Your search
Results 407 resources
-
This briefing note shares practical learning on the use of contribution analysis for adaptive management (CA4AM). It examines how the approach enables programmes to work with theories of change in a practical, reflexive way, and how, combined with assessing evidence of a programme’s contribution to change, its findings can inform programme adaptation. It also examines both how and to what extent CA enables AM through the experiences of four large complex programmes all working towards...
-
The investigation of causal mechanisms has the capacity to provide donors and implementing institutions with a greater understanding of people's reasoning and reactions as they work with interventions. This chapter contributes to the literature by identifying behavioral mechanisms generated through engagement with climate-resilient agriculture interventions within a larger livelihood project in Ethiopia. It works through the steps that enabled the study to unpack the black box between the...
-
This chapter argues that the credibility of causal mechanisms can be greatly increased by formulating them as statements that are both empirically falsifiable and empirically confirmable. Whether statements can be so depends on the potential availability of the relevant evidence (e.g., no evidence exists that can prove or disprove the existence of God, but good quality evidence is potentially available in many other cases). The Bayes formula can be used to measure the extent to which a given...
-
Applied agricultural research institutes play different roles in complex agricultural innovation processes, contributing to them with other actors. To foster learning and usable knowledge on how research actions influence such lasting innovation processes, there is a need to identify the causal mechanisms linking these actions and the effects of the changes they enable. A participatory, theory-driven, ex-post evaluation method, ImpresS, was developed by the French Agricultural Research...
-
Adaptive programmes recognise that certain changes, particularly in behaviours, are complex, non-linear and difficult to measure. This briefing note explores the use of outcome mapping (OM) as a monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) approach to track behavioural change and inform adaptation for two programmes: the Pathways to Resilience in Semi-arid Economies (PRISE) research consortium and the Accountability in Tanzania programme (AcT I and AcT II). It discusses the implementation of...
-
“Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” --Samuel Beckett Here’s my favorite part of that quote: the ultimate goal is not a lack of failure; it’s better failures. That’s good news for CARE, because we just published round two of our Learning From Failure initiative, and…I know this will surprise everyone…we haven’t stopped failures yet. We do have some hopeful signs that we’re failing better; or at least, that we’re improving on some concrete weaknesses we identified in...
-
Adaptive management approaches potentially offer us opportunities to deliver high quality results in circumstances where change is complex, including in fragile, unstable or conflict affected places. However, building adaptive programming continues to be a challenge for the sector. For CARE, our Department for International Development -UK Aid funded Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) programming has provided useful learning on how to operationalise adaptive approaches. In this paper we expand...
-
These Checklists for Exit along the Sustainability Project Cycle are based on lessons from ex-post evaluations that Valuing Voices has done or researched. Ex-post project completion evaluations are rare and even more so those that consulted partners and participants in the field about sustained impacts. Over $3.5 trillion has been spent on public foreign aid projects in the past 70 years (OECD 2019) yet we have evaluated less than 1% of these projects for sustainability. Our Valuing Voices...
-
Changeroo assists organisations, programs and projects with a social mission to develop and manage high-quality Theories of Change. It allows you to - together with stakeholders co-create Theories of Change, and - present these in an interactive and engaging way. It helps keep a Theory of Change alive, enables reflective monitoring, and supports capacity building among social organisations. Changeroo helps you utilize your Theory of Change for strategic learning, communication,...
-
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...
-
ParEvo is a method of exploring alternative futures or histories, using a participatory evolutionary process (hence ParEvo). The process is designed to be used by multiple people, to produce a branching structure of storylines about what did, or could, happen. Participants are anonymous and can choose the extent to which they collaborate with others. Participants are also able to tag, comment on, and evaluate the storylines that are generated. Completed exercises can be analysed using...
-
There is a growing hunger for more, and more meaningful, citizen participation in decisions that affect our lives. Across the world, calls for open government, workplace democracy, community empowerment are gaining support, as are innovative developments in deliberative democracy. The current COVID-19 pandemic makes these calls more pressing than ever, given the deepening inequalities it has caused and the complex challenges of building a progressive road out of the crisis. So, now more...
-
The 1953–1961 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower emphasized that his experience as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe during the Second World War taught him that “plans are worthless, but planning is everything”. This sound contradictory: if plans are worthless, why bother with planning at all? In this paper, we show that Eisenhower’s observation has a meaning: while directly following the original plan in constantly changing circumstances is often not a good...
-
There is a growing emphasis among NGOs and donors on ensuring that the voices of beneficiaries are heard. A range of beneficiary feedback mechanisms (BFMs) exist which enable beneficiary perspectives and suggestions to be gathered and used within an M&E system. BFMs are tools designed to enable a continuous cycle of interaction between those receiving and those delivering aid-funded interventions.
-
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...
-
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...
-
Despite a wide body of literature on the importance of program theory and the need to tackle complexity to improve international development programming, the use of program theory to underpin interventions aimed at facilitating change in complex systems remains a challenge for many program practitioners. The actor-based change framework offers a pragmatic approach to address these challenges, integrating concepts and frameworks drawn from complexity science and behavioral change literature...
-
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis, we're open-sourcing our most effective stress- and crisis-management learning tools. We call these tools micro-VCoLs™. All of the micro-VCoLs shared here can be practiced effectively just by following the instructions.
-
VCoL is a cycle of goal setting, information seeking, application, and reflection. Its +7 skills include reflectivity, awareness, seeking and evaluating information, making connections, applying knowledge, seeking and working with feedback, and recognizing and overcoming built-in biases. VCoLing engages the whole learner. By this, we mean that it engages learners emotionally, physically, and intellectually, leveraging both conscious and unconscious mental processes. VCoLing ensures that...
-
Realist evaluation has, over the past two decades, become a widely used approach in evaluation. The cornerstone of realist evaluation is to answer the question: What works, for whom, under what circumstances, and why. This is accomplished by explicating the causal mechanisms that, within a particular context, generate the outcomes of interest. Despite the central role of mechanisms in realist evaluation, systematic knowledge about how the term mechanism is conceptualized and operationalized...
Explore
Theme
-
Adaptive Approaches [+]
(219)
- Adaptive Learning (21)
- Adaptive Management (69)
- Adaptive Rigour (4)
- Agile & Lean approaches (13)
- CLA (Collaborating Learning Adapting) (10)
- Design Thinking / HCD (10)
- Doing Development Differently (1)
- Human Learning Systems (2)
- MSD - Market Systems Development (7)
- Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (2)
- Other Adaptive approaches (7)
-
Other sectors
(12)
- Activism and Social Movements (2)
- Government (1)
- Logistics & Product Development (1)
- Military (2)
- Organizational Management (4)
- Project management (2)
- Psychology (1)
- Sport (1)
- Participation (6)
- PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) (8)
- PEA (Political Economy Analysis) (10)
- Positive Deviance & 2 loops model (3)
- Results Based Management (1)
- Systemcraft (1)
- Systems Thinking / Complexity (60)
- TWP (Thinking & Working Politically) (21)
- Cases (38)
- Courses (4)
-
Development Actors Perspectives
(85)
- AFD (Agence Française de Développement) (1)
- China (1)
- DANIDA - Danish International Development Agency (2)
- DCED - Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (3)
- FCDO/DFID (UK) (13)
- GIZ (Germany) (9)
- Hivos - Netherlands (1)
- IFAD (1)
- Irish Aid (1)
- KOICA (Korea's International Co-operation Agency) (1)
- NGO Perspectives (17)
- OECD/DAC - Results Based Management (3)
- Private Companies - Development Industry (5)
- Private Donors (OSF, Hewlett...) (5)
- SDC - Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (1)
- UNDP, UN Global Pulse, UN... (10)
- USAID (19)
- WFP (1)
- World Bank (1)
-
Geography
(55)
-
Africa
(32)
-
Central Africa
(5)
- Angola (1)
- Cameroon (2)
- Democratic Republic of the Congo (2)
-
Eastern Africa
(23)
- Kenya (4)
- Malawi (2)
- Mozambique (6)
- Rwanda (2)
- Somalia (4)
- South Sudan (1)
- Tanzania (3)
- Uganda (4)
- Zambia (1)
- Zimbabwe (3)
- Northern Africa (3)
-
Southern Africa
(3)
- South Africa (3)
- West Africa (16)
-
Central Africa
(5)
-
Americas
(8)
-
Central America
(5)
- Ecuador (3)
- El Salvador (1)
- Guatemala (2)
- Mexico (4)
-
North America
(1)
- Canada (1)
- United States of America (1)
- South America (4)
-
Central America
(5)
-
Asia
(29)
-
Eastern Asia
(1)
- China (1)
-
South-eastern Asia
(10)
- Cambodia (2)
- Indonesia (2)
- Lao People's Democratic Republic (2)
- Myanmar (4)
- Philippines (1)
- Thailand (1)
- Timor Leste (1)
- Viet Nam (2)
-
Southern Asia
(16)
- Bangladesh (9)
- India (1)
- Nepal (9)
- Pakistan (4)
- Sri Lanka (1)
-
Western Asia
(3)
- Israel (1)
- Jordan (1)
- Lebanon (1)
- State of Palestine (1)
- Syrian Arab Republic (1)
-
Eastern Asia
(1)
-
Europe
(4)
-
Eastern Europe
(1)
- Ukraine (1)
-
Northern Europe
(1)
- United Kingdom (1)
-
Southern Europe
(1)
- Spain (1)
- Western Europe (2)
-
Eastern Europe
(1)
- Many geographies (3)
- Oceania (1)
-
Africa
(32)
-
MEL4 Adaptive Management
(197)
- Action Inquiry/Collective Leadership (5)
- After Action Reviews (4)
- Artificial Intelligence (4)
- Beneficiary Assessment/Engagement (3)
- Capacity Development (2)
- Case Study (2)
- Causal Mechanisms (11)
- Circular charts applications (radar, pie, sunburst, spiderweb, orbic, etc) (3)
- Context Monitoring (1)
- Contribution Analysis (7)
- Cost-Benefit Analysis (1)
- Critical Friends (3)
- Critical Systems Heuristics (1)
- Desk based research/lit review (1)
- Diaries (1)
- Ethnography / Rapid Ethnography (1)
- Evaluability assessment (1)
- Evaluating Multi-project programmes (2)
- Ex-post Evaluation (4)
- Feedback Systems (4)
- Humour (1)
- Impact evaluation (5)
- Impact Oriented Monitoring and Evaluation System (2)
- Innovation System Analysis (1)
- Institutional Histories (1)
- Knowing Unknowns (1)
- Knowledge Management (3)
- Logical Framework (2)
- MEL Bricolage (2)
- MEL in International Development (23)
- Most Significant Change (1)
- Narrative Based Approaches (1)
- Network Analysis (6)
- Outcome Harvesting (2)
- Outcome Mapping (5)
- Participatory Action Research (9)
- Participatory Evaluation (6)
- Participatory Learning and Action - PLA (3)
- Peers/Peer-Group Review (2)
- Political Economy Analysis (3)
- Portfolio Management (8)
- Positive Deviance (2)
- Post Project Evaluations (1)
- Power Analysis (1)
- Process Tracing (10)
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis (1)
- Randomized Controlled Trials (6)
- Realist Evaluation (5)
- Remote Monitoring (1)
- Rigour (3)
- Rubrics (14)
- Rules of Thumb (1)
- Scenario Planning (3)
- SenseMaker (3)
- Stakeholder analysis (1)
- Strategy testing (1)
- Surveys (1)
- Sustainability (4)
- Systemic Change (25)
- Systems Mapping (6)
- Tech 4 MEL (4)
- Theory-based evaluations (6)
- TOC (Theory of Change) (19)
- Value for Investment (2)
- Value for Money (4)
- Networks and Communities of Practice (5)
- Organizations (2)
-
Practical
(74)
- Tools (15)
-
Sectors [+]
(149)
- Advocacy and Activism (1)
- Agriculture (3)
- Alternative Development (23)
- Cash Trasfers (2)
- Children (8)
- Citizen Engagement (4)
- Climate Change (4)
- Economic development (6)
- Education (4)
- Employment (2)
- Environmental Management (3)
- Fragile and Conflict Aflicted Settings (6)
- Gender (7)
- Governance and Accountability (27)
- Health (4)
- Humanitarian Aid (5)
- Inclusion/Disability (1)
-
Innovation (in Development)
(20)
- Funding (1)
- Institutional Capacity & Change (7)
- Institutional Reform (4)
- Judicial systems (1)
- Knowledge to Practice (5)
- Land Reform (1)
- Locally driven development (9)
- Locally led development (2)
- NGOs (6)
- Organizational Change (8)
- Pastoralism (1)
- Peace Building (2)
- Private Sector Development (1)
- Research for Development (R4D) (6)
- Scaling up / Propagating (9)
- Social Accountability (11)
- Social Change (3)
- Social Protection (1)
-
Technology (in Development)
(7)
- Appropriate Tech (1)
- Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) (1)
Resource type
- Blog Post (91)
- Book (23)
- Book Section (4)
- Conference Paper (2)
- Journal Article (63)
- Magazine Article (5)
- Manuscript (1)
- Map (1)
- Presentation (2)
- Radio Broadcast (1)
- Report (189)
- Thesis (2)
- Video Recording (9)
- Web Page (14)