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Successfully adapting your programmatic efforts and policy engagement to the context depends on maintaining your understanding of that context. Given this, continuous learning and feedback loops--not only about your programming, but also about the environment you are working within--are important components of USAID’s work. Since our environments are always changing, in ways big and small, this can be intimidating. One can imagine a scenario where learning consumes the limited time and...
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One of the truisms of thinking and working politically (TWP) is that it requires looking differently at how stakeholders relate to a given development challenge or process, and building coalitions of the “right actors at the right time” who can drive forward progress while working with the grain of the context. While it’s easy to call for coalitions for change and diverse stakeholder engagement, identifying allies beyond those already seized with an issue, and finding ways to collaborate...
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Introduction to the Overview: Tiny Tools Why “Tiny Tools” for assessing change? Currently, change is mostly assessed by NGO staff or external experts. The vision of this paper is that communities assess and reflect change themselves and make use of that reflection with appropriate tools. All the tools presented here are relatively quick and easy to learn (therefore “tiny”). With Tiny Tools we can assess change in one session. They can therefore be used where there are not baselines. They are...
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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...
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This is a series about Monitoring, Evaluating and Learning (MEL) whether sets of interventions/portfolios are adding more together than each one would produce on their own. In post 1, I pointed to coherence, the new OECD-DAC evaluation criteria as a way to bridge the ambition of bringing bigger change with the MEL world. In post 2, I shared 3 of 4 practical lessons I’ve learned in experimenting with MEL systems and exercises that focus explicitly on interactions of...
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This article compares key attributes, strengths and weaknesses of three different approaches to monitoring development interventions: the logical framework approach, participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) and feedback systems. Academic and practitioner literature describes how logframes meet the needs of senior decision-makers to summarise, organise and compare projects. PM&E meets the needs of field staff to work sensitively with intended beneficiaries and support their learning and...
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New insights, opinions and perspectives on market systems development, from experts and practitioners.
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In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet— Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001.Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential...
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We think that, applied well, theory of change can support charities and funders to take a systemic approach to their work. This report identifies five common pitfalls that organisations fall into when using theory of change, and walks through five rules of thumb that will help organisations to use the approach to tackle complex problems. We think that, applied well, theory of change can support charities and funders to take a systemic approach to their work. This report identifies five...
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• In recent years, Political Settlements Analysis (PSA) has become increasingly influential in academic and policy circles • Despite its intuitive appeal, it seems difficult to use in practice • PSA has a natural affinity with Adaptive Development, Thinking and Working Politically, and Doing Development Differently approaches • By answering the simple diagnostic questions supplied here, development partners can identify the types of political settlements in which they work, and draw some broad operational implications
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A DFID programme in Kyrgyzstan offers useful insights into how the Thinking and Working Politically approach can escape from its governance ghetto
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While over time theories of change have become synonymous with simple if/then statements, a strong theory of change should actually be a much more detailed, context-specific articulation of how we *theorize* change will happen under a program.
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Want to know better how your interventions can contribute to change? A Theory of Change (ToC) approach helps in deepening your understanding - and that of your partners - of how you collectively think change happens and what the effect will be of your intervention. Not only does it show what political, social, economic, and/or cultural factors are in play, it also clarifies your assumptions. Once a ToC has been developed, it can be used to continually reflect on it in ways that allow for...
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There are a number of options when it comes to using software to help create a logic model. These range from generic word processing tools (Word, Powerpoint, or their Google Doc or Mac equivalents), to software that has been specifically tailored for visualising Theories of Change, like TOCO or Miradi. You should consider what resources you have to invest in software, both in terms of cost and in time to learn and use the features. If you only have a short timeframe and have simple needs,...
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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...
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Theory of Change is more than just a tool or instrument. It is a mindset! A mindset to optimise impact management. As the cornerstone of impact management it is indispensable to any purpose-driven organisation targeting social or environmental value creation. It offers you the cornerstone of a learning approach toward change and impact. A way to build a mindset and organisational culture of critical reflection, co-creation with stakeholders and constant analysis of what works, why, for whom...
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Models for theories of change vary widely as do how they are used. What constitutes a good or robust theory of change has not been discussed much. This article sets out and discusses criteria for robust theories of change. As well, it discusses how these criteria can be used to undertake a vigorous assessment of a theory of change. A solid analysis of a theory of change can be extremely useful, both for designing or assessing the designs of an intervention as well as for the design of...
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