Your search
Results 63 resources
-
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...
-
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...
-
Internal and external stakeholders have different information needs over a project’s life, for purposes that include adaptive management, accountability, compliance, reporting and learning. A project’s monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning, or MEAL, system should provide the information needed by these stakeholders at the level of statistical reliability, detail and timing appropriate to inform data use. In emergency contexts where the situation is still fluid, ‘informal...
-
- This short paper draws out lessons for working effectively with and through partners, based on the experience of the Institutions for Inclusive Development (I4ID) programme – an adaptive, politically smart governance programme in Tanzania. • Cultivating effective partnerships can be a key part of delivering locally legitimate projects that have the potential to create sustainable change. Adaptive and politically informed ways of working create specific opportunities and challenges for...
-
Does the choice of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) approaches and tools matter for adaptive programmes? In short, yes: monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) and adaptive management (AM) are intertwined. While programme monitoring data and evaluation results are not the only sources of evidence that programmes use for learning and iteration, they often are amongst most important ones — or at least they should be. Selecting what type of information to collect and analyse — and how — is...
-
This thesis applies ideational and institutional theories to analyse how two specific ideas, results and adaptation, have changed the theory and practice of development cooperation. The thesis addresses the question of why the results and adaptation ideas are often treated as binaries and how this debate has evolved historically. In a first theoretical paper, the evolution of results and adaptation is conceptualised as a combination of institutional layering and diffusion within development...
-
This briefing note looks at how the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Wildlife Asia programme has operationalised the concepts of adaptive rigour and adaptive management as part of its approach to collaborating, learning and adapting. As described by the Global Learning for Adaptive Management (GLAM) initiative, adaptive rigour is about ensuring that the data, information, methods, processes and systems that underpin adaptive management are robust, systematic and...
-
This briefing note focuses on the remote collection and use of data for adaptive management during the Covid-19 pandemic, setting out key considerations to help practitioners think through a transition from more ‘traditional’ monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) to MEL for adaptive management (MEL4AM) that reflects the unique data collection challenges presented by Covid-19. The brief provides an overview of some key considerations in remote data collection, when this is required, and...
-
Adaptive programmes can be accountable, rigorous and high quality in how they use evidence by taking an ’adaptive rigour’ approach. Core development and humanitarian challenges are complex, and require processes of testing, learning and iteration to find solutions – adaptive management offers one approach for this. Yet large bureaucracies and development organisations can have low tolerance for experimentation and learning, and adaptive management can be viewed as an excuse for ‘making...
-
A DFID programme in Kyrgyzstan offers useful insights into how the Thinking and Working Politically approach can escape from its governance ghetto
-
This training package includes 7 Training Modules and a set of Annexes (Annexes A-O). The Training Modules build on each other and should ideally be used in a sequenced way in a training setting. However, for groups with specific training needs around particular areas, modules can also be used individually, but need to be tailored by the trainers and facilitators to meet the needs of specific audiences. The annexes provide worksheets and hand-outs that can be used as resources during the training for specific modules and exercises.
-
Those working to advance social change in the Pacific must understand, work with and respond to the complex and changing relationships and dynamics of power that exist within such networks, and situate their work in the context of decolonisation and self-determination. But the approaches typically used by NGOs to plan our projects and programs have failed to give due attention to these dynamics. The result is that our projects fall short of achieving their promise, despite being technically...
-
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...
-
This paper examines adaptive approaches to aid programming in Nigeria. Through field research and desk reviews, we have investigated some of the assertions around the ‘adaptive management and programming’ approach, which has arisen in recent years as a response to critiques of overly rigid, pre-designed, blueprint and linear project plans. This is the second of three case studies in a series which explore if and how adaptive approaches, including rapid learning and planning responses, are...
-
Healthcare systems are increasingly recognised as complex, in which a range of non-linear and emergent behaviours occur. China’s healthcare system is no exception. The hugeness of China, and the variation in conditions in different jurisdictions present very substantial challenges to reformers, and militate against adopting one-size-fits-all policy solutions. As a consequence, approaches to change management in China have frequently emphasised the importance of sub-national experimentation,...
-
While agile approaches can be extremely effective at a project level, they can impose significant complexity and a need for adaptiveness at the project portfolio level. While this has proven to be highly problematic, there is little research on how to manage a set of agile projects at the project portfolio level. What limited research that does exist often assumes that portfolio-level agility can be achieved by simply scaling project level agile approaches such as Scrum. This study uses a...
-
Impact and process evaluations are increasingly used in international development; however they are generally retrospective in outlook. A more timely approach to evaluation aims to identify necessary, feasible and effective changes during a programme or intervention’s lifetime. This paper aims to identify, categorise, describe and critically appraise methods to support more timely evaluation in international development. Potential methods were identified through scoping seminar, public...
-
This paper examines adaptive approaches in aid programming in a fragile, conflict and violence-affected setting (FCVAS), namely Myanmar. A combination of desk review and field research has been used to examine some of the assertions around the ‘adaptive management’ approach, which has arisen in recent years as a response to critiques of overly rigid, pre-designed, blue-print and linear project plans. This paper explores if and how adaptive approaches, including rapid learning and planning...
-
Hi #adaptdevers, The cross-sectoral programs team in the DRG Center have been working in support of ways that programming can be made more aware of, and responsive to, context considerations that have to do with incentives and relationships between different actors - often called power dynamics or political economy. Following several discussions with field folks, we were asked to come up with simple and practical tips that could help staff to implement more context-adaptive programming, or...
Explore
Theme
-
Adaptive Approaches [+]
- Adaptive Management
- Adaptive Learning (9)
- Adaptive Rigour (1)
- Agile & Lean approaches (2)
- CLA (Collaborating Learning Adapting) (2)
- Design Thinking / HCD (1)
- MSD - Market Systems Development (1)
-
Other sectors
(1)
- Sport (1)
- PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) (1)
- Results Based Management (1)
- Systems Thinking / Complexity (6)
- TWP (Thinking & Working Politically) (4)
-
MEL4 Adaptive Management
- After Action Reviews (2)
- Capacity Development (1)
- Context Monitoring (1)
- Contribution Analysis (2)
- Cost-Benefit Analysis (1)
- Critical Friends (1)
- Delphi Survey (1)
- Evaluating Multi-project programmes (4)
- Focus Group Discussions (1)
- Impact evaluation (3)
- Impact Oriented Monitoring and Evaluation System (2)
- Knowledge Management (1)
- Logical Framework (1)
- MEL in International Development (5)
- Most Significant Change (1)
- Outcome Mapping (2)
- Participatory Action Research (1)
- Participatory Learning and Action - PLA (1)
- Participatory Rural Appraisal - PRA, RRA (1)
- Peers/Peer-Group Review (4)
- Political Economy Analysis (1)
- Portfolio Management (8)
- Power Analysis (1)
- Process Tracing (2)
- Randomized Controlled Trials (1)
- Realist Evaluation (2)
- Scenario Planning (1)
- Strategy testing (2)
- SWOT Analysis (1)
- Systemic Change (4)
- Systems Mapping (1)
- Theory-based evaluations (3)
- TOC (Theory of Change) (4)
- Utilisation focused evaluation (3)
- Value for Money (5)
- Cases (16)
-
Development Actors Perspectives
(20)
- China (2)
- FCDO/DFID (UK) (7)
- Irish Aid (1)
- NGO Perspectives (8)
- UNDP, UN Global Pulse, UN... (1)
- USAID (2)
- World Bank (1)
-
Geography
(16)
-
Africa
(9)
-
Central Africa
(1)
- Angola (1)
- Eastern Africa (7)
-
Southern Africa
(1)
- South Africa (1)
-
West Africa
(5)
- Nigeria (4)
- Sierra Leone (1)
-
Central Africa
(1)
-
Americas
(1)
-
Central America
(1)
- El Salvador (1)
- Guatemala (1)
-
South America
(1)
- Colombia (1)
-
Central America
(1)
-
Asia
(10)
-
Eastern Asia
(1)
- China (1)
- South-eastern Asia (2)
-
Southern Asia
(4)
- Bangladesh (2)
- Nepal (2)
- Pakistan (1)
-
Western Asia
(2)
- Israel (1)
- State of Palestine (1)
- Syrian Arab Republic (1)
-
Eastern Asia
(1)
-
Africa
(9)
- Networks and Communities of Practice (1)
- Practical (14)
-
Sectors [+]
(29)
- Agriculture (1)
- Alternative Development (5)
- Cash Trasfers (1)
- Children (2)
- Combatting violent extremism (1)
- Economic development (3)
- Fragile and Conflict Aflicted Settings (5)
- Gender (2)
- Governance and Accountability (6)
- Health (3)
- Humanitarian Aid (1)
- Institutional Capacity & Change (1)
- Locally driven development (1)
- NGOs (1)
- Organizational Change (1)
- Peace Building (2)
- Research for Development (R4D) (1)
- Rural development (1)
- Scaling up / Propagating (1)
- Social Accountability (2)
Resource type
- Blog Post (4)
- Book (3)
- Forum Post (1)
- Journal Article (8)
- Magazine Article (1)
- Radio Broadcast (1)
- Report (44)
- Thesis (1)
Publication year
-
Between 1900 and 1999
(1)
-
Between 1990 and 1999
(1)
- 1997 (1)
-
Between 1990 and 1999
(1)
- Between 2000 and 2024 (62)