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This paper describes, synthesises and analyses the work of 25 Action Research Groups that were the heartbeat of the CLARISSA Systemic Action Research programme. The CLARISSA programme worked to create participatory and systemic solutions to the worst forms of child labour in the adult entertainment sector in Nepal, and the leather sector in Bangladesh. The paper explores how the action research groups were set up, and how they worked through key stages of trust and relationship building,...

This article provides a comprehensive overview of rubric development in evaluation practice, focusing on stakeholder engagement and practical implementation. King explains that rubrics are essential tools for implementing evaluative reasoning, serving as frameworks that combine evidence, criteria, and standards to make transparent value judgments. The piece emphasizes that effective rubric development is inherently participatory, requiring meaningful stakeholder engagement for both ethical...

In an evolving international development landscape, the push for localization has gained urgency. Global South Intermediary Organizations (GSIs) are emerging as key players, offering a promising pathway to achieving localization programming. To harness their potential, it is crucial to develop a deeper understanding of their functions, structures, and strategies. However, they should complement—not replace—direct funding relationships with grassroots organizations. The Trust,...

Government offices are filled with siloed, sector-specific digital systems that strain their capacity to make decisions, use data effectively, and achieve ambitious sustainable development goals. Public investments in digital development, transformation, and infrastructure can only meet citizen needs if data and systems are consolidated and interoperable. While interoperability is a sensible approach to building digital public infrastructure, transforming existing systems is easier said...

After eight years, I am leaving Porticus. From January 2025, I'll be starting a new chapter - working in a freelance capacity to support systems change efforts through strong learning, evaluation and strategy. Having worked with the amazing Porticus UK team for the first four years, I moved to Amsterdam in 2020 to work in the central strategy and learning team, supporting colleagues around the globe to embed strategy, evaluation and learning in their work. I loved this work. I learned a...

Explore Climate KIC’s S-ToC guide A practical and flexible resource designed to help teams and partners navigate the complexity of systems change in the face of the climate crisis. Our S-ToC approach integrates systems thinking to support adaptive monitoring, evaluation, and ongoing learning. This guide empowers users to analyse systems, identify leverage points, and co-create change-oriented strategies that evolve with context. Whether you’re working on a small-scale pilot or a...

In 2022, the Democracy Funders Network launched the Better Futures Project and published Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy to urge democracy donors and practitioners to move beyond reaction and critique towards creation and change. The project seeks to provide succor and inspiration at a time marked by anxiety and fear, but also great possibility. The project challenges us to consider the future of our democracy as a dynamic system — not one that revolves solely around the next...

This five-step framework, developed and tested by a foundation, embeds learning in emergent systems change strategies. It prioritizes the testing of hypotheses and assumptions, uses learning questions, and calls for examining both confirming and disconfirming evidence. --- A framework for embedding learning in systems change strategies and for testing strategic uncertainties. Learning and evaluation approaches that accompany systems change efforts need to fit with and support the emergent...

Based on a case study of the Kullana Liltanmia (All of Us for Development) (KLP) Contextual Analysis (CA) course in Sudan, this paper tells the story of how training and capacity building in Political Economy Analysis (PEA) made a difference in the lives and experiences of those involved, including in particular young people. The paper highlights three critical lessons: • At the country level, the twists and turns of Sudan’s recent history reinforce the importance of people deepening their...

The Reduced Access Analytical Methods (RAAM) toolkit is a practical resource designed to help humanitarian practitioners overcome monitoring challenges in reduced access environments. Reduced access can be caused by natural disaster, conflict, political instability, or other factors, and typically makes it difficult to conduct normal monitoring of program implementation. The RAAM toolkit offers technical and managerial tools for a menu of analytical methods that can fill information gaps...

The Local Systems Position Paper describes the key approaches USAID will use to translate systems thinking into systems practice. It focuses on ways USAID can better understand and engage local systems to support them in producing more sustainable results. Systems thinking is a mindset and set of tools that we use to understand how systems behave and produce certain results or outcomes. Systems practice is the application of systems thinking to better understand challenges and strengthen the...

Artificial Intelligence and Evaluation: Emerging Technologies and Their Implications for Evaluation is a groundbreaking exploration of how the landscape of program evaluation will be redefined by artificial intelligence and other emerging digital technologies. In an era where digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly evolving, this book presents a pivotal resource for evaluators navigating the transformative intersection of their practice and cutting-edge technology....

Over the course of this paper we lay out the basis of the Carve-Out method, an approach that leverages a behavioural framework to allow organisations (even those burdened with layers of bureaucracy and entrenched ideas) to create intentionally designed environments that give people the space, resources and support they need to explore and test new ideas. Ideas that may go on to transform the core of their organisation. The Carve-Out method is based on a simple insight: That if we want to...

How moving from transactional to transformational relationships and organizations can save our democracy, nurture our connections, and make us happier and healthier. Powerful institutions, from schools to tech and social media companies, create breeding grounds for isolation by failing to invest in relational work. This obstacle stands in the way of our fight for racial equity, economic justice, and climate resilience. In Relationality, leading asexuality and relationship activist David...

By Robert Ricigliano and Anna Muoio

Background: The practice and profession of evaluation continue to evolve. Over the years, evaluation scholars and practitioners have developed a broad—and still broadening—range of evaluation approaches. These evaluation approaches are often combined with various study designs in real-world evaluations. To provide an overview of these approaches and designs, and inspired by my son’s love of metro trains, I created an evaluation metro map.    Purpose: The purpose of this article is to...

Background: The Garden of Evaluation Approaches (Montrosse-Moorhead, et al., 2024a) maps evaluation approaches against eight dimensions of practice and situates them in their philosophical orientations and methodological dispositions. Purpose: The Garden’s guiding question is: How do evaluation approaches compare in terms of dimensions that facilitate use and application? Primary intended users are evaluation practitioners, and secondary intended users include ecosystem actors (e.g.,...

Evaluation is a vast field of designs and methods in continuous development. The numerous parameters and choices associated with different methodological options can be difficult to fully understand without deep study and desk review. The motivation for the Periodic Table of Evaluation was to create a one-pager visual that catalogues methodological options and parameters involved in an evaluation design.