Rigour (2)
- Rubrics (2)
- Scenario Planning (1)
- SenseMaker (1)
- Social Media Metrics (1)
- Stakeholder analysis (2)
- Stakeholder Feedback (1)
- Strategy testing (1)
- Surveys (4)
- Sustainability (2)
- SWOT Analysis (1)
- Systemic Change (12)
- Systems Mapping (7)
- Theory-based evaluations (3)
- TOC (Theory of Change) (11)
- Utilisation focused evaluation (1)
- Value for Money (4)
-
Sectors [+]
- Advocacy and Activism (1)
- Agriculture (3)
- Alternative Development (15)
- Cash Trasfers (2)
- Children (8)
- Citizen Engagement (5)
- Climate Change (2)
- Combatting violent extremism (4)
- Economic development (9)
- Education (3)
- Employment (1)
- Environmental Management (1)
- Fragile and Conflict Aflicted Settings (8)
- Gender (3)
- Governance and Accountability (17)
- Health (4)
- Humanitarian Aid (4)
- Innovation (in Development) (5)
- Institutional Capacity & Change (1)
- Knowledge to Practice (10)
- Locally driven development (2)
- NGOs (4)
- Organizational Change (4)
- Peace Building (3)
- Private Sector Development (1)
- Research for Development (R4D) (4)
- Rural development (2)
- Scaling up / Propagating (4)
- Social Accountability (4)
- Social Protection (1)
- Waste Management (1)
-
Adaptive Approaches [+]
(63)
- Adaptive Learning (14)
- Adaptive Management (29)
- Adaptive Rigour (1)
- Agile & Lean approaches (2)
- CLA (Collaborating Learning Adapting) (2)
- Design Thinking / HCD (2)
- MSD - Market Systems Development (8)
- Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (1)
-
Other sectors
(1)
- Sport (1)
- Participation (1)
- PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) (1)
- PEA (Political Economy Analysis) (5)
- Results Based Management (1)
- Systemcraft (1)
- Systems Thinking / Complexity (16)
- TWP (Thinking & Working Politically) (4)
- Cases (38)
-
Development Actors Perspectives
(28)
- AFD (Agence Française de Développement) (1)
- China (2)
- FCDO/DFID (UK) (4)
- GIZ (Germany) (3)
- Hivos - Netherlands (1)
- Irish Aid (1)
- KOICA (Korea's International Co-operation Agency) (1)
- NGO Perspectives (6)
- OECD/DAC - Results Based Management (1)
- Private Companies - Development Industry (1)
- Private Donors (OSF, Hewlett...) (2)
- SIDA - Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (1)
- UNDP, UN Global Pulse, UN... (1)
- USAID (9)
- World Bank (1)
-
Geography
(30)
-
Africa
(15)
- Central Africa (2)
-
Eastern Africa
(12)
- Kenya (1)
- Malawi (1)
- Mozambique (4)
- Rwanda (2)
- Somalia (1)
- South Sudan (1)
- Tanzania (1)
- Uganda (2)
- Zimbabwe (3)
- Northern Africa (1)
-
West Africa
(7)
- Benim (1)
- Mali (1)
- Nigeria (3)
- Senegal (1)
- Sierra Leone (1)
-
Americas
(4)
-
Central America
(2)
- El Salvador (1)
- Guatemala (2)
- Mexico (1)
- South America (4)
-
Central America
(2)
-
Asia
(17)
-
Eastern Asia
(1)
- China (1)
- South-eastern Asia (3)
-
Southern Asia
(11)
- Bangladesh (7)
- India (1)
- Nepal (5)
- Pakistan (3)
- Sri Lanka (1)
-
Western Asia
(3)
- Israel (1)
- Jordan (1)
- Lebanon (1)
- State of Palestine (1)
- Syrian Arab Republic (1)
-
Eastern Asia
(1)
-
Europe
(1)
-
Southern Europe
(1)
- Spain (1)
-
Southern Europe
(1)
-
Oceania
(1)
-
Melanesia
(1)
- Papua New Guinea (1)
-
Melanesia
(1)
-
Africa
(15)
-
Practical
(20)
- Tools (1)
Resource type
- Blog Post (8)
- Book (6)
- Book Section (3)
- Journal Article (17)
- Magazine Article (1)
- Report (72)
- Thesis (1)
- Video Recording (1)
Publication year
-
Between 1900 and 1999
(4)
-
Between 1980 and 1989
(1)
- 1989 (1)
- Between 1990 and 1999 (3)
-
Between 1980 and 1989
(1)
- Between 2000 and 2024 (105)