Bridging & Bonding: Improving Links between Transparency & Accountability Actors - Wanjiku Kelbert, Alexandra (2014)

Understanding ‘the users’ in Technology for Transparency and Accountability Initiatives - Wanjiku Kelbert, Alexandra; McGee, Rosemary; Carlitz, Ruth (2013)

Monitoring Humanitarian Innovation - Warner, Alexandra; Obrecht, Alice (ALNAP, 2017)

VANUATU GOVERNANCE FOR GROWTH PROGRAM – REVIEW - Warner, Robert; Gouy, Jonathan; Samson, Anthony (2017)

Thinking Tools Studio - Waters Center (Waters Center for Systems Thinking, 2021)
Tools to help you Think

From principle to practice: Implementing the Principles for Digital Development - Waugaman, Adele (2016)
The Principles for Digital Development (download PDF here) find their roots in the efforts of individuals, development organizations, and donors alike who have called for a more concerted effort by donors and implementing partners to institutionalize lessons learned in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in development projects.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

The Soul in the Computer: The Story of a Corporate Revolutionary - Waugh, Barbara (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2001)
When Barbara Waugh joined the Hewlett-Packard Corporation in the mid-80's, this 60's radical encountered a company with a benign but topdown leadership. As she progressed from recruiting manager to world change manager, she used a set of radical tools to transform its corporate culture and to help realize the true potential of The HP Way.

Policy-driven monitoring and evaluation: Does it support adaptive management of socio-ecological systems? - Waylen, Kerry A.; Blackstock, Kirsty L.; van Hulst, Freddy J.; Damian, Carmen; Horváth, Ferenc; Johnson, Richard K.; Kanka, Robert; Külvik, Mart; Macleod, Christopher J. A.; Meissner, Kristian; Oprina-Pavelescu, Mihaela M.; Pino, Joan; et al. (Science of The Total Environment, 2019)
Inadequate Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is often thought to hinder adaptive management of socio-ecological systems. A key influence on environmental management practices are environmental policies: however, their consequences for M&E practices have not been well-examined. We examine three policy areas - the Water Framework Directive, the Natura 2000 Directives, and the Agri-Environment Schemes of the Common Agricultural Policy - whose statutory requirements influence how the environment is managed and monitored across Europe. We use a comparative approach to examine what is monitored, how monitoring is carried out, and how results are used to update management, based on publicly available documentation across nine regional and national cases. The requirements and guidelines of these policies have provided significant impetus for monitoring: however, we find this policy-driven M&E usually does not match the ideals of what is needed to inform adaptive management. There is a tendency to focus on understanding state and trends rather than tracking the effect of interventions; a focus on specific biotic and abiotic indicators at the expense of understanding system functions and processes, especially social components; and limited attention to how context affects systems, though this is sometimes considered via secondary data. The resulting data are sometimes publicly-accessible, but it is rarely clear if and how these influence decisions at any level, whether this be in the original policy itself or at the level of measures such as site management plans. Adjustments to policy-driven M&E could better enable learning for adaptive management, by reconsidering what supports a balanced understanding of socio-ecological systems and decision-making. Useful strategies include making more use of secondary data, and more transparency in data-sharing and decision-making. Several countries and policy areas already offer useful examples. Such changes are essential given the influence of policy, and the urgency of enabling adaptive management to safeguard socio-ecological systems.
Keywords: Adaptive Management; Environmental governance; Monitoring and Evaluation; Policy making; Socio-ecological systems; Sustainability

The Global Wildlife Program - Knowledge Platform - 2016-2018 - WB (The World Bank, 2018)

Habits of a system thinker - WCST (Waters Center For Systems Thinking, 2020)
From the Waters Center For Systems Thinking. See: https://thinkingtoolsstudio.waterscenterst.org/courses/habits https://thinkingtoolsstudio.waterscenterst.org/cards

Principles for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Adaptive Management of Environmental Water Regimes - Webb, J. Angus; Watts, Robyn J.; Allan, Catherine; Warner, Andrew T. (Water for the Environment, 2017)
Environmental water is often a contentious investment in the environment that must be delivered under uncertainty regarding the ecological and social benefits they deliver. Adaptive management can be used to facilitate decision making under uncertainty, and use new knowledge and understanding to improve management decisions and outcomes over time. However, there is a perception that adaptive management has failed to deliver improvements in decision making and learning. Monitoring and evaluation are an essential feature of adaptive management. However, past monitoring for river protection and restoration has too often been of insufficient quality to facilitate adaptive learning. Moreover, environmental water represents a class of protection and restoration that is inherently difficult to monitor, and some of the learnings are not evident in part because fragmented assessment, documentation, and reporting of adaptive management can obscure successes. We outline a set of general principles for improving monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive management of environmental water regimes, and provide several examples from Australia and North America. Successful adaptive management depends upon the formation and maintenance of strong partnerships and an appreciation of the importance of individuals in teams. Through such partnerships, it is possible to coordinate monitoring programs over large scales, create programs of requisite simplicity, and use innovative approaches to evaluation. Finally, we note that although adaptive management has occurred in the past, too often it has been poorly documented and reported. The inclusion of reflectors in monitoring and evaluation teams will better capture the lessons learned by individual programs, improving adaptive management into the future.
Keywords: Environmental water management; Knowledge exchange; Legitimacy; implementation challenge

Timely evaluation in international development - Webster, Jayne; Exley, Josephine; Copestake, James; Davies, Rick; Hargreaves, James (Journal of Development Effectiveness, 2018)
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 symposium, targeted review of the literature, and the authors’ own experiences and opinions. Findings from the different data sources were reviewed collectively by the author group and triangulated to develop an analytical framework. We identified four purposes of timely evaluation for international development, and critiqued the use of approaches against four dimensions of timeliness and flexibility. Whilst we found significant interest in more timely approaches to evaluation in international development, there was a dearth of published empirical evidence upon which to base strong recommendations. There is significant potential for timely evaluation to improve international development outcomes. New approaches to mixing and adapting existing methods, together with new technologies offer increased potential. Research is needed to provide an empirical evidence base upon which to further develop the application, across sectors and contexts, of timely evaluation in international development.
Keywords: Adaptive learning; Outcome evaluation; Programme improvement; impact evaluation

Testing the Waters: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of the Factors Affecting Success in Rendering Water Services Sustainable Based on ICT Reporting - Welle, Katharina; Williams, Jennifer; Pearce, Joseph; Befani, Barbara (MAVC, 2015)
This research conducted by WaterAid, Itad and IRC aims to understand the factors that facilitate and inhibit the success of ICT-based reporting to improve rural water supply sustainability.

System Change: A Guidebook for Adopting Portfolio Approaches - Wellsch, Brent (UNDP, 2022)
This guidebook codifies the principles and methods of applying systems change and portfolio approaches to complex development challenges with practical tools and examples. It is based on the empirical learning generated from the collaborative initiatives in UNDP Country Offices in Bhutan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Viet Nam with support from Regional Innovation Centre for Asia and the Pacific.

Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge - Wenger, Etienne; McDermott, Richard Arnold; Snyder, William (Harvard Business Press, 2002)
Today's marketplace is fueled by knowledge. Yet organizing systematically to leverage knowledge remains a challenge. Leading companies have discovered that technology is not enough, and that cultivating communities of practice is the keystone of an effective knowledge strategy.Communities of practice come together around common interests and expertise- whether they consist of first-line managers or customer service representatives, neurosurgeons or software programmers, city managers or home-improvement amateurs. They create, share, and apply knowledge within and across the boundaries of teams, business units, and even entire companies-providing a concrete path toward creating a true knowledge organization.In Cultivating Communities of Practice, Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder argue that while communities form naturally, organizations need to become more proactive and systematic about developing and integrating them into their strategy. This book provides practical models and methods for stewarding these communities to reach their full potential-without squelching the inner drive that makes them so valuable.Through in-depth cases from firms such as DaimlerChrysler, McKinsey & Company, Shell, and the World Bank, the authors demonstrate how communities of practice can be leveraged to drive overall company strategy, generate new business opportunities, tie personal development to corporate goals, transfer best practices, and recruit and retain top talent. They define the unique features of these communities and outline principles for nurturing their essential elements. They provide guidelines to support communities of practice through their major stages of development, address the potential downsides of communities, and discuss the specific challenges of distributed communities. And they show how to recognize the value created by communities of practice and how to build a corporate knowledge strategy around them.Essential reading for any leader in today's knowledge economy, this is the definitive guide to developing communities of practice for the benefit-and long-term success-of organizations and the individuals who work in them.Etienne Wenger is a renowned expert and consultant on knowledge management and communities of practice in San Juan, California. Richard McDermott is a leading expert of organization and community development in Boulder, Colorado. William M. Snyder is a founding partner of Social Capital Group, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Google-Books-ID: m1xZuNq9RygC

Digital habitats: stewarding technology for communities - Wenger, Etienne; White, Nancy; Smith, John D. (CPsquare, 2009)
OCLC: 602796157

Digital habitats: stewarding technology for communities. Chapter 10 - Action Book - Wenger, Etienne; White, Nancy; Smith, John D. (Cpsquare, 2009)
OCLC: 602796157

Realist Impact Evaluation: An introduction - Westhorp, Gill (Methods Lab, 2014)
• Realist evaluation is a member of a family of theory-based evaluation approaches which begin by clarifying the ‘programme theory’: the mechanisms that are likely to operate, the contexts in which they might operate and the outcomes that will be observed if they operate as expected. • Realist approaches assume that nothing works everywhere for everyone: context makes a big difference to programme outcomes. A realist evaluation asks not ‘what works?’ but ‘how or why does this work, for whom, in what circumstances?’ • Realist impact evaluation is most appropriate for evaluating new initiatives or programmes that seem to work but where ‘how and for whom’ is not yet understood; programmes that have previously demonstrated mixed patterns of outcomes; and those that will be scaled up, to understand how to adapt the intervention to new contexts.

Governance and Service Delivery: Practical Applications of Social Accountability Across Sectors - Wetterberg, Anna; Brinkerhoff, Derick W.; Hertz, Jana C. (RTI Press, 2016)
The six case studies in Governance and Service Delivery: Practical Applications of Social Accountability Across Sectors illustrate the multiple ways citizen participation in accountability – called social accountability – can lead to positive effects on governance, citizen empowerment, and service delivery. Drawing on their extensive experience implementing international donor-funded programs and projects, the authors examine six recent RTI International projects in Africa and Asia. The analysis focuses on both intended and actual effects, and it unpacks the influence of context on implementation and outcomes achieved, as well as on prospects for sustainability. Donors, academics, policy makers, practitioners and others interested in sustainable development and governance will find this systematic review invaluable.

The Beginner’s Guide to Political Economy Analysis (PEA) - Whaites, Alan (National School of Government International, 2017)
Over the last two decades aid agencies and academics have been on a journey of lesson learning and adaptation in relation to `politics.’ This journey has been driven by a determination to improve impact in all areas of development, but for some time it was particularly associated with work on public sector reform. Now, however, there is an increasing expectation that Political Economy Analysis (PEA) should be part and parcel of designing and implementing any programme or activity (and a brief history of the meandering journey of development actors on PEA can be found in The Policy Practice’s Briefing Paper 11 – see below). DFID in the UK is fairly typical among large development organisations in running an excellent course on political economy analysis, complete with 200 pages of resources and various online videos and case studies (and this type of course is recommended for those who want to take their exploration of PEA further). Even so, PEA is not just for those who have `done the course and bought the T-shirt,’ it is something that can be absorbed and implemented quickly by everybody. Indeed, the growth of interest in PEA is a reminder that this can look like a complex and daunting field and so this guide aims to offer an entry-point for all those who want to use PEA in their own work. In doing so, this guide borrows from the best materials that are available while also adapting some approaches by incorporating wider ideas on politics and institutions. This guide affirms that there should never be an official `orthodoxy’ for PEA and so the emphasis here is on questions, prompts and ideas to help thinking and practice. There is also an attempt to clarify jargon wherever needed, while recognising that The Policy Practice (TPP) and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) have produced a more complete glossary of PEA terminology. The note will instead focus on `the essentials’ of PEA as they relate to the following questions:  Why do we do political economy analysis, and what is it?  What kinds of issues and ingredients are often included in a PEA?  How do we make sense of the different varieties of PEA?  What tools are out there to help us conduct a PEA?  What is thinking and working politically?

A Governance Practitioner’s Notebook: Alternative Ideas and Approaches - Whaites, Alan; Gonzalez, Eduardo; Fyson, Sara; Teskey, Graham (OECD, 2015)
The Governance Practitioner’s Notebook takes an unusual approach for the OECD-DAC Network on Governance (GovNet). It brings together a collection of specially written notes aimed at those who work as governance practitioners within development agencies. It does so, however, without attempting to offer definitive guidance – instead aiming to stimulate thinking and debate. To aid this process the book is centred on a fictional Governance Adviser. The Notebook’s format provides space for experts to speak on today’s governance issues: politics, public sector reform and stakeholder engagement. It encourages debate, charts the evolution of donor thinking, and highlights future challenges in the age of the Sustainable Development Goals. Each section introduces both technical issues and major areas of debate, providing ideas for future development support to institutional reform.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Understanding Political Economy Analysis and Thinking and Working Politically - Whaites, Alan; Piron, Laure-Hélène; Menocal, Alina Rocha; Teskey, Graham (FCDO and TWP CoP, 2023)
This guide is adapted from work by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) with inputs from members of the Thinking and Working Politically Community of Practice (TWP CoP). It outlines how to understand and use a set of analytical tools that are collectively known as Political Economy Analysis (PEA). The guide aims to equip practitioners to act in an informed manner, given that development objectives are invariably politically complex, and entail engaging with counterparts’ political incentives and preferences. The guide summarises different types of tools – from very light-touch to more in-depth approaches – and provides advice on how development professionals can decide what is most appropriate in a given context, with illustrations based on the experiences of teams working on these issues. This guide will help development professionals and others to make use of PEA and to apply it to their own specific needs. The first part of the guide offers a general picture of the approach. The second part provides more specific guidance for those who are tasked with deploying a PEA. Contents –> Main audience What is PEA, its role and purpose (Section 2) –> General information for all readers The main elements of PEA (Section 3) Thinking and Working Politically (Section 4) –> Core information for teams planning and using PEA How to ensure quality (Section 5) –> Essential reading for those directly responsible for a PEA Important concepts and terminology (Annex) –> General information for all readers

Supporting Pioneering Leaders as Communities of Practice - How to Rapidly Develop New Leaders in Great Numbers - Wheatley, Margaret J (The Berkana Institute, 2002)
Do you ever stand back and try to see the big picture, the view from 50,000 feet of what's going on in organizations, communities, the world? From up there, how would you describe these times? Is it a time of increasing economic and political instability, of growing divisiveness and fear, of failing systems and dying dreams? Is it a time of new possibilities, of great examples of hope, of positive human evolution, of transformation? Are we succeeding in solving major problems, are we creating more? Is it any of these things, is it all of these things? It's important to think about how we answer this question, because that answer affects our choice of actions. If we think that, generally, things are working, that at present we're going through a difficult but temporary downturn, then we don't question current systems or their operating assumptions. Instead, we work hard to revive and improve them. We support initiatives and programs focused on process improvements, developing present systems to work more effectively and more efficiently. If we believe that the old system cannot be repaired, if we expect to see only more system failures, then the work is not to fix. Instead, support needs to be given to radically different processes and methods, new systems based on new assumptions. The work becomes not process improvement but process revolution.

Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale - Wheatley, Margaret; Frieze, Deborah (The Shambhala Institute, 2007)
In spite of current ads and slogans, the world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible. This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment that lead to broad-based change. But networks aren’t the whole story. As networks grow and transform into active, working communities of practice, we discover how Life truly changes, which is through emergence. When separate, local efforts connect with each other as networks, then strengthen as communities of practice, suddenly and surprisingly a new system emerges at a greater level of scale. This system of influence possesses qualities and capacities that were unknown in the individuals. It isn’t that they were hidden; they simply don’t exist until the system emerges. They are properties of the system, not the individual, but once there, individuals possess them. And the system that emerges always possesses greater power and influence than is possible through planned, incremental change. Emergence is how Life creates radical change and takes things to scale. Emergence has a life-cycle. It begins with networks, shifts to intentional communities of practice and evolves into powerful systems capable of global influence. Since its inception in 1992, The Berkana Institute has striven to learn how living systems work, how they emerge from networks to communities to systems of influence. In our global work—primarily with economically poor communities in many different nations—we have experimented actively with emergence in many different contexts. We have demonstrated what’s possible when we connect people across difference and distance. By applying the lessons of living systems and working intentionally with emergence and its life-cycle, we have become confident that local social innovations can be taken to scale and provide solutions to many of the world’s most intractable issues.

Impact Evaluation of Development Interventions: A Practical Guide - White, Howard; Raitzer, David (Asian Development Bank, 2017)
This book offers guidance on the principles, methods, and practice of impact evaluation. It contains material for a range of audiences, from those who may use or manage impact evaluations to applied researchers.
Accepted: 2017-12-26 Last Modified: 2020-07-22T18:28+08:00

A Guide to Digital Feedback Loops. An approach to strengthening program outcomes through data for decision making - Whittle, Dennis; Campbell, Megan (USAID, 2019)
Feedback is information about what happens as a result of what you do. Using that information to adapt what you do or how you do it creates what is called a feedback loop. A digital feedback loop uses digital technology at some stage of the feedback loop. Digital feedback loops help USAID missions improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their activities and can support partner countries on their journey to self-reliance through increased information sharing and improved government and civil society capacity. USAID missions and their partners have used digital feedback loops to improve HIV treatment targeting in Zimbabwe, engage three million young people in Nigeria in policy, and reduce field reporting times from one month to one day. Digital feedback loops provide access to information faster and more cheaply than ever before. As part of an adaptive management approach, digital feedback loops increase our ability to act on opportunities and respond to challenges. That in turn can improve outcomes and reduce the risk of waste and failure. This guide outlines the case for integrating digital feedback loops into your work, and provides tools, resources and guiding questions to support you as you get started. The guide includes examples of how USAID missions are using digital feedback loops to improve their programs in various sectors and provides worksheets to help you apply digital feedback loops to your own context.

How We Model Matters: A Manifesto for the Next Generation of Program Theorizing - Whynot, Jane; Lemire, Sebastian; Montague, Steve (Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 2019)
In this concluding article, grounded on the exemplary contributions contained in the preceding pages, the guest editors scale the proverbial soapbox and present a manifesto to guide the pursuit and advancement of the next generation of program theorizing. Formulating ten declarations for program theory development and examination, the modest hope of the authors is to motivate and inspire reflective evaluation practitioners to broaden their views, approaches, and techniques for future program theorizing.

Wildlife laws monitoring as an adaptive management tool in protected area management in Ghana: a case of Kakum Conservation Area - Wiafe, Edward Debrah (SpringerPlus, 2016)
INTRODUCTION: The wildlife laws of Ghana alienated the rural communities from forests and material well-being depended upon for their livelihood and this manifests itself in the progressive conflict between the park patrol staff and poachers from the fringes of the protected areas. CASE DESCRIPTION: The main aim of this study was to determine the impact of quantification of patrol efforts on indicators of illegal hunting activities that occur in rainforest protected areas, as a result of monitoring patrol operations and modifying the original plan. The specific objectives were to determine the optimal patrol efforts necessary to reduce illegal wildlife use to minimal; and the influence of the rainfall and seasonal activities on illegal wildlife use. DISCUSSION AND EVALUATION: The results indicated that as the patrol efforts increased the encounter with illegal wildlife use also increased until a certain point that the encounter rates started decreasing. Neither rainfall nor seasonal activities influenced the illegal activities and the patrol efforts. The protection staff of rainforest protected areas would work effectively to bring down illegal wildlife off-take to the barest minimum if monitored, quantified and provide feed-back. CONCLUSIONS: Illegal wildlife off-take can also be reduced by the protection staff if the original plans are made flexible to be adjusted. Recommendations for further studies have been made.

Capacity Development in a Participatory Adaptive Programme: the Case of the Clarissa Consortium - Widmer, Mireille; Apgar, Marina; Afroze, Jiniya; Malla, Sudhir; Healey, Jill; Constant, Sendrine (IDS, 2022)
Doing development differently rests on deliberate efforts to reflect and learn, not just about what programmes are doing and achieving, but about how they are working. This is particularly important for an action research programme like Child Labour: Action- Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA), which is implemented by a consortium of organisations from across the research and development spectrum, during a rapidly changing global pandemic. Harnessing the potential of diverse skills and complementary strengths across partners in responding to the complex challenge of the worst forms of child labour, requires capacity to work together in novel ways. This Research and Evidence Paper documents how CLARISSA approached capacity development, and what we learnt from our challenges and successes. From the start, the programme incorporated a capacity development strategy resting on self-assessment of a wide range of behavioural and technical competencies that were deemed important for programme implementation, formal training activities, and periodic review of progress through an after-action review (AAR) process. An inventory of capacity development activities that took place during the first year of implementation reveals a wide range of additional, unplanned activities, enabled by the programme’s flexibility and adaptive management strategy. These are organised into eight modalities, according to the individual or collective nature of the activity, and its sequencing – namely, whether capacity development happens prior to, during, or after (from) implementation. We conclude with some reflections on the emergent nature of capacity development. Planning capacity development in an adaptive programme provides a scaffolding in terms of time, resources, and legitimacy that sustains adaptiveness. We also recognise the gaps that remain to be addressed, particularly on scaling up individual learning to collective capabilities, and widening the focus from implementation teams to individuals working at consortium level.
Accepted: 2022-04-25T10:25:54Z Publisher: Institute of Development Studies

Uncertainty, Precaution, and Adaptive Management in Wildlife Trade - Wiersema, Annecoos (Michigan Journal of International Law, 2015)

Doing Development Differently - Wild, Leni (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2021)
International aid must use different approaches to address the massive systemic problems it seeks to solve.
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Adapting development: improving services to the poor - Wild, Leni; Booth, David; Cummings, Clare; Foresti, Marta; Wales, Joseph (ODI, 2015)
On current trends, it will take decades or longer to bring basic services to the world’s most disadvantaged people. Meeting this challenge means recognising the political conditions that enable or obstruct development progress - a radical departure from the approach of the Millennium Development Goals.
Keywords: Practice

Putting theory into practice: how DFID is doing development differently - Wild, Leni; Booth, David; Valters, Craig (ODI, 2017)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Building a global learning alliance on adaptive management - Wild, Leni; Ramalingam, Ben (ODI, 2018)

Adaptive Management in Habitat Conservation Plans - Wilhere, George F. (Conservation Biology, 2002)
Habitat conservation plans (HCPs) allow incidental take of threatened or endangered species in exchange for conservation measures that minimize and mitigate such taking. Habitat conservation plans entail a compromise between regulatory certainty and scientific uncertainty. This compromise is controversial because many HCPs are thought to inadequately address scientific uncertainty. Adaptive management is the systematic acquisition and application of reliable information to improve natural resource management over time. Ideally, under adaptive management, conservation strategies are implemented as a deliberate experiment. This approach can establish cause-and-effect relationships and point the way toward optimal strategies. Adaptive management has been promoted as essential to management under uncertainty, but few HCPs incorporate genuine adaptive management. Habitat conservation plans will continue to lack adaptive management until certain conditions are met, such as acknowledgment that an HCP is a management hypothesis, landowner interest in improving biological outcomes, and sufficient financial resources. Economic incentives would encourage adaptive management in HCPs. Habitat conservation plan permittees might receive direct payments or tax deductions for reliable information that benefits a species. “Mitigation credits” could be awarded for information produced through adaptive management. In effect, habitat would be exchanged for information that benefits a species. Successful use of mitigation credits would depend on correctly valuing information and enforcement of the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Under a “precautionary polluter pays principle,” an HCP permittee would put up an environmental assurance bond. Portions of the bond are returned with interest as adaptive management demonstrates that environmental damages are unlikely to occur. Funds spent on adaptive management are funds unavailable for habitat protection, so limited financial resources may force a compromise between protecting habitat and acquiring knowledge.

Rewards and Risks Associated with Community Engagement in Anti-Poaching and Anti-Trafficking - Wilkie, David; Painter, Michael; Jacob, Anila (USAID, 2016)
This Biodiversity Technical Brief summarizes research on the roles communities do and should play in countering wildlife crime, motivations, and benefits for individuals and communities to engage in anti-poaching and anti-trafficking efforts, and risks and mitigation of risks associated with involvement. Peer-reviewed and grey literature, structured interviews, and case studies informed the research, with highlights from six case studies in Peru, Madagascar, Namibia, Philippines, Kenya, and Indonesia.

Passive and active adaptive management: Approaches and an example - Williams, Byron (Journal of Environmental Management, 2010)
Adaptive management is a framework for resource conservation that promotes iterative learning-based decision making. Yet there remains considerable confusion about what adaptive management entails, and how to actually make resource decisions adaptively. A key but somewhat ambiguous distinction in adaptive management is between active and passive forms of adaptive decision making. The objective of this paper is to illustrate some approaches to active and passive adaptive management with a simple example involving the drawdown of water impoundments on a wildlife refuge. The approaches are illustrated for the drawdown example, and contrasted in terms of objectives, costs, and potential learning rates. Some key challenges to the actual practice of AM are discussed, and tradeoffs between implementation costs and long-term benefits are highlighted.

Adaptive management of natural resources—framework and issues - Williams, Byron K. (Journal of Environmental Management, 2011)
Adaptive management, an approach for simultaneously managing and learning about natural resources, has been around for several decades. Interest in adaptive decision making has grown steadily over that time, and by now many in natural resources conservation claim that adaptive management is the approach they use in meeting their resource management responsibilities. Yet there remains considerable ambiguity about what adaptive management actually is, and how it is to be implemented by practitioners. The objective of this paper is to present a framework and conditions for adaptive decision making, and discuss some important challenges in its application. Adaptive management is described as a two-phase process of deliberative and iterative phases, which are implemented sequentially over the timeframe of an application. Key elements, processes, and issues in adaptive decision making are highlighted in terms of this framework. Special emphasis is given to the question of geographic scale, the difﬁculties presented by non-stationarity, and organizational challenges in implementing adaptive management.

Adaptive Management: From More Talk to Real Action - Williams, Byron K.; Brown, Eleanor D. (Environmental Management, 2014)
The challenges currently facing resource managers are large-scale and complex, and demand new approaches to balance development and conservation goals. One approach that shows considerable promise for addressing these challenges is adaptive management, which by now is broadly seen as a natural, intuitive, and potentially effective way to address decision-making in the face of uncertainties. Yet the concept of adaptive management continues to evolve, and its record of success remains limited. In this article, we present an operational framework for adaptive decision-making, and describe the challenges and opportunities in applying it to real-world problems. We discuss the key elements required for adaptive decision-making, and their integration into an iterative process that highlights and distinguishes technical and social learning. We illustrate the elements and processes of the framework with some successful on-the-ground examples of natural resource management. Finally, we address some of the difficulties in applying learning-based management, and finish with a discussion of future directions and strategic challenges.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Technical challenges in the application of adaptive management - Williams, Byron K.; Brown, Eleanor D. (Biological Conservation, 2016)
Adaptive management is an approach for simultaneously managing and learning about natural resources, by acknowledging uncertainty and seeking to reduce it through the process of management itself. Adaptive decision making can be applied to pressing issues in conservation biology such as species reintroduction, disease and invasive species control, and habitat restoration, as well as to management of natural resources in general. After briefly outlining a framework and process for adaptive management, we focus on an overview of the key technical issues related to problem framing and the ability of resource managers to learn from their experience. These technical issues include the treatment of uncertainty and its propagation over time; nonstationarity in long-term environmental trends; the applicability of adaptive management across scales; requirements for models and management alternatives that promote learning; the value of the information produced with adaptive management; the challenge to management of uncertainty and surprise; and institutional (social) learning. To accommodate these and other challenges that are now coming into focus, the learning-based approach of adaptive management will need to be adjusted and expanded in the future.
Keywords: Adaptive Management; Learning; Nonstationarity; Resilience; Uncertainty; Value of information

Thinking and Working Politically on Health Systems Resilience: Learning from the experience of Cameroon, Nepal and South Africa during COVID-19 - Williams, Gareth (TWP Community of Practice, 2022)

External validity and policy adaptation. From impact evaluation to policy design - Williams, Martin J. (Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, 2017)
With the growing number of rigorous impact evaluations worldwide, the question of how best to apply this evidence to policymaking processes has arguably become the main challenge for evidence-based policymaking. How can policymakers predict whether a policy will have the same impact in their context as it did elsewhere, and how should this influence the design and implementation of policy? This paper introduces a simple and flexible framework to address these questions of external validity and policy adaptation. I show that failures of external validity arise from an interaction between a policy’s theory of change and a dimension of the context in which it is being implemented, and develop a method of “mechanism mapping” that maps a policy’s theory of change against salient contextual assumptions to identify external validity problems and suggest appropriate policy adaptations. In deciding whether and how to adapt a policy in a new context, I show there is a fundamental informational trade-o↵ between the strength and relevance of evidence on the policy from other contexts and the policymaker’s knowledge of the local context. This trade-o↵ can guide policymakers’ judgments about whether policies should be copied exactly from elsewhere, adapted, or invented anew.

Change in challenging contexts - Williamson, Tim (ODI, 2015)
This report explores how genuine institutional change takes place in fragile and conflict-affected states reforms can be supported.

Guidelines and good practices for evidence-informed policy-making in a government department - Wills, Alf; Tshangela, Mapula; Shaxson, Louise; Datta, Ajoy; Matomela, Bongani (2016)

Outcome Harvesting - Wilson-Grau, R. (Better Evaluation, 2015)
Outcome Harvesting collects (“harvests”) evidence of what has changed (“outcomes”) and, then, working backwards, determines whether and how an intervention has contributed to these changes. Outcome Harvesting has proven to be especially useful in complex situations when it is not possible to define concretely most of what an intervention aims to achieve, or even, what specific actions will be taken over a multi-year period.

What is Outcome Harvesting? - Wilson-Grau, Ricardo (2014)
Ricardo Wilson-Grau, former Chair of the Board of Stewards of the Outcome Mapping Learning Community, introduces Outcome Harvesting, an approach for retrospective identification of outcomes based on the principles of Outcome Mapping. More details here: http://www.outcomemapping.ca/nuggets/outcome-harvesting

Outcome Harvesting - Wilson-Grau, Ricardo; Britt, Heather (Ford Foundation, 2012)
Outcome Harvesting was developed by Ricardo Wilson-Grau with colleagues Barbara Klugman, Claudia Fontes, David Wilson-Sánchez, Fe Briones Garcia, Gabriela Sánchez, Goele Scheers, Heather Britt, Jennifer Vincent, Julie Lafreniere, Juliette Majot, Marcie Mersky, Martha Nuñez, Mary Jane Real, Natalia Ortiz, and Wolfgang Richert. Over the past 8 years, Outcome Harvesting and has been used to monitor and evaluate the achievements of hundreds of networks, non-governmental organizations, research centers, think tanks, and communitybased organizations around the world. This brief is intended to introduce the concepts and approach used in Outcome Harvesting to grant makers, managers, and evaluators, with the hope that it may inspire them to learn more about the method and apply it to appropriate contexts. Thus, it is not a comprehensive guide to or explanation of the method, but an introduction to allow evaluators and decision makers to determine if the method is appropriate for their evaluation needs. Where possible, we have included examples to illustrate how Outcome Harvesting is applied to real situations. For each case story, organizations were asked to provide a description of the outcome and a summary of the role played by the organization. Sometimes they added other information such as the outcome’s significance. Some details and identifiers were redacted for confidentiality purposes. A draft of this brief was graciously commented on by Bob Williams, Fred Carden, Sarah Earl, Richard Hummelbrunner and Terry Smutylo. The final text is, of course, the sole responsibility of the authors and editor.

Test It and They Might Come: Improving the Uptake of Digital Tools in Transparency and Accountability Initiatives - Wilson, Christopher; de Lanerolle, Indra (IDS Bulletin, 2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

What is adaptive management? - Wilson, Gregory (ΔNTYLLES, 2016)
Recently there has been growing recognition that most development challenges are in actual fact ‘wicked’ problem that requires development actors to recognize that the optimal management approaches…

Building Better Systems - An introduction to System Innovation - Winhall, Jennie; Leadbeater, Charles (The Rockwool Foundation, 2020)
This paper lays out a series of steps people can take to create the new systems we need to meet shared, public challenges. Systems are ubiquitous and powerful. We rely on them to support our daily lives: every time we turn on a tap, flick a switch for electricity, drop our child at school, jump on a bus or visit a doctor we rely on a wider system. There is a widespread sense, among decision makers and citizens that in the coming decades society will need not just new products, software and services, but new systems for living sustainably in a socially inclusive society. The need for better, different systems will be heightened by the impact and lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic. Systems are productive precisely because they are more than standalone products. A system pulls together all the different ingredients needed to meet a need or to produce an outcome: the shipping container is a product, containerisation is a system; a contactless payment card is a product which only works as part of a payments system; an operation in a hospital can only take place because it is part of a wider health system. To understand how a system works it has to be seen as a whole, from the macro policy frameworks of social security systems right down to how a citizen goes about finding a job. Many of the systems we rely on for care and work, energy and transport, education and health are under pressure to change. Society faces both deeply entrenched and growing challenges that are outpacing the systems we have. We also have opportunities to create new, alternative systems as new knowledge, values and technologies emerge, from artificial intelligence and bitcoin, to circular and renewable systems of production. Rising to the challenge of fixing an existing system and exploring the possibility of creating a new system are different undertakings. The first is about optimising what exists, the second is about creating something different and better. We want this project to yield practical insights for those who want to respond to the systemic challenges of today by stepping into the possibilities of the future. Acting to change systems depends on new ways of seeing both challenge and opportunity: why systems come under strain and what unlocks the potential for alternatives. It depends on better understanding how new systems form, and what and who is part of initiating and driving the transition to them. In putting together this paper and the ones that will follow from it we want to clarify how to assess the need for, invest in and act on the process of deliberate system change.

The Patterns of Possibility - How to Recast Relationships to Create Healthier Systems and Better Outcomes - Winhall, Jennie; Leadbeater, Charles (The Rockwool Foundation, 2022)
In Building Better Systems, we introduced four keys to unlock system innovation: purpose and power, relationships and resource flows. These four keys make up a set. Systems are often hard to change because power, relationships, and resource flows are locked together in a reinforcing pattern to serve the system’s current purpose. Systems start to change fundamentally when this pattern is disrupted and opened up so that a new configuration can emerge, serving a new purpose. In this article series we delve deeper into these four keys and provide practical advice on how they can be put to use. This article is about relationships. Systems are defined by the patterns of interactions between their parts: their relationships. Those interactions generate the outcomes of the system as a whole. Transforming the outcomes of a system requires remaking its relationships and then unlocking the other keys to system innovation: purpose, power and resources. This shift in relationships allows all those in the system to learn faster, to be more creative. System innovators redesign the relationships in the system to allow dramatically enhanced learning across the system, and thereby generate far better outcomes.

Agile Metrics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Wolpers, Stefan (dzone.com, 2017)
Suitable agile metrics reflect either a team’s progress in becoming agile or your organization’s progress in becoming a learning organization.

Reacting or adapting? Purposeful adaptation and response to contextual change. - Wood, Nik (Rebel with Causation, 2020)
Adaptive management is increasingly on the ticket for development programming, and has been crucial in the wake of covid-19. I’ve been working with adaptive programmes for most of my career, …

Systems Thinking and Practice: A Guide to Concepts, Principles and Tools for FCDO and Partners - Woodhill, Jim; Millican, Juliet (Institute of Development Studies, 2022)
This guide is a basic reference on systems thinking and practice tailored to the context and needs of the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). It is an output of the FCDO Knowledge for Development Programme (K4D), which facilitated a Learning Journey on Systems Thinking and Practice with FCDO staff during 2021 and 2022. The guide offers a common language and shared framing of systems thinking for FCDO and its partners. It explores what this implies for working practices, business processes and leadership. It also offers links to additional resources and tools on systems thinking. We hope it can support systems thinking to become more commonplace within the culture and practices of FCDO and working relations with partner organisations.
Accepted: 2023-02-03T15:47:58Z Publisher: Institute of Development Studies

Fast Forwarding to Systems Maps of Corruption: Getting to Usable Analysis More Quickly - Woodrow, Peter (CJL, 2023)
For AC practitioners, systems mapping is essential but also difficult. To lessen obstacles, Peter Woodrow proposes a scaffolded approach. An Experiment in “Fast Forwarding” Drawing upon our near-decade work on corruption, we recently decided to try an experiment: we would present “common patterns” of corruption as tentative models to adapt and add to—rather than try to teach people to do systems mapping from scratch. In this teaching experiment, each common pattern would function as a kind of “scaffolding” or framework that participants can build on to generate a cogent systems map as the basis for identifying possible points of intervention and subsequent program planning.

Scrambling after Moving Targets: Monitoring & Evaluation Applied to Adaptive Management Approaches in Peacebuilding - Woodrow, Peter; Jean, Isabella (New Directions in Peacebuilding Evaluation, 2019)
In this landmark collection, the voices of pathMakers and innovators in peacebuilding evaluation are assembled to provide new direction for the field.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

A Practical Guide to Distributed Scrum - Woodward, Elizabeth; Surdek, Steffan; Ganis, Matthew (IBM Press, 2010)
Succeed with Scrum in Even the Largest, Most Complex Distributed Development Projects Forewords by Ken Schwaber, Scott Ambler, Roman Pichler, and Matthew Wang This is the first comprehensive, practical guide for Scrum practitioners working in large-scale distributed environments. Written by three of IBM’s leading Scrum practitioners–in close collaboration with the IBM QSE Scrum Community of more than 1000 members worldwide–this book offers specific, actionable guidance for everyone who wants to succeed with Scrum in the enterprise. Readers will follow a journey through the lifecycle of a distributed Scrum project, from envisioning products and setting up teams to preparing for Sprint planning and running retrospectives. Each chapter presents a baseline drawn from “conventional” Scrum, then discusses additional issues faced by distributed teams, and presents specific best-practice solutions, alternatives, and tips the authors have identified through hard, empirical experience. Using real-world examples, the book demonstrates how to apply key Scrum practices, such as look-ahead planning in geographically distributed environments. Readers will also gain valuable new insights into the agile management of complex problem and technical domains. Coverage includes• Developing user stories and working with Product Owners as a distributed team• Recognizing and fixing the flaws Scrum may reveal in existing processes• Engaging in more efficient Release and Sprint planning• Conducting intense, brief daily Scrum meetings in distributed environments• Managing cultural and language differences• Resolving dependencies, performing frequent integration, and maintaining transparency in geographically distributed environments• Successfully running remote software reviews and demos• Brainstorming what worked and what didn’t, to improve future Sprints This book will be an indispensable resource for every team leader, member, product owner, or manager working with Scrum or other agile methods in any distributed software development organization.

A Guide to Assessing the Political Economy of Domestic Climate Change Governance - Worker, Jesse; Palmer, Niki (World Resources Institute, 2021)
This paper discusses how understanding the domestic political economy of climate governance is critical for developing informed strategies to build and sustain political ambition. It provides guidance and a methodology for domestic stakeholders to determine the types of institutional reforms, incentives, coalitions, and policy design that can entrench long-term political support for climate ambition. The assessment can also help users identify political barriers to more equitable climate action and identify reforms that may strengthen inclusion and accountability. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Highlights ▪ There is overwhelming evidence of the social, economic, and environmental case to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and rapidly scale up adaptation. Yet, despite a proliferation of climate laws and policies over the last 10–15 years, emissions are still rising, and adaptation needs remain urgent. ▪ This calls for a more sophisticated assessment of the political economy factors that may enable or constrain implementation of policies and actions and sustain political commitment at the country level. ▪ This guide offers an assessment methodology to understand how structural factors, rules and norms, stakeholders and interests, and ideas and narratives influence the political economy of climate action in a given country context. ▪ The methodology was developed on the basis of climate policy, governance, and political economy literature with contributions from subject matter experts. ▪ We intend the assessment to support civil society coalitions, reform-minded civil servants and politicians, international organizations, and other stakeholders. ▪ The resulting analysis should deepen the understanding of context while informing the advocacy, policy design, coalition building, capacity building, and communications of domestic stakeholders.

Forward Look - A vision for the World Bank Group in 2030 - World Bank (World Bank, 2016)

Learning and Results in World Bank Operations: Toward a New Learning Strategy - World Bank (IEG , The World Bank, 2015)
This report is the second in a program of evaluations that the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is conducting on the learning that takes place through World Bank projects. Learning and knowledge are treated as parts of a whole and are presumed to be mutually reinforcing.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Strategic Framework for mainstreaming citizen engagemente in World Bank Group operations - World Bank (The World Bank, 2014)

World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior - World Bank (The World Bank, 2015)
Development economics and policy are due for a redesign. In the past few decades, research from across the natural and social sciences has provided stunning insight into the way people think and make decisions. Whereas the first generation of development policy was based on the assumption that humans make decisions deliberatively and independently, and on the basis of consistent and self-interested preferences, recent research shows that decision making rarely proceeds this way. People think automatically: when deciding, they usually draw on what comes to mind effortlessly. People also think socially: social norms guide much of behavior, and many people prefer to cooperate as long as others are doing their share. And people think with mental models: what they perceive and how they interpret it depend on concepts and worldviews drawn from their societies and from shared histories.The World Development Report 2015 offers a concrete look at how these insights apply to development policy. It shows how a richer view of human behavior can help achieve development goals in many areas, including early childhood development, household finance, productivity, health, and climate change. It also shows how a more subtle view of human behavior provides new tools for interventions. Making even minor adjustments to a decision-making context, designing interventions based on an understanding of social preferences, and exposing individuals to new experiences and ways of thinking may enable people to improve their lives.The Report opens exciting new avenues for development work. It shows that poverty is not simply a state of material deprivation, but also a “tax” on cognitive resources that affects the quality of decision making. It emphasizes that all humans, including experts and policy makers, are subject to psychological and social influences on thinking, and that development organizations could benefit from procedures to improve their own deliberations and decision making. It demonstrates the need for more discovery, learning, and adaptation in policy design and implementation. The new approach to development economics has immense promise. Its scope of application is vast. This Report introduces an important new agenda for the development community.

World Development Report 2017: Governance and the Law - World Bank (The World Bank, 2017)

The precautionary principle: protecting public health, the environment and the future of our children - World Health Organization (World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, 2004)
OCLC: 551147957

Using beneficiary feedback to improve development programmes: findings from a multi-country pilot - World Vision (World Vision, 2016)
This briefing summarises the findings from Beneficiary Feedback Mechanisms pilots and is intended to inform organisations and their funders about the development and implementation of feedback mechanisms.

The five trademarks of agile organizations - Wouter Aghina; Karin Ahlbäck; Aaron De Smet; Clemens Fahrbach; Christopher Handscomb; Gerald Lackey; Michael Lurie; Monica Murarka; Olli Salo; Elizabeth Seem; Jannik Woxholth (McKinsey anc Company, 2017)
Our experience and research demonstrate that successful agile organizations consistently exhibit the five trademarks described in this article. The trademarks include a network of teams within a people-centered culture that operates in rapid learning and fast decision cycles which are enabled by technology, and a common purpose that co-creates value for all stakeholders. These trademarks complement the findings from The McKinsey Global Survey Results: How to create an agile organization.

Learning to Learn Collectively - Wrigley, Rebecca (Capacity, 2008)
CABUNGO, a Malawian NGO, recently evaluated its own performance using the Most Significant Change approach. Rebecca Wrigley describes how, with the support of stakeholders,CABUNGO learned to improve its services.

Future oriented conservation: knowledge governance, uncertainty and learning - Wyborn, Carina; van Kerkhoff, Lorrae; Dunlop, Michael; Dudley, Nigel; Guevara, Oscar (Biodiversity and Conservation, 2016)
Despite signiﬁcant progress in understanding climate risks, adaptation efforts in biodiversity conservation remain limited. Adaptation requires addressing immediate conservation threats while also attending to long term, highly uncertain and potentially transformative future changes. To date, conservation research has focused more on projecting climate impacts and identifying possible strategies, rather than understanding how governance enables or constrains adaptation actions. We outline an approach to futureoriented conservation that combines the capacities to anticipate future ecological change; to understand the implications of that change for social, political and ecological values; and the ability to engage with the governance (and politics) of adaptation. Our approach builds on the adaptive management and governance literature, however we explicitly address the (often contested) rules, knowledge and values that enable or constrain adaptation. We call for a broader focus that extends beyond technical approaches to acknowledge the sociopolitical challenges inherent to adaptation. More importantly, we suggest that conservation policy makers and practitioners can use this approach to facilitate learning and adaptation in the context of complexity, transformational change and uncertainty.

Evaluation and learning in complex, rapidly changing health systems: China’s management of health sector reform - Xiao, Yue; Husain, Lewis; Bloom, Gerald (Globalization and Health, 2018)
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, innovation, and learning. Multiple mechanisms exist within the government structure to allow and encourage flexible implementation of policies, and tailoring of reforms to context. These limit the risk of large-scale policy failures and play a role in exploring new reform directions and potentially systemically-useful practices. They have helped in managing the huge transition that China has undergone from the 1970s onwards. China has historically made use of a number of mechanisms to encourage learning from innovative and emergent policy practices. Policy evaluation is increasingly becoming a tool used to probe emergent practices and inform iterative policy making/refining. This paper examines the case of a central policy research institute whose mandate includes evaluating reforms and providing feedback to the health ministry. Evaluation approaches being used are evolving as Chinese research agencies become increasingly professionalised, and in response to the increasing complexity of reforms. The paper argues that learning from widespread innovation and experimentation is challenging, but necessary for stewardship of large, and rapidly-changing systems.

Future Democracies - Laboratory of Collective Intelligence for Participatory Democracy - Yago Bermejo (MediaLab Prado, 2019)
The Laboratory of Collective Intelligence for Participatory Democracy (2016-2019) is a project that arose out of Medialab Prado in coordination with the Government Area of Citizen Participation, Transparency and Open Government of the city of Madrid. Its work has been very connected with the analysis, reflection and innovation found on the digital participation platform Decide Madrid. The project has also organised many workshops and conferences that have brought together hundreds of people from the world of participatory democracy. This publication summarises the project’s core working principles as well as the open activities it has hosted over the course of these three years. These pilot experiences offer a possible vision of the future of democratic governance.
Keywords: Democracy

Evaluating development projects: exploring a synthesis model of the logical framework approach and outcome mapping - Yang, Ting (2018)
Under the current results-driven development agenda, sound evaluation, and a corresponding evaluation toolkit, need to be in place to examine whether and to what extent development interventions have achieved their targeted objectives and results, and to generate lessons for further development learning and improvement. My review of the literature shows that innovative and appropriate evaluation approaches are needed to address key challenges in evaluation such as the tension between learning and accountability objectives, the need to unpack the mechanisms linking outputs and outcomes or goal, and to add an actor perspective. Irrespective of project type, the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is often a standard requirement of major official donor agencies on projects they fund, so as to fulfil bureaucratic imperatives. However, it is often considered inadequate in addressing key challenges in development evaluation. Given the dominant status of the LFA with such strong support from donors, it is helpful to seek a ‘middle way’: a combination of the LFA with other approaches in order to address some of its inadequacies, while satisfying donor agencies’ requirements. A synthesis of the LFA and Outcome Mapping (OM) is one such option. This thesis explores the practical value and usefulness of a synthesis model empirically. Applying the model in two case study aid projects, I found that it serves well as a theory-based evaluation tool with a double-stranded (actor strand and results chain) theory of change. The model helps reconcile learning and accountability and add explanatory power and an explicit actor perspective. It also helps establish causation and enable attribution claims at various results levels with its different elements. The model has some limitations but my results suggest it can be usefully adopted. The choice of its application depends on project evaluation context and purpose in specific cases.
Book Title: Evaluating development projects: exploring a synthesis model of the logical framework approach and outcome mapping

What have we learned about learning? Unpacking the relationship between knowledge and organisational change in development agencies - Yanguas, Pablo (DIE - Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik, 2021)
Development cooperation has spent decades wrangling over the merits, evidence, and implications of what we may term “the learning hypothesis”: the idea that increased knowledge by development organisations must logically lead to increased effectiveness in the performance of their development activities. Organisations of all stripes have built research and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) departments, adopted a multitude of knowledge management systems and tools, and tinkered with different ways to structure their organograms to stimulate knowledge sharing and learning. The topic of organisational learning is particularly significant as the global development community grapples with increasingly complex problems and the aspiration of evidence-based policymaking. This paper presents an analytical framework for interrogating “the learning hypothesis”, breaking it down into causal steps: knowledge causes learning, learning causes organisational change, change causes effectiveness. The framework focuses on the first two sub-hypotheses, mapping out the conceptual space around them by outlining potential relationships between different types of knowledge – tacit and explicit, internal and external – and between different types of learning – operational and strategic. This map provides a foundation for three key research questions: What impact has the rising knowledge agenda had on development organisations? Which factors appear to enable or inhibit organisational learning? What is the relationship between operational and strategic learning and organisational change? A review of available evaluations and studies, including two cases from former UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the World Bank, reveals that there is insufficient evidence to support the causal claim that knowledge leads to learning and thereby to organisational change in development agencies. Sources point to tacit learning prevailing while explicit knowledge management systems flounder, and external advocacy agendas appear more compelling than internal research and evaluation products. It is not entirely clear how, or indeed, whether operational and strategic learning intersect, with delivery-level lessons hardly aggregating into structural or policy shifts. Organisational change – even that aimed at enhancing learning – is rarely based on lessons learned from practice. More research is necessary to fully unpack the learning hypothesis, but what limited evidence is available disproves rather than confirms its central claim. This has significant implications for the future of learning in development agencies as advocated by thought leaders, researchers, and reformers. In particular, the latter should consider an evidence-based reassessment of the function and value-for-money of research and M&E in development practice, and a more critical examination of the politics of external advocacy efforts around innovative aid approaches like thinking and working politically, adaptive management, or results-based management.
Publisher: German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) Version Number: 1.0

Why We Lie About Aid: Development and the Messy Politics of Change - Yanguas, Pablo (Zed Books, 2018)
Foreign aid is about charity. International development is about technical fixes. At least that is what we, as donor publics, are constantly told. The result is a highly dysfunctional aid system which mistakes short-term results for long-term transformation and gets attacked across the political spectrum, with the right claiming we spend too much, and the left that we don't spend enough. The reality, as Yanguas argues in this highly provocative book, is that aid isn't – or at least shouldn't be – about levels of spending, nor interventions shackled to vague notions of ‘accountability’ and ‘ownership’. Instead, a different approach is possible, one that acknowledges aid as being about struggle, about taking sides, about politics. It is an approach that has been quietly applied by innovative development practitioners around the world, providing political coverage for local reformers to open up spaces for change. Drawing on a variety of convention-defying stories from a variety of countries – from Britain to the US, Sierra Leone to Honduras – Yanguas provides an eye-opening account of what we really mean when we talk about aid.

Barriers to Political Analysis in Aid Bureaucracies: From Principle to Practice in DFID and the World Bank - Yanguas, Pablo; Hulme, David (World Development, 2015)
Politics has become a central concern in development discourse, and yet the use of political analysis as a means for greater aid effectiveness remains limited and contested within development agencies. This article uses qualitative data from two governance “leaders” – the United Kingdom Department for International Development and the World Bank – to analyze the administrative hurdles facing the institutionalization of political analysis in aid bureaucracies. We find that programing, management, and training practices across headquarters and country offices remain largely untouched by a political analysis agenda which suffers from its identification with a small cross-national network of governance professionals.
Keywords: DFID; United Kingdom; World Bank; aid effectiveness; foreign aid; political economy analysis

Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods - Yin, Dr Robert K. (SAGE Publications, Inc, 2018)
Winner of the 2019 McGuffey Longevity Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Recognized as one of the most cited methodology books in the social sciences, the Sixth Edition of Robert K. Yin′s bestselling text provides a complete portal to the world of case study research. With the integration of 11 applications in this edition, the book gives readers access to exemplary case studies drawn from a wide variety of academic and applied fields. Ultimately, Case Study Research and Applications will guide students in the successful use and application ofthe case study research method.

Rapid outcome mapping approach: a guide to policy engagement and influence - Young, John; Shaxson, Louise; Jones, harry; Hearn, Simon; Datta, Ajoy; Cassidy, Caroline (ODI, 2014)

Engaging Stakeholders in Planning for Sea Level Rise and Resilience - Yusuf, Juita-Elena (Wie); John, Burton St; Covi, Michelle; Nicula, J. Gail (Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 2018)
This case study describes a region-wide, multi-sectoral, and whole-of-community stakeholder engagement approach for addressing sea level rise (SLR) and flooding. This approach was implemented through a university-led community engagement event, the Hampton Roads Resilient Region Reality Check (H4RC), which allowed an examination of its effectiveness as a mechanism for capturing community-wide perceptions regarding SLR, flooding, and associated risks; engaging stakeholders in discussion within and across different groups; and assessing community willingness to address flooding and SLR. The results show that the event helped participants broaden their perspectives and understanding of flooding and SLR. In an approach that called for participants to engage in social learning across social networks, the event had some effect on individual efficacy. However, there was little impact on participants' already-established perception that the region does not possess significant willingness to take action.
Keywords: Social learning; flooding; resilience; social capital; stakeholder engagement

Data and monitoring needs for a more ecological agriculture - Zaks, David P. M.; Kucharik, Christopher J. (Environmental Research Letters, 2011)
Information on the life-cycle environmental impacts of agricultural production is often limited. As demands grow for increasing agricultural output while reducing its negative environmental impacts, both existing and novel data sources can be leveraged to provide more information to producers, consumers, scientists and policy makers. We review the components and organization of an agroecological sensor web that integrates remote sensing technologies and in situ sensors with models in order to provide decision makers with effective management options at useful spatial and temporal scales for making more informed decisions about agricultural productivity while reducing environmental burdens. Several components of the system are already in place, but by increasing the extent and accessibility of information, decision makers will have the opportunity to enhance food security and environmental quality. Potential roadblocks to implementation include farmer acceptance, data transparency and technology deployment.

Inclusive participatory approaches: A facilitator’s guide - Zaremba, Haley; Elias, Marlène; Devi, J. Tulasi; Priyadarshini, Pratiti (2021)
In community engagement and participatory processes, facilitators must make intentional efforts and adopt inclusive strategies to include marginalized and frequently overlooked groups. Yet, there is a lack of guidance on how to inclusively facilitate participatory processes. Facilitators are therefore often poorly prepared to engage with the power relations that underlie these processes, including those between the facilitator and participants and among participants themselves. This guide addresses this shortcoming by presenting strategies that have been shown to enhance the meaningful participation of women and marginalized groups in participatory processes. The aim is to equip facilitators with tools to create inclusive participatory spaces and community engagement. Although it refers to processes related to natural resource management, the guide is also applicable to the facilitation of participatory processes focusing on other issues or fields of significance to communities.
Accepted: 2022-01-12T09:19:12Z

USAID Wildlife Asia as a case study in adaptive rigour - Ziegler, Jessica (ODI/GLAM, 2020)
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 high‑quality. Key messages When faced with programmatic complexity, it is important to take an adaptive approach driven by continuous and iterative monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL). USAID Wildlife Asia, which works to advance regional action towards ending illegal wildlife trafficking in Southeast Asia and China, has embraced this approach as a way of operationalising adaptive rigour. Throughout programming, MEL approaches should reflect the characteristics of adaptive rigour: comprehensiveness, usefulness, practicality, timeliness and support. Utilising performance monitoring and research in order to test and revise technical approaches and employing mixed methods to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, as well as looking for relevant lessons generated by others, can ensure access to the most useful information for decision-making throughout implementation. For adaptive management, it is not enough to monitor, evaluate and learn; it is also essential to pause and reflect in order to analyse and process evidence gained through MEL with colleagues and stakeholders to reach the right conclusions and make good decisions.

Adapting data collection and utilisation to a Covid-19 reality: Monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches for adaptive management - Ziegler, Jessica; Mason, Paige (ODI/GLAM, 2020)
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 identifies other sources that address these issues in more detail. It concludes with a discussion of how to bring the information resulting from remote monitoring into decision-making to enable adaptive management. Key messages - When planning for remote data collection during the Covid-19 pandemic, first determine what information is still necessary, because data needs may have changed, e.g. if programming has pivoted or needs to pivot due to Covid-19. Then identify how the programme’s information needs align with existing data sources and what gaps remain, which will guide the need for remote data collection. - Also consider what data is ‘good enough’ for current decision-making needs in order to provide sufficient information to the right people at the right time to an acceptable standard of rigour. - There may be pragmatic reasons to reduce the number or scope of MEL activities, such as logistical constraints or ethical considerations introduced by the pandemic. - MEL activities should be accompanied by frequent feedback loops and pause points to reflect on emergent needs and challenges, information needs that have been met, and contextual changes that may affect MEL. - Be clear with decision-makers about the assumptions and gaps in the data, including proxies used and their limitations, sampling changes, and how these changes and assumptions may affect the decisions/options being discussed.

Evaluability Checklist for Post Project Evaluation - Zivetz, Laurie; Cekan, Jindra (Valuing Voices, 2020)
Considerations for planning a post project evaluation during the project, at the end, or after it has closed.

Participatory evaluation. What is it? Why do it? What are the challenges? - Zukoski, A.; Luluquisen, Mia (Community-based public health policy & practice, 2002)
Yogi Berra was right when he remarked, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.” When we collectively apply our hopes and energies to improving our communities, how do we know if we’re making the right choices along the way? How will we notice when we are spinning our wheels and what changes to make? How will we know that we are making a difference? And how will we know what success looks like to everyone in the group? By taking a community-based public health approach to our work, we create an opportunity to engage in a particular type of evaluation—participatory evaluation – that can help answer those questions. For those groups that are interested in this approach, this policy brief discusses the key concepts of participatory evaluation and some tips for applying it. We also present some real-life examples from two evaluators who work with grantees of the Partnership for the Public’s Health Initiative.

Strengthening the results chain: Synthesis of case studies of results-based management by providers - Zwart, Rosie (OECD, 2017)
This paper presents an analysis of evidence from seven case studies of results-based management by development co-operation providers. Analysis of themes from the case studies reveal six interrelated challenges which providers face in their efforts to manage for the results of development co-operation. The six challenges are: linking results to development goals, ensuring the purpose of results systems is well-defined, weighing up the benefits of aggregating and attributing results from standard indicators, enabling country ownership, using performance information alongside results information, and building and embedding a results culture. Providers continue to adopt a range of approaches to pursue a focus on results and there are many examples of good practice. The case studies suggest that in a complex development landscape some providers are prioritising the use of aggregated results information for domestic accountability, communication, and performance management over their use for learning and policy direction. In this context, the paper argues that in agency-wide results frameworks development co-operation results are often detached (or de-contextualised) from development results and discusses the implications of this, including the use of standard indicators to measure aggregated outputs. The paper uses case study evidence to discuss and suggest practical ways providers can build and maintain a strong results focus which enables analysis, insights and learning, and has achievement of development outcomes as its objective.