Your search
Results 43 resources
-
This working paper compares six of the most prominent adaptive approaches to emerge over the past two decades. Three come from the world of innovation, largely in the private sector (agile, lean startup and human-centred design), and three from the global development sector (thinking and working politically, forms of adaptive management and problem-driven iterative adaptation). While all of these approaches are valuable when used in the right context, practitioners may be perplexed by the...
-
Despite a swathe of critiques of logframes and other blueprint approaches to development over the last 30 years, most aid infrastructure continues to concentrate on the design and subsequent implementation of closed models. This article does not propose an alternative to blueprints, but challenges the inflexibility of their implementation, which is inadequate given the complex nature of social change. It proposes a supplementary management and learning approach which enables implementers to...
-
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...
-
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...
-
Internal DFID document from the DevAdapt Programme. Based on another previous document (also internal).
-
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...
-
Among the many principles that currently inform donor-funded development initiatives, three appear to stand out: they should be politically informed, locally led, and adaptive. There is as yet little practical guidance for aid implementers regarding how to operationalise these approaches. What will it take to shift practice away from linear and planned approaches, towards models which foster local leadership and which engage with emergent and complex systems? This paper suggests that the...
-
The United Kingdom’s (UK) Department for International Development (DFID) is an ambitious government department that is committed to reducing poverty and conflict overseas. Many of the issues on which DFID works are complex; whether focused on climate change, gender equality, health or other priorities, simple solutions rarely exist. And to tackle these complex challenges, DFID staff must interact with unpredictable systems of political, organisational and individual behaviours and...
-
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...
-
Calls for more ‘adaptive programming’ have been prominent in international development practice for over a decade. Learning-by-doing is a crucial element of this, but programmes have often found it challenging to become more learning oriented. Establishing some form of reflective practice, against countervailing incentives, is difficult. Incorporating data collection processes that generate useful, timely and practical information to inform these reflections is even more so.This paper...
-
ICAI published this review on DFID’s approach to value for money in February 2018, and as value for money is both a process and an outcome and cuts across all aspects of DFID’s operations, did not score this review. We made five recommendations and published a follow-up to this review in July 2019. All UK government departments are required to achieve value for money in their use of public funds. In recent years, DFID has been working to build value for money considerations further into its...
-
UK aid, at its best, makes a real and positive difference to the lives and livelihoods of poor people around the world. Ensuring the best possible performance across a large and multifaceted aid programme is, however, a complex management challenge. This report reviews ICAI’s previous 44 reports and looks at how well DFID ensures positive, long-term, transformative impact across its work.
-
International assistance programmes for developing countries are in urgent need of revision. Continuous testing and verification is required if development activity is to cope effectively with the uncertainty and complexity of the development process. This examines the alternatives and offers an approach which focuses on strategic planning, administrative procedures that facilitate innovation, responsiveness and experimentation, and on decision-making processes that join learning with...
-
Practical advice for donors and institutions responding to COVID-19
-
Adaptive programming is an approach to development that encourages experimentation, learning & adaptation. This report examines the contractual underpinnings of this approach.
-
CONTEXT-DRIVEN ADAPTATION COLLECTION
-
The field of global development has reached a critical turning point. Almost gone is the mechanical, one-size-fits-all “good governance” paradigm of the past. In its place is a growing embrace of complexity and systems thinking. While this is an encouraging shift in the right direction, the discussion mostly ends by concluding that we should adapt. Yuen Yuen Ang urges that it’s time to take our conversation on “complexity & development” to the next level: how to enable adaptation. Effective...
-
Motivation In the last decade, a movement formed around making aid delivery more adaptive, relying on principles such as context sensitivity, flexibility, and ownership. The approaches seem promising for civil society organizations (CSOs) to fulfil their mission of fostering social transformation. While several donor agencies have started engaging with such approaches, the authors hardly see their political implications in practice. Purpose The article aims to provide evidence on an adaptive...
-
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...
Explore
Theme
-
Adaptive Approaches [+]
- Adaptive Management
- Adaptive Learning (2)
- Adaptive Rigour (2)
- Agile & Lean approaches (1)
- CLA (Collaborating Learning Adapting) (3)
- Design Thinking / HCD (1)
-
Other sectors
(1)
- Sport (1)
- PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) (1)
- Systems Thinking / Complexity (2)
- TWP (Thinking & Working Politically) (1)
- Cases (12)
-
Development Actors Perspectives
(12)
- FCDO/DFID (UK) (7)
- Irish Aid (1)
- NGO Perspectives (2)
- OECD/DAC - Results Based Management (1)
- USAID (1)
-
Geography
(12)
-
Africa
(7)
-
Central Africa
(1)
- Angola (1)
- Eastern Africa (6)
-
Southern Africa
(1)
- South Africa (1)
-
West Africa
(4)
- Nigeria (3)
- 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)
- South-eastern Asia (3)
-
Southern Asia
(4)
- Afghanistan (1)
- Bangladesh (1)
- India (1)
- Nepal (2)
- Pakistan (2)
-
Western Asia
(2)
- Israel (1)
- State of Palestine (1)
- Syrian Arab Republic (1)
-
Africa
(7)
-
MEL4 Adaptive Management
(19)
- After Action Reviews (1)
- Critical Friends (1)
- Evaluating Multi-project programmes (1)
- Impact Oriented Monitoring and Evaluation System (1)
- Logical Framework (1)
- MEL in International Development (3)
- Outcome Mapping (1)
- Portfolio Management (4)
- Power Analysis (1)
- Strategy testing (1)
- Systemic Change (2)
- Theory-based evaluations (2)
- Value for Money (2)
-
Practical
(9)
- Tools (2)
- Sectors [+] (18)
Resource type
- Blog Post (1)
- Book (1)
- Journal Article (6)
- Presentation (1)
- Report (32)
- Web Page (2)