10 Things to Know About Evaluation - Buffardi, Anne; Hearn, Simon; Pasanen, Tiina; Price, clare; Ball, Louise (RAPID, 2015)
Evaluation is essential to good development. But there are still many myths and misconceptions about what it is - and how it should be used. ODI's Research and Policy in Development Programme (RAPID) has many years' experience supporting evaluation in complex development contexts. In support of the International Year of Evaluation 2015, we've put together our essential 'things to know' about evaluation in 10 infographics. Available in English and French.

10 years of Outcome Mapping - Smith, R; Mauremootoo, John; Ambrose, K.; Hearn, Simon (2012)
This webinar from the Outcome Mapping Learning Community (OMLC) presents the key findings from research conducted into the extent of Outcome Mapping use and the support required for its implementation.

18F Method Cards - A collection of tools to bring human-centered design into your project - 18F-GSA (18F-GSA, US Governement, 2017)
18F’s method cards describe how our organization puts human-centered design into practice.

2015 Rhode Island Wildlife Action Plan - Chapter 5 Monitoring and Adaptive Management - Terwilliger Consulting (State of Rhode Island, 2015)

2018 Map of the Complexity Sciences - Castellani, Brian (Durham University, 2018)
A map that provides a macroscopic, trans-disciplinary introductions to the complexity sciences.

3 fallacies of embracing complexity - Ang, Yuen Yuen (UNDP Blog, 2018)
Global development is seeing an exciting paradigm shift. Increasingly, leaders and practitioners recognize that development is not a “complicated” challenge that can be neatly parsed out into separate problems and siloed departments, like assembling a car. Rather, the various tasks of development—poverty eradication, improving governance, climate action, gender equality, and so on—are all connected, making development a “complex” challenge.

40 Agile Methods in 40 Minutes - Smith, Craig (2014)
My presentation from Scrum Australia 2014 called “40 Agile Methods in 40 Minutes” is available on Slideshare. With 73% of the world using Scrum as their predominant Agile method, this session will …

40 Agile Methods in 40 Minutes - Smith, Craig (2015)

5 Emerging Lessons from new research into Empowerment and Accountability in Messy Places - Gaventa, John (From Poverty to Power, 2019)
Research guru John Gaventa summarizes the emerging lessons from a new research programme on 'action for empowerment and accountability' in messy places

6 Reviewing research evidence - NICE (6. Developing NICE guidelines: the manual, 2012)

A Call for Innovation in International Development - R4D (Results for Development, 2015)

A conceptual map of political participation - van Deth, Jan W. (Acta Politica, 2014)
How would you recognize a mode of participation if you see one? Owing to the rapid expansion of political activities in the last decades this question has become increasingly difficult to answer. Neither the development of all-embracing nominal definitions, nor deductive analyses of existing modes of participation seem to be helpful. In addition, the spread of expressive modes of participation makes it hard to avoid purely subjective definitions. The aim of this discussion paper is to develop an operational definition of political participation, which allows us to cover distinct conceptualizations systematically, efficiently and consistently. This goal can only be arrived at if the conventional approach of presenting nominal definitions to solve conceptual problems is left behind. Instead, available definitions are included in a set of decision rules to distinguish three main variants of political participation. A fourth variant is distinguished for non-political activities used for political purposes. Together, the four variants of political participation cover the whole range of political participation systematically without excluding any mode of political participation unknown yet. At the same time, the endless expansion of the modes of political participation in modern democracies does not result in an endless conceptual expansion. Implications for research and various examples are discussed.

A Critique of the Claims About Mobile Phones and Kerala Fisherman. The Importance of the Context of Complex Social Systems - Steyn, Jacques (The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 2016)
This paper challenges some fundamental aspects of research and conclusions relating to the use of technology for community development. Views of technology, in this case the mobile phone, as a tool for increased economic welfare are often skewed due to extreme reductionism, ambiguous interview questions and poor data sources. Research of complex social systems or sub-systems give the wrong answers when reductionist methodologies are used. To demonstrate such shortcomings, the 2007 paper of Robert Jensen serves as an example. His conclusion that mobile phones enable Kerala fishermen to increase their economic welfare is the most cited paper on ICT4D topics, but there are fundamental methodological and logical problems with the claim, while other research came to contradictory conclusions. This critique is presented on many levels: ideological, paradigmatic, methodology, logical, statistical and semantic.

A flowering of approaches to complexity and development? - Thorpe, Ian (KM on a dollar a day, 2015)
We are an important juncture in development at the moment with the Sustainable Development Goals due to be finalized later this year, and with discussion now turning full swing into what needs to h…

A Framework for Freshwater Ecosystem Management - UN Enviornment (2018)

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

A guide to agile communication - Defra digital - DEFRA Digital (Departmetn for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (UK), 2018)
This guide is intended for: people planning communications activity on behalf of agile teams people doing the communications activity (especially blogging, presenting, or filmmaking) people who manage the people described above, who want to understand what they're doing and why The government service standard encourages teams to work in the open as much as possible, echoing item 10 in the government design principles, “make things open, it makes them better”. This guide was written to help teams do just that.

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.

A guide to monitoring and evaluating policy influence - Jones, Harry (ODI, 2011)

A Guide to Peer-to-Peer Learning - Andrews, Matt; Manning, Nick (Effective Institutions Platform, 2016)

A guide to Social Return on Investment - Nicholls, Jeremy; Lawlor, Eilis; Neitzert, Eva; Goodspeed, Tim (The SROI Network, 2012)
There is increasing recognition that we need better ways to account for the social, economic and environmental value that results from our activities. The language varies – ‘impact’, ‘returns’, ‘benefit’, ‘value’ – but the questions around what sort of difference and how much of a difference we are making are the same. Understanding and managing this broader value is becoming increasingly important for the public and private sectors alike. This is true whether it is civil society organisations working to create value, Governments commissioning and investing in activities to create social value, investors seeking to ensure that their investments will make a difference, or private businesses recognising both risk and opportunity in the wider effects of operations. All this means that it is also more important that we have some consistency and a shared language when we talk about value. SROI is the application of a set of principles within a framework that is designed to help bring about that consistency, whilst at the same time recognising that what is of value will be very different for different people in different situations and cultures. The first edition of this guide, which itself built on the work of three earlier SROI guides1, was prepared as part of a three year programme on measuring social value funded in 2008 by the then ‘Office of the Third Sector’ based in the Cabinet Office of the UK Government. This was delivered by a consortium of organisations: the SROI Network, nef (the new economics foundation), Charities Evaluation Services, the National Council for Voluntary Organsations and New Philanthropy Capital. In addition to this programme, the Scottish Government also supported the development of SROI, including a database of indicators to support SROI analysis. The work of the SROI Network now stretches across many different countries and continents, and this second edition of the guide reflects that interest. We have though decided to use only one currency symbol, for reasons of clarity and consistency, and so have continued to use £. However, readers will be able to find examples in various currencies and translations of the Guide on our website. For more information on the developments of SROI, please refer to the SROI Network website: www.thesroinetwork.org

A Holistic Approach to Evaluating Research - Ofir, Zenda; Schwandt, Thomas; Duggan, Colleen; McLean, Robert (IDRC, 2016)

A Low-resource Aware Framework for ICT Service Development in Rural Africa - Bon, Anna; Gordijn, Jaap; Akkermans, Hans (Proceedings of the CAiSE'16 Forum, 2016)
Technological innovation and information & communication technologies (ICTs) are considered enabling factors for social and economic development, even in very poor parts of the world. However,...

A market system by any other name would smell as sweet - Kessler, Adam; Conroy, Kevin (BEAM Exchange, 2019)
How does Doing Development Differently (DDD) and Problem Driven Iterative Adaption (PDIA) connect to core principles of the MSD approach?

A Movements Perspective on Transparency and Accountability - Joyce, Mary; Walker, Tom (Transparency & Accountability Initiative, 2015)
This Think Piece describes social movements pursuing government accountability and the challenges and opportunities to supporting them.

A Practical Guide for Collective Action against Corruption - UN Global Compact (UN Global Compact, 2015)
All anti-corruption professionals looking to better understand the relationship between collective action and corruption should refer to these two comprehensive guides that the UN Global Compact published. The 2015 guide has modules that cover theoretical concepts, practical recommendations for undertaking CA initiatives, and multiple in-depth case studies of CA projects around the world.

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 problem-focused approach to violence against women: The political-economy of justice and security programming - Denney, Lisa; Domingo, Pilar (ODI, 2013)
The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women ended its 57th session on 15 March 2013 with an outcome document affirming the importance of eliminating violence against women (VAW). The Commission was unable, however, to achieve consensus on a global action plan. The negative reaction of some UN member states to an action plan is a worrying reminder of ongoing resistance to reform. These persistent challenges highlight the continuing struggle to gain a serious global commitment to address VAW and recognise it as a breach of women’s fundamental human rights. Engaging in this struggle, many donors have put addressing VAW generally, and in fragile and conflictaffected situations (FCAS) specifically, at the top of the development agenda and made it a major priority of international policy. But in practice progress remains difficult, not least due to entrenched resistance and discriminatory socio-political norms and gender relations that persist in many societies. The problem of violence against women therefore needs to be addressed from the perspective of the concrete socio-political and cultural conditions that shape its particular features and the relevant context specific dynamics of conflict, post-conflict patterns of violence and fragility. International efforts to support reform in the area of VAW in FCAS need to go beyond prescriptive approaches that focus on what access to protection, justice and redress should look like. We propose here an approach that engages with the specificities of the problem – paying attention to context, and the concrete political-economy dynamics of the drivers of VAW – and takes account of the real options that

A ‘real-time’ and anthropological response to the Ebola crisis - IDS (IDS, 2017)
Impact Summary The Ebola epidemic that began in the Guinea-Sierra Leone-Liberia border region in December 2013 spread fast through the villages, cities and trade routes of this highly-peopled,...

A reflection on collaborative adaptation research in Africa and Asia - Cochrane, Logan; Cundill, Georgina; Ludi, Eva; New, Mark; Nicholls, Robert J.; Wester, Philippus; Cantin, Bernard; Murali, Kallur Subrammanyam; Leone, Michele; Kituyi, Evans; Landry, Marie-Eve (Regional Environmental Change, 2017)

A Rubric to Evaluate Citizen-Science Programs for Long-Term Ecological Monitoring - Tredick, Catherine A.; Lewison, Rebecca L.; Deutschman, Douglas H.; Hunt, Timothy ANN; Gordon, Karen L.; Von Hendy, Phoenix (BioScience, 2017)
Abstract. Citizen-science (CS) programs provide a cost-effective way to collect monitoring data over large temporal and spatial scales. Despite the recent prol

A study of the sustained uptake developmental evaluation: How does developmental evaluation work in the USAID context, what factors help and hinder its success, and what is its value to stakeholders? - Baylor, Rebecca; Fatehi, Y. K.; Esper, H. (USAID, 2019)

A systematic review of adaptations of evidence-based public health interventions globally - Escoffery, Cam; Lebow-Skelley, E.; Haardoerfer, R.; Boing, E.; Udelson, H.; Wood, R.; Hartman, M.; Fernandez, M. E.; Mullen, P. D. (Implementation Science, 2018)
Adaptations of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) often occur. However, little is known about the reasons for adaptation, the adaptation process, and outcomes of adapted EBIs. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review to answer the following questions: (1) What are the reasons for and common types of adaptations being made to EBIs in community settings as reported in the published literature? (2) What steps are described in making adaptations to EBIs? and (3) What outcomes are assessed in evaluations of adapted EBIs?

A Whole New World - Funding and Commissioning in Complexity - Knight, Annabel Davidson; Lowe, Toby; Brossard, Marion; Wilson, Julie (Collaborate & Newcastle University, 2017)
Collaborate and Newcastle University Business School Publish Research into Complexity-Friendly Funding

A workshop on Doing Development Differently - CID (CID at Harvard University and ODI, 2014)
October 22-23, 2014 A workshop on Doing Development Differently Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA Hosted by the Building State Capability (BSC) program at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) with funding from the Governance Partnership Facility.

About the BEAM Exchange (BEAM Exchange, 2018)

Accountability and Learning: Exploding the Myth of Incompatibility between Accountability and Learning - Guijt, Irene (NGO Management - The Earthscan Compendium, 2010)
When accountability is understood as reporting on pre-deined deliverables, it is often considered to be irreconcilable with learning. This conventional wisdom inhibits an appreciation of their connection. In this chapter, Irene Guijt exposes the laws and traps in reasoning that keep accountability and learning apart. She provides practitioners with principles and basic good ideas that open up prospects for accountability and learning to complement each other.
Publication Title: NGO Management

Accountability ecosystems: directions of accountability and points of engagement - Halloran, Brendan (IDS, 2016)
Accountability, the obligation of those in power to take responsibility for their actions, is a process involving relationships between different actors (in state and society) and mechanisms, and is influenced by many contextual factors. Using the lens of an accountability ‘ecosystem’ focuses our attention on the complexity of accountability processes. An ‘ecosystem’ perspective suggests that simple ideas about accountability – such as citizen feedback reaching decision-makers ensures more accountability, or that greater transparency equals greater accountability – are often actually much more complex.

Accountability, transparency, Participation, and Inclusion. A New Development Consensus? - Carothers, Thomas; Brechenmacher, Saskia (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2014)
The wide-reaching consensus around the normative and instrumental value of accountability, transparency, participation, and inclusion remains less solid than enthusiasts of these concepts might wish.

Accounting for a changing and uncertain climate in planning and policymaking today: lessons for developing countries - Ranger, Nicola; Garbett-Shiels, Su-Lin (Climate and Development, 2012)
Climate change is increasingly altering the pattern of climate-related risks. Developing countries and in particular least developed countries will be among the most severely impacted by climate change. These risks can seem remote in comparison with more immediate threats and needs, but if climate change is not considered upfront in existing planning and policymaking processes today, decision makers risk locking-in future impacts that may prove irreversible or much more costly and difficult to rectify than is necessary. The challenge for planners and policymakers, explored in this paper, is that future climate conditions are deeply uncertain. Decision methods are available to tackle these problems; however, these tend to be data- and resource-intensive and therefore, difficult to routinely apply. Further, a gap in currently available guidance is the explicit link to the adaptation needs of a developing country. We discuss the implications of this development context for the priorities for adaptation and the relative allocation of efforts in adaptation. This paper focuses on the identification of adaptation options and strategies that are robust to the deep uncertainties in future climate risk, culminating in a framework of six building blocks. It takes the perspective of exploring how decisions today might be adjusted to account for uncertain and changing long-term climate risks. We suggest a core principle is to focus on promoting climate-resilient development and increasing long-term adaptive capacity while, crucially, avoiding inflexible decisions that could lock-in future climate risk or foreclose adaptation options.
Keywords: Adaptation; Climate change; Development; Planning; robustness; uncertainty

Achieving reforms in oligarchical democracies: the role of leadership and coalitions in the Philippines - Sidel, John T. (Developmental Leadership Program, 2014)
This paper examines the role of developmental leadership in two major reforms introduced in the Philippines in 2012: the passage into law in December of excise tax reform which significantly raised taxes on cigarettes and alcohol – generally referred to as the Sin Tax Reform – and, in July, the re-registration of voters in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). These reforms have a) strengthened government finances and healthcare; and b) improved the quality of elections and promoted good governance and conflict resolution in the southern Philippines. Key points: These reforms were not achieved exclusively through the executive leadership of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, this paper argues. A broader form of developmental leadership was critical to their passage into legislation and their subsequent implementation, made up of reform coalitions that incorporated elements of government, the legislature, and civil society. While these coalitions were diverse and flexible in their form and composition, their core strength came from established advocacy groups and experienced activists. These groups and activists used highly labour-intensive, specialized and complex forms of mobilization. The success of these reform coalitions, it is argued, has implications for economic and governance reform in the developing world, particularly in systems characterised by oligarchical democracy, where competition for elected office is closely linked to the entrenched interests of business and industry.

Achieving value for money through procurement. Part 2: DFID’s approach to value for money through tendering and contract management - A performance review - ICAI (Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), 2018)
Summary In 2016-17, the Department for International Development (DFID) spent £1.4 billion, or 14% of its budget, through commercial suppliers on contracts ranging from school construction to family planning services and the delivery of humanitarian aid. The quality of its procurement and contract management – how it engages and manages commercial firms to support the delivery of aid programmes on time, to budget and at the appropriate quality – is a key driver of value for money for UK aid. It is also a subject of considerable Parliamentary and public interest. In recent years, DFID has implemented a range of initiatives to strengthen its procurement practices and embed commercial capability across the department – including its 2017 Supplier Review, undertaken to address concerns about excessive profit-making by DFID suppliers. This review on achieving value for money through procurement (part 2) was published in September 2018. We awarded a green-amber score and made three recommendations to government. The follow-up to this review was published in July 2020, and rated the government’s response as ‘inadequate’, as a result of DFID’s failure to put in place a formal contract management regime, despite the risks this entails for programme results. We will return to this in the next follow-up in summer 2021. Review Our review found an appropriate overall approach to procurement with good performance in most areas of tendering, but significant weaknesses in contract management. We therefore awarded a green-amber score and made three recommendations to government. Findings Since 2015, DFID has progressed towards a more mature procurement approach. DFID’s tender process follows current EU legislation and UK government guidelines and cross-government peer reviews confirm improvements in DFID’s procurement approach. The Supplier Review lent momentum to the reforms but risks having unintended consequences. Poor consultation with suppliers has heightened the risk of unintended consequences. DFID is reviewing its business processes to protect aid recipients from sexual abuse and exploitation. DFID does not always choose the most appropriate procurement process but a new strategic sourcing process has resulted in stronger procurement planning. DFID has built up its commercial capability, but this will need to be an ongoing process. The contract management function in DFID is poorly defined and contracts are frequently amended or extended beyond their advertised length and values. Inception phases are often too short for adequate preparation and planning. Progress on flexible and adaptive programming will require more innovative approaches to tendering and contract management. Recommendations Before the next major revision of its supplier code and contracting terms, or future changes that may materially affect suppliers, DFID should conduct an effective consultation process with its supplier market, to ensure informed decisions and minimise the risks of unintended consequences. DFID should accelerate its timetable for acquiring a suitable management information system for procurement, to ensure that its commercial decisions are informed by data. DFID should instigate a formal contract management regime, underpinned by appropriate training and guidance and supported by a senior official responsible for contract management across the department. The new regime should include appropriate adaptive contract management techniques, to ensure that supplier accountability is balanced with the need for innovation and adaptive management in pursuit of development results.

Acquisition and Assistance Strategy - USAID (USAID, 2018)
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) of tomorrow is one in which the Agency enables partner countries to plan, resource, and manage their own development through strengthened capacity and commitment — this is the essence of the Journey to Self-Reliance. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, the Agency obligated over 80 percent of its programmatic funding — a total of $17 billion — through acquisition and assistance (A&A) mechanisms. Partnering and procurement are central to how we do our work. Therefore, we must think holistically about with whom we work and how we work, if we are to achieve our ambitious goals for the USAID of tomorrow. The purpose of this document is to provide a transparent strategy that guides changes to Agency policy and practice for both our staff and implementing partners in how we approach our core A&A work. This strategy, which builds on previous and current reform efforts, outlines the shifts we will make to embrace a self-reliance model for A&A and move concretely toward the goal of ending the need for foreign assistance. GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF PARTNERING AT USAID USAID’s partnering approaches have evolved significantly over time as we have tested new and innovative ways of working. The principles outlined below support the Journey to Self-Reliance by empowering our staff and partners to produce results-driven solutions responsive to partner country needs and priorities — building capacity and commitment based on creative and entrepreneurial approaches that have already begun to develop. The Agency must move beyond our traditional approaches to embrace greater collaboration, co-design, and co-financing to improve upon our models of partnering.

+Acumen MOOC: Adaptive Leadership: Mobilizing for Change and Disrupting the Status Quo - +Acumen (NovoEd, 2017)
This four-module course by +Acumen and Adaptive Change Advisors on adaptive leadership, which is a practical leadership framework developed at Harvard Kennedy School for driving systemic change, particularly during times of uncertainty or when there are no easy answers.

ADAPT: Analysis Driven Agile Programming Techniques - IRC (International Rescue Committee (IRC), 2016)
A growing body of research indicates that aid agencies are most successful when able to operate flexibly, particularly in fragile environments. Yet our systems and tools are often too rigid to effectively address complex problems, and program incentives frequently undermine adaptation instead of supporting it. To drive improvements in impact we need to be better able to analyse the dynamics of a given situation, anticipate how these might evolve, and be sufficiently agile to adapt to changes in context and need.

Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure - Harford, Tim (Abacus, 2012)
Everything we know about solving the world's problems is wrong. Out: Plans, experts and above all, leaders. In: Adapting - improvise rather than plan; fail, learn, and try againIn this groundbreaking new book, Tim Harford shows how the world's most complex and important problems - including terrorism, climate change, poverty, innovation, and the financial crisis - can only be solved from the bottom up by rapid experimenting and adapting.From a spaceport in the Mojave Desert to the street battles of Iraq, from a blazing offshore drilling rig to everyday decisions in our business and personal lives, this is a handbook for surviving - and prospering - in our complex and ever-shifting world.

Adaptability: the art of winning in an age of uncertainty - McKeown, Max (Kogan Page, 2012)
Keywords: Adaptability (Psychology); Success

Adapting Aid: Lessons from six case studies - Algoso, Dave; Beloe, Jon; Hemberger, Alison; Hill, Philippa; Proud, Emma (MercyCorps & IRC, 2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

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

Adapting lean thinking to market systems development: Principles and practices for donors/funders - Rasmussen, Leanne (Engineers without borders, 2014)
The purpose of this paper is to provide funders and implementers of market systems development (MSD) projects with principles, practices, and structures that enables these projects to thrive. It is based on a book that has sold millions of copies worldwide, and a school of thought taught at institutions such as Harvard Business School and practiced in companies ranging from giants such as Toyota to the most successful tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. Published in 2011, Eric Ries wrote the Lean Startup as a remedy to the countless start-ups that create their own demises by getting started with the wrong goals, the wrong structures, and the wrong processes. He outlines an approach that enables the startup to navigate ambiguity and risk while using resources effectively. The conditions a MSD project faces are remarkably similar to those which a startup business faces; it needs structures and processes that are matched to the unpredictable, complex environment which it is attempting to influence. MSD projects can thus benefit from private-sector thought leadership on how start-ups can situate themselves for success. This paper starts with an overview of lean thinking, a concept that derives from lean manufacturing which is widely accepted as the leading approach to modern manufacturing. It explains how Ries’s Lean Startup adapts these principles, and then it in turn adapts these ideas for market systems development. The following three sections provide an overview of Lean Startup concepts, applying them to the development sector as appropriate. The final section summarizes and makes suggestions on next steps for funders who wish to set MSD projects up for success using a lean approach. Overall, the paper builds a case for how the Lean Startup’s approach can enable MSD projects to work successfully in ambiguity and increase their potential for achieving robust and sustainable results, all while using donor resources more efficiently.
Keywords: Adaptive Development; Lean

Adapting to Learn and Learning to Adapt: Practical Insights from International Development Projects - Brinkerhoff, Derick W.; Frazer, Sarah; McGregor, Lisa (RTI Press, 2018)
Adaptive programming and management principles focused on learning, experimentation, and evidence-based decision making are gaining traction with donor agencies and implementing partners in international development. Adaptation calls for using learning to inform adjustments during project implementation. This requires information gathering methods that promote reflection, learning, and adaption, beyond reporting on pre-specified data. A focus on adaptation changes traditional thinking about program cycle. It both erases the boundaries between design, implementation, and evaluation and reframes thinking to consider the complexity of development problems and nonlinear change pathways.Supportive management structures and processes are crucial for fostering adaptive management. Implementers and donors are experimenting with how procurement, contracting, work planning, and reporting can be modified to foster adaptive programming. Well-designed monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems can go beyond meeting accountability and reporting requirements to produce data and learning for evidence-based decision making and adaptive management. It is important to continue experimenting and learning to integrate adaptive programming and management into the operational policies and practices of donor agencies, country partners, and implementers. We need to devote ongoing effort to build the evidence base for the contributions of adaptive management to achieving international development results.

Adapting to learn and learning to adapt: Practical insights from international development projects - Brinkerhoff, Derick; Frazer, Sarah (RTI, 2018)
Adaptive programming and management principles focused on learning, experimentation, and evidence-based decision making are gaining traction with donor agencies and implementing partners in international development. Adaptation calls for using learning to inform adjustments during project implementation. This requires information gathering methods that promote reflection, learning and adaption, beyond reporting on pre-specified data. A focus on adaptation changes traditional thinking about program cycle.

’Adaptive Authoritarianism’ in Contemporary China: Identifying Zones of Legitimacy Building - Ahlers, Anna Lisa; Schubert, Gunter (Reviving Legitimacy: Lessons for and from China, 2011)
Anna L. Ahlers and Gunter Schubert, ’Adaptive Authoritarianism’ in Contemporary China: Identifying Zones of Legitimacy Building, in: Deng Zhenglai and Guo Sujian (eds), Reviving Legitimacy: Lessons for and from China, Lanham: Lexington Books (2011),

Adaptive development: great progress and some niggles - Vowles, Pete (Medium, 2016)
After 3 years in DFID headquarters, championing adaptive approaches to the delivery of aid and development programmes, I am back in an…

Adaptive Development Switchboard - Final Report (Internal Document) - Feedback Labs (LearnAdapt Programme, 2018)

Adaptive Leadership: Accelerating Enterprise Agility - Highsmith, Jim (Addison-Wesley Professional., 2013)

Adaptive Leadership in Development course - Moran, Mark; Curth-Bibb, Jodie; Grice, Tim; Glavey, Sarah (University of Queensland, 2017)

Adaptive Learning - Guerzovich, Florencia; Poli, Maria (Global Partnership for Social Accountability, 2014)

Adaptive Management - Jenal, Marcus; Cunningham, Shawn (Annual Reflection 2019, 2019)

Adaptive management: an overview of the concept and its practical application in the Scottish context - Blackstock, Kirsty; Brown, Katrina; Gimona, Alessandro; Prager, Katrin; Irvine, Justin (The James Hutton Institute, 2016)

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

Adaptive management in aid programmes (BEAM Exchange, 2014)
Aid works better – especially in complex and conflict-affected environments – when there is scope to trial and adapt programme strategies. So argues Amir Allana in Navigating Complexity, a case study of Northern Karamoja's Growth, Health and Governance (GHG) Programme that is adopting an 'adaptive management' approach. This BEAM Exchange webinar invited Amir, Tim Sparkman and Peter Roggekamp to discuss lessons from their work in Uganda and Cambodia. What does adaptive management look like in practice? And what does it require of managers and funders to make it happen? Tim and Peter share their experiences of applying adaptive management techniques to the Growth, Health and Governance Programme and the Cambodia Agricultural Value Chain Program (CAVAC). Amir highlight insights from the Navigating Complexity report, including the importance of office culture, consistent management signals, and the role of supportive tools and processes.

Adaptive Management in Practice: a case study on the Prospects program - Maclay, Chris (Mercy Corps, 2016)
Recognising that aid and development programming takes place in complex contexts, Mercy Corps is increasingly seeking to understand how best to manage programs which iterate, adapt and respond to the consistently evolving settings in which we work. This brief Practice Paper provides some examples of what adaptive management looks like in practice on the Prospects youth employment program in Liberia. It does not seek to function as a manual or set of guidelines, but simply provides some practical examples and insights into how a youth employment program governed by principles of adaptive management operates.

Adaptive Management in the Courts - Fischman, Robert L.; Ruhl, J.B. (Minnesota Law Review, 2010)
Adaptive management has become the tonic of natural resources policy. With its core idea of “learning while doing,” adaptive management has infused the natural resources policy world to the point of ubiquity, surfacing in everything from mundane agency permits to grand presidential proclamations. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to suggest that these days adaptive management is natural resources policy. But is it working? Does appending “adaptive” in front of “management” somehow make natural resources policy, which has always been about balancing competing claims to nature’s bounty, something more and better? Many legal and policy scholars have asked that question, with mixed reviews. Their evaluations, however, have rested on theory, program-specific surveys, and isolated case studies. This article provides the first comprehensive review of adaptive management from the perspective that likely matters most to the natural resource agencies practicing adaptive management - how is it faring in the courts? Part I of the Article examines the theory, policy, and practice of adaptive management, focusing on the experience of the federal resource management agencies. The end product in practice is something we call “a m-lite,” a watered down version of the theory that resembles ad hoc contingency planning more than it does planned “learning while doing.” This gap between theory and practice leads to profound disparities between how agencies justify decisions and how adaptive management in practice arrives at the courthouse doorsteps. In Part II we review how these disparities have played out in courts considering claims that agency practice of adaptive management has not lived up to its theoretical promise or to the legal demands of substantive and procedural environmental law. We extract three key themes from the body of case law in this respect. Part III extends from the existing case law to draw lessons for agencies and Congress about the future practice of adaptive management. Our ultimate message to agencies is that a m-lite can be an effective decision method - and one that survives judicial scrutiny - but agencies must be more disciplined about its design and implementation. This includes resisting the temptation to employ adaptive management to dodge burdensome procedural requirements, substantive management criteria, and contentious stakeholder participation. If faithfully followed and enforced, this model, despite its flaws, could serve as an important component of natural resources policy to confront problems of the future as daunting as climate change.

Adaptive Management in the Face of Climate Change and Endangered Species Protection - Gardner, Emily (Ecology Law Quarterly, 2013)

Adaptive management in wildlife conservation - Organ, John; Decker, D.J.; McDonald, J.E.; Riley, Shawn; Mahoney, S.P. (The Wildlife Society Techniques Manual, 2012)
Adaptive management in wildlife conservation emerged from the wildlife profession's search for better solutions to increasingly complex conservation challenges. Adaptive management is an effective process for wildlife managers to employ to (1) deal with uncertainty in the management system, (2) learn from their management actions, and (3) achieve desired results. Being adaptable or flexible in your management approach is not the same as managing adaptively or conducting adaptive management. Adaptive management requires adhering to a stepwise process and fully executing each step. A critical step is rigorous monitoring and assessment of management interventions. Without this, wildlife managers cannot achieve the essence of adaptive management, which is the explicit goal of learning more about the management system after each management action.

Adaptive management intentions with a reality of evaluation: Getting science back into policy - Hasselman, Lyndal (Environmental Science & Policy, 2017)
In Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin water reform has been contentious as government attempts to reconcile historical over allocation of water to irrigation with the use of water for environmental outcomes. However, in many aspects, scientific knowledge of the environment is either imperfect, incomplete or environmental responses are unpredictable, with this uncertainty preventing definitive policy and closure of political arguments. In response to uncertainty and knowledge gaps, adaptive management has been written into the legislation, along with provisions for periodic evaluation. This research ascertains how adaptive management is understood by policy makers, with this indicative of future implementation of adaptive management. The way in which adaptive management is constructed by policy makers is determined through legislation, public speeches, government reports and semi-structured interviews. The findings demonstrate that adaptive management has been subsumed by evaluation. The loss of adaptive management as a distinct concept is seen as a loss of science and discovery from the policy process, with the dominance of evaluation discussed as limiting innovation and reinforcing a ‘muddling through’ of policy.
Keywords: Accountability; Adaptive Management; Evaluation; Science; Uncertainty

Adaptive Management Leaders Launch Practical Adaptation Network (PAN) - Labs, Feedback (FeedbackLabs, 2016)
Great things can happen at the frontier of theory and practice. When Feedback Labs worked with USAID’s Global Development Lab to bring together leaders in adaptive management at the White House on June 15th, we were pleased that we were able to move past the ongoing conceptual conversations toward discussing what we could do in concrete terms to implement adaptive management in practice.

Adaptive Management looks like it’s here to stay. Here’s why that matters. - Green, Duncan (From Poverty to Power, 2016)
First installment of reflections on my US trip. This is on the rise of adaptive management approaches in USAID, and some of the questions it raises
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Adaptive management of an environmental watering event to enhance native fish spawning and recruitment - King, A. J.; Ward, K. A.; O’connor, P.; Green, D.; Tonkin, Z.; Mahoney, J. (Freshwater Biology, 2010)
1. A common goal of many environmental flow regimes is to maintain and/or enhance the river’s native fish community by increasing the occurrence of successful spawning and recruitment events. However, our understanding of the flow requirements of the early life history of fish is often limited, and hence predicting their response to specific managed flow events is difficult. To overcome this uncertainty requires the use of adaptive management principles in the design, implementation, monitoring and adjustment of environmental flow regimes. 2. The Barmah-Millewa Forest, a large river red gum forest on the Murray River floodplain, south-east Australia, contains a wide variety of ephemeral and permanent aquatic habitats suitable for fish. Flow regulation of the Murray River has significantly altered the natural flood regime of the Forest. In an attempt to alleviate some of the effects of river regulation, the Forest’s water regime is highly managed using a variety of flow control structures and also receives targeted Environmental Water Allocations (EWA). In 2005, the largest environmental flow allocated to date in Australia was delivered at the Forest. 3. This study describes the adaptive management approach employed during the delivery of the 2005 EWA, which successfully achieved multiple ecological goals including enhanced native fish spawning and recruitment. Intensive monitoring of fish spawning and recruitment provided invaluable real-time and ongoing management input for optimising the delivery of environmental water to maximise ecological benefits at Barmah-Millewa Forest and other similar wetlands in the Murray-Darling Basin. 4. We discuss possible scenarios for the future application of environmental water and the need for environmental flow events and regimes to be conducted as rigorous, large-scale experiments within an adaptive management framework.
Keywords: floodplain river; regulated flows

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 Practice in the UK Government - The MUVA case - HLS (Human Learning Systems, 2019)
Case study about the MUVA programme in Mozambique. (Maybe it "misses the point of AP which is not learning for learning. Is learning for impact. The word impact doesn’t even come up once!") Adaptive Management programming within the Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office demonstrates that the UK Government has examples of optimising for learning within its existing management practice. However, currently, the adaptive management practices are unhelpfully framed by an approach which limits both their effectiveness and scope. The programmes use learning as their metastrategy. They succeed in connecting practicebased learning with strategic learning, and make a shift towards reframing accountability as accountability for learning. This learning strategy is enabled by funding and contract management arrangements which prioritise learning. Both at macro-level of programme management and micro level of de-risking experimentation and enabling necessary failure by decoupling people’s job security from potential failure.

Adaptive Management: Responding to the evolving needs of PRIME's complex systems - Picon, Diana; Wild, Lorenz (Mercy Corps, 2015)

Adaptive Management Self-assessment tool - mercy Corps (Mercy Corps, 2016)
The Adaptive Management self-assessment tool has been designed to help teams assess the extent to which they have a supportive environment for adaptive management within their country program. The self-assessment tool helps you think about five different areas that have been identified as important for supporting adaptive management: 1. Culture & leadership 2. Dynamic teams 3. Appropriate analysis 4. Responsive implementation & operations 5. Enabling environment (for example donor funding and relationships)

Adaptive Management Tools: Concept Notes System - Mercy Corps (Mercy Corps, 2015)
Mercy Corps finds adaptive management is supported by four different but interconnected elements: Culture, People & Skills, Tools & Systems, and Enabling Environment. These elements are discussed in the context of one of Mercy Corps’ complex programmes in pastoral Ethiopia.

Adaptive management: What it means for CSOs - O’Donnell, Michael (Bond, 2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Adaptive management: where are we now? - Rist, Lucy; Campbell, Bruce M.; Frost, Peter (Environmental Conservation, 2013)
Adaptive management (AM) emerged in the literature in the mid-1970s in response both to a realization of the extent of uncertainty involved in management, and a frustration with attempts to use modelling to integrate knowledge and make predictions. The term has since become increasingly widely used in scientific articles, policy documents and management plans, but both understanding and application of the concept is mixed. This paper reviews recent literature from conservation and natural resource management journals to assess diversity in how the term is used, highlight ambiguities and consider how the concept might be further assessed. AM is currently being used to describe many different management contexts, scales and locations. Few authors define the term explicitly or describe how it offers a means to improve management outcomes in their specific management context. Many do not adhere to the idea as it was originally conceived, despite citing seminal work. Significant confusion exists over the distinction between active and passive approaches. Over half of the studies reporting to implement AM claimed to have done so successfully, yet none quantified specific benefits, or costs, in relation to possible alternatives. Similarly those studies reporting to assess the approach did so only in relation to specific models and their parameterizations; none assessed the benefits or costs of AM in the field. AM is regarded by some as an effective and well-established framework to support the management of natural resources, yet by others as a concept difficult to realize and fraught with implementation challenges; neither of these observations is wholly accurate. From a scientific and technical perspective many practical questions remain; in particular real-world assessments of the value of experimentation within a management framework, as well as of identified challenges and pathologies, are needed. Further discussion and systematic assessment of the approach is required, together with greater attention to its definition and description, enabling the assessment of new approaches to managing uncertainty, and AM itself.
Keywords: Adaptive Management; Decision making; Natural resource management; conservation; experimental management; uncertainty

Adaptive management: why we find it so hard to operationalise - Teskey, Graham (Abt Associates - Governance Soapbox, 2018)

Adaptive Peacebuilding Programming Through Effective Feedback Loops: Promising Practices - Barnard-Webster, Kiely; Jean, Isabella (CDA, 2018)
This case study report was developed by CDA’s part of Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium collaborative research on the use of feedback loops in support of adaptive programming. Feedback loops are just one element of adaptive programming and are defined and used in different ways by organizations working on social change, peace and development issues. This document includes key findings from our desk review of reports and grey literature, key informant interviews, observations documented during CDA’s advisory and learning engagements with peacebuilding partners as well as the case study on SFCG’s feedback processes in Burundi. The findings are most relevant to program and M&E staff but have implications for senior management and policymakers in light of growing interest in strengthening adaptive management.

Adaptive programming - Vowles, Pete (DFID Bloggers, 2013)
Staff blogs from the UK Department for International Development. Get real-life perspectives from those on the ground to fight poverty and join in the debate.

Adaptive Programming and Business Environment Reform – Lessons for DFID Zimbabwe - Donovan, Elbereth; Manuel, Clare (DFID, 2017)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Adaptive Programming in Fragile, Conflict and Violence-Affected Settings, What Works and Under What Conditions?: The Case of Institutions for Inclusive Development, Tanzania - Green, Duncan; Guijt, Irene (Itad, Oxfam and IDS, 2019)
Adaptive Management involves a dynamic interaction between three elements: delivery, programming and governance. This case study focuses on a large DfID governance project, the Institutions for Inclusive Development (I4ID), a five-year initiative in Tanzania. The study forms part of a research project to examine whether and how adaptive approaches can strengthen aid projects promoting empowerment and accountability in fragile, conflict and violence-affected settings (FCVAS). The research examines some of the assertions around the adaptive management approach and explores if and how adaptive approaches, including rapid learning and planning responses (fast feedback loops and agile programming) are particularly relevant and useful for citizen empowerment and government accountability (E&A) in FCVAS.
Keywords: A4EA; Adaptive Development; Economy; Fishery

Adaptive Programming in Fragile, Conflict and Violence-Affected Settings, What Works and Under What Conditions?: The Case of PERL, Nigeria - Punton, Melanie; Burge, Richard (Itad, Oxfam and IDS, 2018)
This paper examines adaptive approaches to aid programming in Nigeria. Through field research and desk reviews, we have investigated some of the assertions around the ‘adaptive management and programming’ approach, which has arisen in recent years as a response to critiques of overly rigid, pre-designed, blueprint and linear project plans. This is the second of three case studies in a series which explore if and how adaptive approaches, including rapid learning and planning responses, are particularly relevant and useful for promoting empowerment and accountability in fragile, conflict and violence-affected settings (FCVAS). This case study focuses on PERL (Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn) in Nigeria, a five-year governance programme (2016-21) with a total budget of £100 million. It aims to promote better service delivery through bringing together government and citizens groups to collectively address governance challenges. PERL is viewed by DFID as the final stage of a 20-year investment, building on learning, experience and partnerships from 15 years of DFID-funded governance programming in Nigeria. It was designed to incorporate learning and adaptation through a ‘living’ theory of change, continuous political economy analysis at different levels, adaptive implementation by location-based delivery teams who are encouraged to be flexible and let partners take the lead, regular learning and reflection, and adaptive resourcing, HR and administrative systems. The case study draws on a conceptual framework (the ‘adaptive triangle’) that looks at three types of adaptation – adaptive management, adaptive programming and adaptive delivery – and the interconnections and tensions between them.
Keywords: A4EA; Adaptive Development; Economy; Fishery

Adaptive Programming in Fragile, Conflict and Violence-Affected Settings, What Works and Under What Conditions?: The Case of Pyoe Pin, Myanmar - Christie, Angela; Green, Duncan (Itad, Oxfam and IDS, 2018)
This paper examines adaptive approaches in aid programming in a fragile, conflict and violence-affected setting (FCVAS), namely Myanmar. A combination of desk review and field research has been used to examine some of the assertions around the ‘adaptive management’ approach, which has arisen in recent years as a response to critiques of overly rigid, pre-designed, blue-print and linear project plans. This paper explores if and how adaptive approaches, including rapid learning and planning responses (fast feedback loops and agile programming) are particularly relevant and useful for promoting empowerment and accountability in such ‘messy places’. This case study focuses on Pyoe Pin (‘Young Shoots’), a DFID-funded, British Council managed governance programme, which has been running since 2007.
Keywords: A4EA; Adaptive Development; Economy; Fishery

Adaptive programming in practice: shared lessons from the DFID-funded LASER and SAVI programmes - Derbyshire, Helen; Donovan, Elbereth (DFID-LASER Programme, 2016)
LASER synthesis papers aim to help donors and other stakeholders better understand why and how to approach investment climate reform programming differently. The papers reflect emerging best practice and lessons learnt on what works and what does not work in doing development differently. The papers have been peer-reviewed by experts in the field including senior advisers at DFID, World Bank, IFC and the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (amongst others).
Keywords: IMPORTANT; Practice

Adaptive Programming: The “Space of Possibility” - Seavey, Sara Mizuta (USAID Learning Lab, 2016)
Sara Mizuta Seavey, M.A., is a Senior Program Officer at FHI360 for the Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) project, where she works with USAID’s Digital Development Team to conceive, design, and test how real-time data systems can enable a more adaptive and participatory approach to development. She is passionate about systems thinking and participatory approaches to international development. What does space travel have to do with international development?

Adaptiveness through ‘simplest tools and practices’ - Prieto Martin, Pedro (Institute of Development Studies, 2017)
In recent years, more and more influential development organisations have been openly recognising the central role that adaptive management capacities – the ability to keep improving strategies and actions as programmes unfold – play for the success of complex interventions. As a result, there has been a rich exchange of ideas and experiences on how to promote adaptiveness in development. But development organisations and professionals are having a hard time translating the many adaptive theories and recommendations into improved practices and outcomes. They are generally failing to adjust the design and operation of programmes to accommodate incipient lessons learnt and the unexpected changes in the context. Nowadays, most programme adaptations still take the form of a change of direction once it is clear that things have gone really wrong. Why is so difficult to put what we know about adaptiveness into practice? And more importantly: what can be done to improve this situation?

Adding Up to Peace: The Cumulative Impacts of Peace Initiatives - Diana Chigas; Peter Woodrow (CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, 2018)
Adding Up to Peace: The Cumulative Impacts of Peace Initiatives aims to identify how cumulative impacts in peace practice operate at all levels, in order to provide practical lessons for policymakers, donors and practitioners to develop more effective strategies for greater progress towards peace. This book builds on CDA’s Reflecting on Peace Practice Project (RPP), launched to answer the question: What works—and what doesn’t work—in peacebuilding? It seeks to deepen our understanding of how multiple peacebuilding initiatives in a conflict zone interacted and added up (or didn’t), to result in progress towards larger societal level peace, or Peace Writ Large. The findings are a product of sixteen case studies conducted between 2007 and 2012, gathering the perceptions of both local and international stakeholders. The finalization of this book was generously funded by Humanity United. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Humanity United or of CDA Collaborative Learning Projects.

Addressing challenges in communicating adaptation practices to smallholder farmers in Kenya through a radio intervention - Mwaniki, Fiona Nyawira; Gichuki, Charity; Mwangi, Maina; Mburia, Pamela; Wandago, Benson (Journal of Agriculture and Environment for International Development (JAEID), 2017)

Addressing gender in impact evaluation: What should be considered? - Fletcher, Gillian (Methods Lab, 2015)
Gender and sexuality are intimately entwined; we must not lose sight of the ways in which gender affects non-heterosexual people, transgender people and people who do not identify as either male or female. • Gender and gender-related injustice is a feature of all interventions, whatever the focus, be it agriculture, capacity building, disaster management, education, health, peace building, water, sanitation and hygiene, or other. • Showing an increase in the number of women participants in an intervention is not the same as demonstrating gender impact. An ‘add women and stir’ approach is not good enough. • A good intervention design will identify critical inequalities and conduct a needs assessment that clearly identifies gender-related issues. If this needs assessment feeds directly into the programme theory, it will facilitate assessment of the intervention’s gender-related impact and will be more likely it is to have positive gender-related impact.

Addressing Maladaptive Coping Strategies of Local Communities to Changes in Ecosystem Service Provisions Using the DPSIR Framework - Ehara, Makoto; Hyakumura, Kimihiko; Sato, Ren'ya; Kurosawa, Kiyoshi; Araya, Kunio; Sokh, Heng; Kohsaka, Ryo (Ecological Economics, 2018)
The Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework has been applied to various environmental problems at multiple spatial and temporal scales and attempts have been made to conceptually improve the framework to encompass various stakeholder perspectives. However, recent literature experiences in the field have challenged the inclusive character of the framework applications. In particular, the framework's inability to incorporate the aggregated informal responses of people affected by changes in ecosystem service provisions has not been fully addressed. This limits the framework's validity in categorizing and disseminating information for addressing particular environmental challenges. Herein, we address this problem by analyzing a case study of deforestation and its impact on non-timber forest product collections by rural residents in Cambodia. We incorporate the concept of maladaptive coping strategies into the DPSIR framework and then further elaborate Ness et al.'s (2010) approach of merging the DPSIR framework with Hägerstrand's (2001) system of nested spatial domains. This conceptualizes the incorporation of the aggregated informal responses into the system, as exemplified in the case study.
Keywords: DPSIR framework; Ecosystem services; Maladaptive coping strategy; Nested spatial domains

ADS 201 Additional Help- Whole-of-Project Evaluation - USAID (USAID, 2017)

Advancing urban adaptation where it counts: reshaping unequal knowledge and resource diffusion in networked Indonesian cities - Geldin, Samuel (Environment and Urbanization, 2019)
Climate adaptation literature vocalizes the need for transnational municipal networks (TMNs) to expand activities in vulnerable medium-sized cities, but little work has examined the granular extent of city participation and processes constraining TMN growth. This study explores the effectiveness of TMNs in reaching adaptation outcomes and how financial, material, and knowledge exchanges of TMNs tend to exclude adaptation in high-priority intermediary cities. Nearly 40 semi-structured interviews with Indonesian city actors and a preliminary catalogue of cities participating in TMNs reveal that risk-averse selection criteria, insufficient impact assessments, and duplicative institutional efforts reinforce disparities between primary and intermediary cities. To effectively build adaptive capacity in the most vulnerable regions, TMNs should remove participation barriers for intermediary cities, improve incentives for institutional collaboration, and adopt more rigorous evaluative metrics. These results directly inform the governance, resource allocation, and operational goals of TMN stakeholders to advance distributive climate justice.

Advancing Work with the Grain at USAID - Jacobstein, David (USAID Learning Lab, 2018)
In December 2017, I wrote a blog about some of the insights gained during a workshop on Context-Driven Adaptation, where many of our sharpest field officers shared the ways that they assessed and adapted to shifts in context to keep programming relevant and effective.

Afterword: Alabert Hirschman observed - Alacevich, Michele (Development Projects Observed, 2015)
Albert Hirschman considered Development Projects Observed a natural sequel to his earlier work. As Hirschman put it to an old acquaintance at the World Bank, his previous books identified the inner and often hidden mechanisms of development sequences: “Having worked out a few basic hypotheses …, I could perhaps test them (and hit on some new ones) by looking at Bank-financed projects that have had enough time to give rise to such sequences.”¹ But as much as it appeared as the logical evolution of Hirschman’s intellectual trajectory, this new research was also the offshoot of an important crisis in development

Agile Development in the Age of Adaptive Management - Davis, Taryn; Orton-Vipond, Sarah; Staid, Martha (Development Gateway, 2019)
Adaptive management – the idea that development projects should respond to real life complexities and be flexible enough to respond to unforeseen changes – is an often-praised approach to doing development differently, with donors and partners exploring how to apply it within their programming.

Agile distributed software development in nine Central European teams: challenges, benefits and recommendations - Stadler, Manuel; Vallon, Raoul; Pazderka, Martin; Grechenig, Thomas (Information Technology, 2019)

Agile Glossary and Terminology - Agile Alliance (Agile Alliance, 2015)
Learn the unique terminology used in Agile development from the experts at Agile Alliance.

Agile, is it just a delivery mechanism? - Carignan, Louis-Philippe (Scrum.org Community Blog, 2014)
As a Agile coach, I refer to a few tools to help me think about where my Scrum teams should go next on their path to Agility. One of these tools is the Agile subway map, a list of Agile practices grouped in different categories. It helps me think how a specific practice could help …

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.

Agile Project Management For Dummies - Layton, Mark C. (John Wiley & Sons, 2012)
Be flexible and faster with Agile project management As mobile and web technologies continue to evolve rapidly, there is added pressure to develop and implement software projects in weeks instead of months. Agile Project Management For Dummies can make that happen. This is the first book to provide a simple, step–by–step guide to Agile Project Management approaches, tools, and techniques. With the fast pace of mobile and web technology development, software project development must keep pace; Agile Project Management enables developers to complete and implement projects more quickly and this book shows you how. Offers a practical context for understanding and applying Agile techniques, moving from theory into actual practice Explains when to use Agile and how to avoid common pitfalls Written by experts who know how to apply the principles in real–world situations Agile Project Management For Dummies enables you to understand and apply Agile principles for faster, more accurate development.

Agile vs Lean vs Design Thinking - Gothelf, Jeff (Medium, 2016)
There’s an unforgettable scene in my favorite movie, Goodfellas, where Joe Pesci, Robert DeNiro and Ray Liotta pay a late night visit to…

Agile – where are we at? - Kniberg, Henrik (2017)

Agility and Evolution. How Mercy Corps Adapts at the Organizational Level - Mercy Corps (2017)
How Mercy Corps Adapts at the Organizational Level

Aid on the Edge of Chaos: Rethinking International Cooperation in a Complex World - Ramalingam, Ben (Oxford University Press, 2014)
It is widely recognised that the foreign aid system - of which every country in the world is a part - is in need of drastic overhaul. There are conflicting opinions as to what should be done. Some call for dramatic increases to achieve longstanding promises. Others bang the drum for cutting it altogether, and suggest putting the fate of poor and vulnerable people in the hands of markets or business. A few argue that what is needed is creative, innovative transformation. The arguments in Aid on the Edge of Chaos are firmly in the third of these categories. In this ground-breaking book, Ben Ramalingam shows that the linear, mechanistic models and assumptions that foreign aid is built on are more at home in early twentieth century industry than in the dynamic, complex world we face today. The reality is that economies and societies are less like machines and more like ecosystems. Aid on the Edge of Chaos explores how thinkers and practitioners in economics, business, and public policy have started to embrace new, ecologically literate approaches to thinking and acting, informed by the ideas of complex adaptive systems research. It showcases insights, experiences, and dramatic results of a growing network of practitioners, researchers, and policy makers who are applying a complexity-informed approach to aid challenges. From transforming approaches to child malnutrition, to rethinking process of macroeconomic growth, from rural Vietnam to urban Columbia, Aid on the Edge of Chaos shows how embracing the ideas of complex systems thinking can help make foreign aid more relevant, more appropriate, more innovative, and more catalytic. It argues that taking on these ideas will be a vital part of the transformation of aid, from a post-WW2 mechanism of resource transfer, to a truly innovative and dynamic form of global cooperation fit for the twenty-first century.

AID Programming Guide - DFAT (Australian Government, 2019)

Aiding Institutional Reform in Developing Countries: Lessons from the Philippines on what works, what doesn't and why - Booth, David (The Asia Foundation, 2014)

Aiming at the Wrong Targets: The Domestic Consequences of International Efforts to Build Institutions - Buntaine, Mark T.; Parks, Bradley C.; Buch, Benjamin P. (International Studies Quarterly, 2017)
We explain why international development organizations have had so little success building and reforming public sector institutions in developing countries. They often fail despite their apparently strong commitment to achieving measurable results and extraordinary amounts of time, money, and effort. We demonstrate that, when donors and lenders make access to financing contingent upon achievement of performance targets, recipient countries tend to choose easy and shallow institutional targets. These targets measure the organization of public sector institutions, rather than their effectiveness at addressing public problems. Such targets provide countries with low-cost opportunities to signal commitment to institution-building to international development organizations. We demonstrate the explanatory and predictive power of our argument in the context of a sector of World Bank lending—environment and natural resource management—that focuses heavily on improving public sector institutions.

Alignment at Scale - Kniberg, Henrik (2016)

All about behaviour: KAPE, Adaptation and ' Sticky' Institutional Change - Power, Greg (Global Partners Governance, 2016)
This paper describes Global Partners Governance’s (GPG’s) approach to institutional reform and political change. Developed over the last decade of working in some of the most complex and sensitive political environments with politicians and officials in parliaments, political parties, ministries and local government, it describes the KAPE® (knowledge-application-practice-effect) methodology that we adopt to get ‘sticky’ institutional and behavioural change. Contents 1) Two dimensions of ‘adaptive programmes’: Flexible delivery and getting behaviour change 2) Enabling Change: KAPE and The Logic of Institutional Reform (Knowledge-Application-Practice-Effect) - K: Knowledge – Defining the problem and what to do about it - A: Application – Making Systems Work in Practice - P: Practice – Pockets of good practice and establishing ‘the new normal’ - E: Effect – Improved performance and the ‘Ripple Effect’ 3) Measuring Impact: Monitoring and Evolving 4) Conclusion: Behavioural insights, adaptive management and sticky change

ALL - The question of inclusiveness in ICT-mediated citizen engagement - Berdou, Evangelia (MAVC, 2014)

Alps - Accountability, Learning and Planning System - 2011 Update - ActionAid (ActionAid International, 2011)
Alps is ActionAid’s over arching accountability framework, containing within it our programme planning system. Alps is distinctive in that it is strongly driven by principles, and sets out necessary personal attitudes and behaviours alongside organisational processes for planning, strategy formulation, learning, monitoring reviews/evaluations and audit. Alps defines our standards, not only about what we do but also how we do it. Alps is part of ActionAid’s human rights-based work.

Amateur hour: CfC's 'surprising' success in addressing school congestion in the philippines - Sidel, John T. (Asia Foundation, 2017)
The international development community has increasingly embraced the idea that finding durable solutions to complex development problems requires new ways of working that move beyond industry norms. This paper makes an important contribution to the current debate by outlining an innovative monitoring system called Strategy Testing (ST). This is the third paper in the Working Politically in Practice paper series, launched together with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

An Adaptive Capacity Guide Book: assessing, building and evaluating the capacity of communities to adapt in a changing climate - Jacobs, B.; Nelson, R.; Kuruppu, N.; Leith, P. (University of Technology and University of Tasmania, 2015)
A capacity to adapt to change is essential for managing Australia’s natural resources. The individuals, communities and organisations who manage our natural resources all have an innate capacity to adapt to change. Changes in climate, markets and technology have shaped the way we adapt the management of natural resources in urban, rural and coastal landscapes. Some of these changes are predictable and easy to manage. Others are expected, but their timing and magnitude are uncertain. Whatever the future holds, this guide can be used to build our capacity to meet future change with confidence.

An analysis of factors influencing success of ICT4D projects: a case study of the Schools Computerisation Programme in Mashonaland West Province, Zimbabwe. - Musiyandaka, Donna; Ranga, Gideon; Kiwa, Jacqueline Fungai (The Journal of Community Informatics, 2013)
Keywords: ICT4D programmes; success factors

An analysis of what CLA looks like in Development Programming - Learning Lab (USAID, 2017)

An Introduction to Adaptive Management for Threatened and Endangered Species - Runge, Michael C. (Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management, 2011)
Management of threatened and endangered species would seem to be a perfect context for adaptive management. Many of the decisions are recurrent and plagued by uncertainty, exactly the conditions that warrant an adaptive approach. But although the potential of adaptive management in these settings has been extolled, there are limited applications in practice. The impediments to practical implementation are manifold and include semantic confusion, institutional inertia, misperceptions about the suitability and utility, and a lack of guiding examples. In this special section of the Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management, we hope to reinvigorate the appropriate application of adaptive management for threatened and endangered species by framing such management in a decision-analytical context, clarifying misperceptions, classifying the types of decisions that might be amenable to an adaptive approach, and providing three fully developed case studies. In this overview paper, I define terms, review the past application of adaptive management, challenge perceived hurdles, and set the stage for the case studies which follow.

An introduction to multi-stakeholder partnerships - Stibbe, Darian; Prescott, Dave (The Partnering Initiative, 2016)
This briefing document for the GPEDC High Level Meeting in November 2016 offers a definition of multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) and shows how they are being used, where they have come from, and what the different sectors bring to the table. It provides an overview of the challenges the present, what they require from individuals and organisations, and how they get started. The report was written with the support of the PEP Initiative, and funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

An introduction to systems thinking and tools for systems thinking - Allen, Will; Kilvington, Margaret (Learning fro Sustainability, 2018)
Systems thinking is an approach to integration that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system will act differently when isolated from the system’s environment or other parts of the system. THIS PAGE PROVIDES PLENTY OF RESOURCES ON SYSTEM THINKING

An Introduction to the DCED Standard for Results Measurement - Bekkers, Nabanita Sen (2018)
Introduction used in the DCED-BEAM seminar

An introduction to the Learning Architecture - HLA (Humanitarian Leadership Academy, 2017)
The Learning Architecture is built on a flexible Learning Methodology and provides principles, technologies and behaviours of Scaffolded Social Learning.

An inventory and review of countering violent extremism and insurgency monitoring systems - Carter, Lynn; Phyllis, Dinino (USAID, 2012)

An Upside Down View of Governance - IDS (Centre for the Future State, IDS, 2010)
Informal institutions and personalised relationships are usually seen as governance problems. However the research presented in this synthesis paper suggests that they can also be part of the solution...

An Upside Down View of Governance - Unsworth, Sue (Institute of Development Studies, 2010)
Informal institutions and personalised relationships are usually seen as governance problems. However the research presented in this synthesis paper suggests that they can also be part of the solution...

Analysing ICT and Development from the Perspective of the Capabilities Approach: A Study in South Brazil - Coelho, Taiane Ritta; Segatto, Andréa Paula; Frega, José Roberto (The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 2015)
Certain international agencies propose that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) allows development to be reached more efficiently and quickly. While there are success stories galore, there is acknowledgement of not all investments in ICT bringing positive effects towards development. Following the Capabilities Approach, this paper discusses how the use of ICT can promote a more effective development by studying the case of Sudotec (association for technological and industrial development), a non-profit organization that saw in ICT the opportunity to change the local scenario. The results revealed positive effects of the use of ICT in social, economical and cultural spheres, but not presenting political effect.

Analysis of the factors affecting the sustainability of ICT4D initiatives - Marais, Mario (IDIA2011 Conference Proceedings, 2011)

Announcement of CLA Learning Network Launch - Lab, Learning (USAID Learning Lab, 2016)
USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL), together with the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment’s localworks program, is pleased to announce the launch of a Learning Network focused on building the evidence base for Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA).

Appendix 3. ToC Examples - Vogel, Isabel; Stephenson, Zoe (DFID, 2012)

Applying Power Analysis: Using the ‘Powercube’ to explore forms, levels and spaces - Gaventa, John (Power, Empowerment and Social Change, 2019)
In a complex, globalised and rapidly changing world, power dynamics are multidimensional, constantly evolving, and full of complexity. The ‘powercube’ (Gaventa, 2006) is an approach to power analysis which can be used to examine the multiple forms, levels and spaces of power, and their interactions. Building on earlier work on power, and elaborated and popularised in collaboration with other colleagues through the web site powercube.net and numerous other resources, the powercube has been widely used around the world for analysis of power, education and awareness building, context analysis, programme and strategy development, and monitoring and evaluation. This article briefly outlines the evolution of the powercube, and provides examples of the issue areas in which it has been used, and for what purposes. Drawing on these, we then offer eight lessons of how to apply the powercube framework for analysing and transforming power relations.

Applying social learning where ‘business-as-usual’ solutions no longer work for complex problems and programs - Le Borgne, Ewen (CCSL Learning Brief, 2016)
Key messages • Social learning facilitates sharing and learning beyond individuals to networks and systems. Through a facilitated, iterative process of joint work, dialogue and reflection, new shared ways of knowing emerge that lead to changes in practice. • Social learning has real potential to unlock change and transform relationships between actors involved in complex programs and/or dealing with ‘wicked problems’. Adversely it is not advisable to pursue for simple initiatives. • Social learning offers many thematic and pragmatic entry points to be embedded in the CGIAR research programs around partnerships, innovation systems, monitoring and evaluation.

Applying Systems Thinking via Systemigrams™ for Defining the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) Project - Squires, Alice; Pyster, Art; Sauser, Brian; Olwell, David; Enck, Stephanie; Gelosh, Don; Anthony, Jim (INCOSE International Symposium, 2010)
Systems thinking is commonly accepted as the backbone of a successful systems engineering approach. As such, the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) team chose to leverage a systems thinking based tool, called Systemitool, to describe our project to the vast audience that would potentially become involved directly or indirectly in the success of the project. This paper describes the process and steps used by the authors and the BKCASE team to develop the project's systemic diagram, or Systemigram™, and the story behind the project, the products, and the vision of the BKCASE project. The goal of the paper is to provide guidance so that readers can leverage the lessons learned from this effort to successfully develop their own project definitions and stories.

Appreciative Inquiry Australia - Appreciative Inquiry Australia (2015)
The site provides news and information on AI events and learning opportunities in Australia and also provides an archive of articles and discussions centred on the use of AI.

Appreciative Inquiry: Organization Development and the Strengths Revolution - Stavros, Jacqueline M.; Godwin, Lindsey N.; Cooperrider, David L. (Practicing Organization Development, 2015)
A ppreciative Inquiry (AI) is a theory and practice of inquiry-and-changethat shifts the perspective of organization development (OD) methodsby suggesting that the very act of asking generative questions has pro-found impact in organizational systems. Inquiry and change are not separatemoments. Our questions focus our attention on what is “there” to be noticed.Reflecting its social constructionist roots (Cooperrider, Barrett, and Srivastva1995; Gergen 1995), which suggest that words create worlds, AI offers a newchange imperative by suggesting that we be aware of the negativity bias thatpervades our investigations into organizational life and instead shift our focusto the good, the better, and the possibilities that often go undernoticed in oursystems. Building on Gergen (1995) and Cooperrider and Avital (2003), Cooper-rider and Godwin (2012) summarize, “AI posits that human systems move in thedirection of the questions they most frequently and authentically ask; knowl-edge and organizational destiny are intimately interwoven; what we know andhow we study it has a direct impact on where we end up” (740).Leveraging the power of generative questions, AI changes the focus of whatwe typically study in organizational life, questioning the prevailing mindset that“organizations are problems to be solved,” (Cooperrider and Srivastva 1987).Instead, AI suggests that “organizations are mysteries and miracles of humanrelatedness; they are living systems, alive and embedded in ever-wideningwebs of infinite strength and limitless human imagination. Organizations, ascenters of human connectivity and collaboration, are ‘universes of strengths,’” (Cooperrider and Godwin 2010, 10). AI invites change agents to look intotheir organizations with “appreciative eyes”—scanning the system for thingsfor which to be grateful, seeking out what is next and what is possible, andfocusing on valuing those things of value worth valuing. AI theorists posit thatsuch a shift in our approach to organizational change is needed if we are toinspire our imaginative capacities to their fullest potential.

Appreciative Inquiry Principles - Coaching Leaders (2015)
This article, written by Emotional Intelligence Coach Andy Smith, describes the anticipatory principle which is one of the underpinnings of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). It argues that it is easier and more effective to move towards a positive imagined future than away from a negative one. It is principle number 4 in a series of principles outlined. More principle are listed below.

Appreciative Inquiry: Three decades of generative impact - Godwin, Lindsey N. (AI Practitioner, 2016)

Approaches for addressing complexity in programme theory: Experiences in applying the Actor-based Change (ABC) Framework to a variety of international development programmes and evaluations - Koleros, Andrew; Oldenbeuving, Mark (2018)

Appropriating technology for accountability: messages from Making All Voices Count - McGee, Rosemary; Edwards, Duncan; Hudson, Hannah; Anderson, Colin; Feruglio, Francesca (IDS, 2018)
Making All Voices Count was a programme designed to solve the ‘grand challenge’ of creating more effective democratic governance and accountability around the world. It used funding from four donors to support the development and spread of innovative ideas for solving governance problems – many of them involving tools and platforms based on mobile phone and web technologies. Between 2013 and 2017, the programme made grants for innovation and scaling projects that aimed to amplify the voices of citizens and enable governments to listen and respond. It also conducted research and issued research grants to explore the roles that technology can play in securing responsive, accountable government and building an evidence base. This synthesis report reviews the Making All Voices Count’s four-and-a-half years of operational experience and learning. It shares 14 key messages on the roles technologies can play in enabling citizen voice and accountable and responsive governance. These messages are presented in four sections: (1) Applying technologies as technical fixes to solve service delivery problems; (2) Applying technologies to broader, systemic governance challenges ; (3) Applying technologies to build the foundations of democratic and accountable governance systems; (4) Applying technologies for the public ‘bad’, when tech can be dangerous for democracy. The tech optimism of the era in which the programme was conceived can now be reappraised from the better-informed vantage point of hindsight. Making All Voices Count’s wealth of diverse and grounded experience and documentation provides an evidence base that should enable a more sober and mature position of tech realism as the field of tech for accountable governance continues to evolve.

Are unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) the future of wildlife monitoring? A review of accomplishments and challenges - Linchant, Julie; Lisein, Jonathan; Semeki, Jean; Lejeune, Philippe; Vermeulen, Cédric (Mammal Review, 2015)
Regular monitoring of animal populations must be established to ensure wildlife protection, especially when pressure on animals is high. The recent development of drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) opens new opportunities. UASs have several advantages, including providing data at high spatial and temporal resolution, providing systematic, permanent data, having low operational costs and being low-risk for the operators. However, UASs have some constraints, such as short flight endurance. We reviewed studies in which wildlife populations were monitored by using drones, described accomplishments to date and evaluated the range of possibilities UASs offer to provide new perspectives in future research. We focused on four main topics: 1) the available systems and sensors; 2) the types of survey plan and detection possibilities; 3) contributions towards anti-poaching surveillance; and 4) legislation and ethics. We found that small fixed-wing UASs are most commonly used because these aircraft provide a viable compromise between price, logistics and flight endurance. The sensors are typically electro-optic or infrared cameras, but there is the potential to develop and test new sensors. Despite various flight plan possibilities, mostly classical line transects have been employed, and it would be of great interest to test new methods to adapt to the limitations of UASs. Detection of many species is possible, but statistical approaches are unavailable if valid inventories of large mammals are the purpose. Contributions of UASs to anti-poaching surveillance are not yet well documented in the scientific literature, but initial studies indicate that this approach could make important contributions to conservation in the next few years. Finally, we conclude that one of the main factors impeding the use of UASs is legislation. Restrictions in the use of airspace prevent researchers from testing all possibilities, and adaptations to the relevant legislation will be necessary in future.
Keywords: detection; drone; survey; wildlife

Are we suffering from obsessive measurement disorder? - Pasanen, Tiina (From Poverty to Power, 2019)
ODI’s Tiina Pasanen argues that more data doesn’t necessarily mean we make better decisions, and sets out some ideas for how we count what counts.

Are you doing what’s needed to get the state to respond to its citizens? Or are you part of the problem? - Herringshaw, Vanessa (Making All Voices Count, 2017)
Three challenges from Making All Voices Count research on responsive governance

Assessing Impact in Dynamic and Complex Environments: Systemic Action Research and Participatory Systemic Inquiry - Burns, Danny (IDS, 2014)
This CDI Practice Paper is about the uses of Systemic Action Research (SAR) and Participatory Systemic Inquiry (PSI) for impact assessment (Burns 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013; Wadsworth 2001, 2010).

Assessing Innovation Potential for Social Impact: Overview for Social Sector Leaders - Global Knowledge Initiative (2016)

Assessing Rural Transformations: Piloting a Qualitative Impact Protocol in Malawi and Ethiopia - Copestake, James; Remnant, Fiona (Centre for Development Studies (CDS), 2014)

Assessing the Demand for a Global Evidence Network. Mapping Existing Initiatives and Understanding Network Lessons and Opportunities - Gandolfo, Ari; Taddese, Abeba (Results for all, 2018)

Assessing the Evidence: The Effectiveness and Impact of Public Governance-Oriented Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives - Brockmyer, Brandon; Fox, Jonathan A. (Transparency & Accountability Initiative, 2015)
Transnational multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) – voluntary partnerships between governments, civil society, and the private sector – are an increasingly prevalent strategy for promoting government responsiveness and accountability to citizens. While most transnational MSIs involve using voluntary standards to encourage socially and environmentally responsible private sector behavior, a handful of these initiatives – the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST), the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) and the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) – focus on information disclosure and participation in the public sector. Unlike private sector MSIs, which attempt to supplement weak government capacity to enforce basic social and environmental standards through partnerships between businesses and civil society, public sector MSIs ultimately seek to bolster public governance. But how exactly are these MSIs supposed to work? And how much has actually been achieved?The purpose of this study is to identify and consolidate the current state of the evidence for public governance-oriented MSI effectiveness and impact. Researchers collected over 300 documents and interviewed more than two-dozen MSI stakeholders about their experiences with five public governance oriented multi-stakeholder initiatives.This report provides a ‘snapshot’ of the evidence related to these five MSIs, and suggests that the process of leveraging transparency and participation through these initiatives for broader accountability gains remains uncertain. The report highlights the ongoing process of defining MSI success and impact, and how these initiatives intersect with other accountability actors and processes in complex ways. The study closes with key recommendations for MSI stakeholders.
Keywords: Accountability; Participation; Program evaluation; Transparency; global governance; multi-stakeholder

Assessing the strength of Evidence - DFID (2014)

Assessing the use of technological tools and strategies by Oxfam Novib partners in Angola, Burundi, Egypt, Niger, Pakistan, Rwanda and Uganda - The Engine Room (2014)
This report presents findings and insights from the Oxfam Novib pilot module of TechScape, which assessed how Oxfam Novib partners in seven countries related to the use of technology in their work. This report does not aim to draw conclusions about the nature of technology use by Oxfam Novib partners per se, or even the partners included in this assessment. The dramatic difference in organizational activities, contexts and objectives are too great for that. Detailed analysis of how partners are relating to technology in their work, and specific recommendations for greater efficiency and impact are presented in the TechScape Country Briefs. This report aims instead: • to describe the context in which the assessments took place, • to propose insights gained from the cumulative process about measurement, learning and capacity development, and • to identify opportunities for Oxfam Novib to pursue capacity development and knowledge sharing between countries and across the network, through mechanisms that minimize resource demands and directly target documented needs.

Assumption-aware tools and agency; an interrogation of the primary artifacts of the program evaluation and design profession in working with complex evaluands and complex contexts - Morrow, Nathan; Nkwake, Apollo M. (Evaluation and Program Planning, 2016)
Like artisans in a professional guild, we evaluators create tools to suit our ever evolving practice. The tools we use as evaluators are the primary artifacts of our profession, reflect our practice and embody an amalgamation of paradigms and assumptions. With the increasing shifts in evaluation purposes from judging program worth to understanding how programs work, the evaluator’s role is changing to that of facilitating stakeholders in a learning process. This involves clarifying purposes and choices, as well as unearthing critical assumptions. In such a role, evaluators become major tool-users and begin to innovate with small refinements or produce completely new tools to fit a specific challenge or context. We interrogate the form and function of 12 tools used by evaluators when working with complex evaluands and complex contexts. The form is described in terms of traditional qualitative techniques and particular characteristics of the elements, use and presentation of each tool. Then the function of each tool is analyzed with respect to articulating assumptions and affecting the agency of evaluators and stakeholders in complex contexts.
Keywords: Agency; Assumption-aware; Complex context; Complex programs; Participatory approaches; Program design; Program evaluation; Program tools; Theory-based

Assumptions, conjectures, and other miracles: The application of evaluative thinking to theory of change models in community development - Archibald, Thomas; Sharrock, Guy; Buckley, Jane; Cook, Natalie (Evaluation and Program Planning, 2016)
Unexamined and unjustified assumptions are the Achilles’ heel of development programs. In this paper, we describe an evaluation capacity building (ECB) approach designed to help community development practitioners work more effectively with assumptions through the intentional infusion of evaluative thinking (ET) into the program planning, monitoring, and evaluation process. We focus specifically on one component of our ET promotion approach involving the creation and analysis of theory of change (ToC) models. We describe our recent efforts to pilot this ET ECB approach with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Ethiopia and Zambia. The use of ToC models, plus the addition of ET, is a way to encourage individual and organizational learning and adaptive management that supports more reflective and responsive programming.
Keywords: Assumptions; Community development; Critical thinking; Evaluation capacity building; Evaluative thinking; International Development; Theory of change

Back to the Drawing Board: How to improve monitoring of outcomes - Dillon, Neil; Sundberg, Amelie (ODI/ALNAP, 2019)

Balancing Inclusiveness, Rigour and Feasibility: Insights from Participatory Impact Evaluations in Ghana and Vietnam - van Hemelrijck, Adinda; Guijt, Irene (CDI, 2016)
This paper by Adinda Van Hemelrijck and Irene Guijt explores how impact evaluation can live up to standards broader than statistical rigour in ways that address challenges of complexity and enable stakeholders to engage meaningfully. A Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning Approach (PIALA) was piloted to assess and debate the impacts on rural poverty of two government programmes in Vietnam and Ghana funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). We discuss the trade-offs between rigour, inclusiveness and feasibility encountered in these two pilots. Trade-offs occur in every impact evaluation aiming for more than reductionist rigour, but the pilots suggest that they can be reduced by building sufficient research and learning capacity.

Barriers and enablers to climate change adaptation in hierarchical governance systems: the case of Vietnam - Phuong, Le Thi Hong; Biesbroek, G. Robbert; Wals, Arjen E. J. (Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 2018)
Governments fulfil important roles in increasing the adaptive capacity of local communities to respond to climate change impacts, particularly in developing countries. Existing studies on how governments enable and constrain the ways in which local level communities learn and build their adaptive capacity, however, generally adopt network or market-oriented types of governance. However, the most vulnerable regions to climate change impact in the world are generally governed through hierarchical policy systems. This research aims to understand how the hierarchical policy system in Vietnam creates enables and/or constrains the policy capacity of policy actors to contribute to effective climate change adaptation. We conducted interviews (n = 26) with key actors at multiple levels of government. Our findings show the importance of clear legal institutions, available financing for implementing policies, and the training of governmental staff, particularly at district and commune levels where the policy capacities are generally too low to deal with climate change impacts. We conclude that any efforts to support local actors (i.e. smallholder farmers) should include investments in policy capacity to ensure uptake and upscaling of adaptation actions more broadly.

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

Barrio Mio and Katye: PCI’s neighbourhood approach in cities - Campbell, Leah (ALNAP/ODI, 2019)

Before the Backlash, Let’s Redefine User-Centered Design - Lee, Panthea (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2015)
We must better understand user-centered design’s limitations—not just its strengths—in the context of international development. And we must adapt it from its original uses designing commercial products to solving for social good.

Behavioral Design: A New Approach to Development Policy - Datta, Saugato; Mullainathan, Sendhil (Review of Income and Wealth, 2014)

Behind the scenes: International NGOs’ influence on reproductive health policy in Malawi and South Sudan - Storeng, Katerini T.; Palmer, Jennifer; Daire, Judith; Kloster, Maren O. (Global Public Health, 2019)
Global health donors increasingly embrace international nongovernmental organisations (INGOs) as partners, often relying on them to conduct political advocacy in recipient countries, especially in controversial policy domains like reproductive health. Although INGOs are the primary recipients of donor funding, they are expected to work through national affiliates or counterparts to enable ‘locally-led’ change. Using prospective policy analysis and ethnographic evidence, this paper examines how donor-funded INGOs have influenced the restrictive policy environments for safe abortion and family planning in South Sudan and Malawi. While external actors themselves emphasise the technical nature of their involvement, the paper analyses them as instrumental political actors who strategically broker alliances and resources to shape policy, often working ‘behind the scenes’ to manage the challenging circumstances they operate under. Consequently, their agency and power are hidden through various practices of effacement or concealment. These practices may be necessary to rationalise the tensions inherent in delivering a global programme with the goal of inducing locally-led change in a highly controversial policy domain, but they also risk inciting suspicion and foreign-national tensions.

Between logframes and theory of change: reviewing debates and a practical experience - Prinsen, Gerard; Nijhof, Saskia (Development in Practice, 2015)
Theory of Change (ToC) is an emerging methodology in the practice of development programmes, often contrasted with the dominant logical framework. This article reviews current debates around ToC before identifying five aspects that are appreciated in practice. It appears that these aspects mostly cover areas where the logical framework is not – or is no longer – meeting the needs of practitioners. Subsequently, the article analyses experiences in ToC training for NGO staff and concludes that ToC can address shortcomings of the logical framework – if only by going back to some of the roots of the logical framework.
Publisher: Routledge _eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2015.1003532

Beyond Ballotocracy: Citizens' Voices and the Many Faces of Unruly Politics - Tadros, Mariz (IDS Bulletin, 2014)

Beyond enforcement: communities, governance, incentives and sustainable use in combating wildlife crime. Symposium Report. - Roe, Dilys (IIED, 2015)

Beyond Logframe: Critique, Variations and Alternatives - Hummelbrunner, Richard (Beyond Logframe; Using Systems Concepts in Evaluation, 2010)
Over the last decades, the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) has become universally known and has assumed a key role for planning and managing development interventions. LFA, however, is not uncontroversial and the approach has been subject to criticism, concerning both its theoretical foundations and practical use. Despite these criticisms LFA’s position has not been fundamentally weakened and while many donors acknowledge its limits and weaknesses, they maintain (some would say impose) its use as a planning and monitoring tool. This chapter reviews some of the experience gained with LFA and outlines major attempts to develop variations – or move beyond it altogether. The first section briefly describes the LFA concept and summarizes the main points of critique. Section 2 then explores some variations which have been developed in response to this critique and to improve LFA as a management tool. Section 3 proposes a systemic alternative to logframe and Section 4 outlines alternatives to LFA which have recently been introduced in German development aid.

Beyond Logframes - Simister, Nigel (Intrac, 2017)
The logical framework, otherwise known as a logframe, is a commonly used planning tool. Initially designed for use within simple projects, it is increasingly being applied to complex programmes and organisations. In these cases the logical framework has limitations. There are several options that can help overcome these limitations. These include expanding the logframe, and using multiple logframes.

Beyond magic bullets in governance reform - de Gramont, Diane (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2014)

Beyond Participation and Accountability: Theorizing Representation in Local Democracy - Fischer, Harry W. (World Development, 2016)
Recent decades have seen growing emphasis on enhancing public participation and accountability in governance processes. Yet the valence of these discussions has focused almost entirely on the character of citizen engagement itself, with little attention to the ways in which citizens’ agency is constituted in relation to changing forms of public authority. In this paper, I advance a theoretical account of political representation, a concept that is central to analysis of democracy, but which has seen only limited attention in the scholarship on democratic decentralization. I draw on two contrasting models—selection and sanction—to elaborate an understanding of representation that recognizes both mechanisms that enable citizens to hold their leaders to account as well as the character of leaders’ own intrinsic motivations. Through a qualitative account of three decades’ political change from a locality in the Indian Himalayas, I document a gradual process of institutional and social change that has enabled a new generation of more diverse elected leaders to ascend to positions of elected authority, including many from historically marginalized sections of society. By examining the experiences of three such individuals in detail, I demonstrate the importance of understanding who leaders are and what they do—their skills and aspirations, their identity and aﬃliations, and the kinds of representative relationships that they embody. Placing the selection and sanction models in dialog reveals new and productive avenues to explore the interplay between external incentive structures and leaders’ intrinsic motivations in shaping broader process of political change.

Beyond 'Technology for Development' and 'Sustainability' towards Systemic and Holistic Rural Innovation: Success Factors from the Southern African Experience over 20 years - Buisson, Uys Du; Cronje, Braam; Marais, Mario; Haruperi, Emmanuel; Rensburg, Johann (2014)
Abstract: This paper describes essential, real-world activities and processes needed to develop and deploy people-centred networks enabled with innovative technologies that in turn produce "...

Beyond the Pioneer: Getting inclusive industries to scale - Koh, Harvey; Hedge, Nidhi; Karamchandani, Ashish (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Private Ltd (DTTIPL), 2014)

Beyond the toolkit: supporting peace processes in Asia - Denney, Lisa; Barron, Patrick (The Asia Foundation, 2015)

Beyond the tools: supporting adaptation when organisational resources and capacities are in short supply - Fünfgeld, Hartmut; Lonsdale, Kate; Bosomworth, Karyn (Climatic Change, 2018)
Climate change adaptation is increasingly concerned with how organisations develop capacity to adapt to uncertain futures. A participatory action research project conducted in Victoria, Australia, examined how health and social service organisations developed their organisational adaptive capacity through the use of adaptation decision-support tools. It can be challenging for any organisation to select and apply a decision-support tool, but this is particularly the case where resources and capacities are limited. For most organisations, climate change is only one of a complex set of dynamic stressors they must consider in meeting organisational goals. This paper shows that while decision-support tools can help co-generate knowledge and facilitate customised organisational adaptation processes, for them to be practically helpful for organisations with limited resources and capacities, intensive collaborative and discursive processes are needed to adjust such tools to fit specific organisational contexts and needs. Facilitators and participatory approaches that enable co-inquiry can play a critical role in supplementing scarce resources and initiating adaptation processes that go well beyond the scope and purpose of the decision-support tool used. Organisations working effectively with decision-support tools to adapt to climate change will need to feel ownership of them and have confidence in modifying them to suit their particular adaptation needs and organisational goals.
Keywords: Adaptive capacity; Climate change; Community services; Decision-support tools; Facilitation; Health and social services; Organizational change

Beyond Tweets and Screams: Action for Empowerment and Accountability in Nigeria – The Case of the #BBOG Movement - Aina, Tade Akin; Atela, Martin; Ojebode, Ayo; Dayil, Plangsat; Aremu, Fatai (IDS, 2019)
This paper explores the nature, role and dynamics of new forms of social and political action as pathways to empowerment and accountability in fragile conflict- and violence-affected settings in Africa. Through an in-depth analysis of the case of the Bring Back Our Girls (#BBOG) movement in Nigeria and a multi-methods approach, the paper provides new knowledge that addresses evidence gaps in the following areas: (1) the multiple ways through which social and political action play out in fragile, conflict- and violence-affected settings; (2) whether the conditions in which new forms of social and political action applicable to fragile, conflict- and violence-affected settings – the settings most dominant in African countries – emerge as currently projected in the literature; and (3) whether these social and political actions necessarily produce accountability and empowerment in fragile, conflict- and violence-affected settings. Although often expressed as contentious and/or unruly politics, experiences from the BBOG movement suggest that the new forms of social and political action possess a wide range of implications for citizen action and governance, including leading to multiple forms of empowerment in fragile settings.

Biased Policy Professionals - Banuri, Sheheryar; Dercon, Stefan; Gauri, Varun (The World Bank Economic Review, 2019)
Although the decisions of policy professionals are often more consequential than those of individuals in their private capacity, there is a dearth of studies on the biases of policy professionals: those who prepare and implement policy on behalf of elected politicians. Experiments conducted on a novel subject pool of development policy professionals (public servants of the World Bank and the Department for International Development in the UK) show that policy professionals are indeed subject to decision-making traps, including the effects of framing outcomes as losses or gains, and, most strikingly, confirmation bias driven by ideological predisposition, despite having an explicit mission to promote evidence-informed and impartial decision making. These findings should worry policy professionals and their principals in governments and large organizations, as well as citizens themselves. A further experiment, in which policy professionals engage in discussion, shows that deliberation may be able to mitigate the effects of some of these biases.
Keywords: bias

Biodiversity How-To Guide 1: Developing Situation Models in USAID Biodiversity Programming - USAID (USAID, 2016)
The Biodiversity How-To Guide 1: Developing Situation Models in USAID Biodiversity Programming is the first in a series of three guides that provide in-depth guidance on key tools and practices to support design teams as they design and manage biodiversity programs within the Program Cycle and in accordance with the USAID Biodiversity Policy. It focuses on how to develop situation models to map out the biodiversity conservation problem context to be addressed.

Biodiversity How-To Guide 2: Using Results Chains to Depict Theories of Change in USAID Biodiversity Programming - USAID (USAID, 2016)
The Biodiversity How-To Guide 2: Using Results Chains to Depict Theories of Change in USAID Biodiversity Programming is the second in a series of three guides that provide in-depth guidance on key tools and practices to support design teams as they design and manage biodiversity programs within the Program Cycle and in accordance with the USAID Biodiversity Policy. It builds off the situation model guide to help design teams clearly state the expected results and assumptions behind the proposed strategic approaches that make up the program’s theory of change. The situation model provides the foundation to identify necessary results to reduce threats; brainstorm and prioritize strategic approaches; and then develop results chains to clarify assumptions behind selected approaches.

Biodiversity How-To Guide 3: Defining Outcomes & Indicators for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning in USAID Biodiversity Programming - USAID (USAID, 2016)
The Biodiversity How-To Guide 3: Defining Outcomes and Indicators for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning in USAID Biodiversity Programming is the third in a series of three guides that provide in-depth guidance on key tools and practices to support design teams as they design and manage biodiversity programs within the Program Cycle and in accordance with the USAID Biodiversity Policy. It uses the results chains developed in the second guide and provides help identifying key results for developing outcome statements and indicators, as required by USAID’s Biodiversity Code, updated in the Biodiversity Policy.

Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success - Syed, Matthew (Hachette UK, 2015)
The Sunday Times No.1 Bestseller From the Bestselling Author of BounceWhat links the Mercedes Formula One team with Google?What links Team Sky and the aviation industry?What connects James Dyson and David Beckham?They are all Black Box Thinkers.Black Box Thinking is a new approach to high performance, a means of finding an edge in a complex and fast-changing world. It is not just about sport, but has powerful implications for business and politics, as well as for parents and students. In other words, all of us.Drawing on a dizzying array of case studies and real-world examples, together with cutting-edge research on marginal gains, creativity and grit, Matthew Syed tells the inside story of how success really happens - and how we cannot grow unless we are prepared to learn from our mistakes.
Google-Books-ID: f1eNBQAAQBAJ
Keywords: Psychology; Sports & Recreation / Sports Psychology; Strategic Planning

Blurring the Boundaries: Citizen Action Across States and Societies - Benequista, Nicholas; Gaventa, John (Brighton: Citizenship DRC, 11., 2011)

Book Review: Branko Milanovic's brilliant take on Global Inequality (From Poverty to Power, 2016)
Some of my favourite development economists are nomads, people with feet in different regions, which seems to make them better able to identify interesting patterns and similarities/differences bet...

Bootcamp Bootleg Design Thinking Toolkit - d.school (Institute of Design, Stanford University, 2010)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Bradford Hill Criteria for Causal Inference - King, Julian (2015)
We think we’re good at determining causality, but we suck at it One of the great challenges in evaluation is determining whether the results we’re seeing are because of the program we’re evaluating, some other influences out there in the big world, or random chance. At one level, this is an everyday, common sense task. As a species we’ve been making judgments about causation for a million years or so. Unfortunately, though, the way we are wired does not predispose us to logical thinking. We are inclined to be led astray by all sorts of biases and heuristics. Over time, the rocket science for dealing with causation has become more sophisticated – a key example being the experimental study design or randomised controlled trial (RCT). And our evidence base about what works has been enriched as a result. But deep down we’re still biased, heuristical beings and not very good at thinking things through. We’ve become so enthusiastic about experimental designs we’re a little inclined to think they are the only way to determine whether A causes B. Such a rigid view is no much use in the real world, where there are all sorts of ethical, conceptual, practical and economic barriers that mean we can’t always conduct RCTs. Even where technically possible, they are not necessarily the best tool for every job.

(Breaking) The Iron Triangle of Evaluation - Reynolds, Martin (IDS Bulletin, 2015)
Keywords: Evaluation; impact

Breaking the Mould: Alternative approaches to monitoring and evaluation - Dillon, Neil (ALNAP, 2019)
This paper looks at a range of M&E innovations that are designed specifically to provide input to ongoing iterative decision-making and learning at the project level. It identifies three key areas for potential innovation: 1) timing of M&E data provision; 2) flexibility of M&E frameworks to evolve with programme change; and 3) approaches to integrate diverse perspectives on project implementation in a meaningful way. It then looks at a collection of approaches currently being used in each of these three areas through a series of ‘practice examples’, considering the key lessons learned. Finally, the paper discusses the major opportunities and challenges for applying and scaling up the use of these approaches inside the humanitarian sector.

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

Bridging Real-Time Data and Adaptive Management in International Devepment - Case Study Report - Ramalingam, Ben; Barnett, Inka; Valters, Craig; Oppenheimer, Carrie; Levy, Anna; Hernandez, Kevin (IDS, 2017)

Bridging Real-Time Data and Adaptive Management: Ten Lessons for Policy Makers and Practitioners - Ben Ramalingam; Inka Barnett; Kevin Hernandez; Panthea Lee; Anna Levy; Carrie Oppenheimer; Dennis Whittle; Craig Valters; Leni Wild (USAID, 2017)
The ongoing digital revolution has seen rapid growth in the deployment of technology enabled real-time data initiatives in international development and humanitarian work, developed with the goal of accelerating decision-making processes and enhancing aid effectiveness and efficiency.

Bridging the Gap: How Real-Time Data Can Contribute to Adaptive Management in International Development - Ben Ramalingam; Inka Barnett; Kevin Hernandez; Panthea Lee; Anna Levy; Carrie Oppenheimer; Dennis Whittle; Craig Valters; Leni Wild (USAID, 2017)
The ongoing digital revolution has seen rapid growth in the deployment of technology enabled real-time data initiatives in international development and humanitarian work, developed with the goal of accelerating decision-making processes and enhancing aid effectiveness and efficiency.

Bridging the Gap: Synthesising Evidence from Secondary Quantitative and Primary Qualitative Data - Roelen, Keetie (IDS, 2016)

Bringing adaptive management to life: Insights from practice - Arora, Anmol; Gogoi, Elizabeth; Joy, Divya; Kumar, Pankaj; Luthra, Rajni; Pal, Uma; Pervaiz, Arif (Oxford Policy Management, 2019)

Bringing Participation into Complexity-Aware MEL: What is the evidence? - Apgar, Marina; Higdon, Grace Lyn (2018)

Broad Agency Announcement for Locally Led Development Innovation - USAID (USAID, 2019)
This BAA allows USAID Operating Units (OUs) to co-create, co-design, co-invest, and collaborate in the research, development, piloting, testing, and scaling of innovative, practical, and cost-effective interventions to catalyze locally led development. The BAA aligns with a number of Agency priorities and policies, including the Journey to Self-Reliance, resilience, procurement innovation, and expanding and diversifying the partner base - as well as the New Partnerships Initiative and Acquisition and Assistance Strategy. E3/LS has put up the BAA’s first Addendum, "New Directions in Advancing Locally Led Development," which seeks Expressions of Interest on the following: - Engaging the Local Private Sector - Conflict, Post-Conflict, and Non-Permissive Environments - Effective Partnerships - The Changing Role of the Donor - Local Giving, Philanthropy, and Other Private Resources

Broadening the range of designs and methods for impact evaluations - Stern, Elliot; Stame, Nicoletta; Mayne, John; Forss, Kim; Davies, Rick; Befani, Barbara (DFID, 2012)

Budgeting for Developmental Evaluation: An Interview with Michael Quinn Patton - Better Evaluation (2012)

Building a Better International NGO: Greater than the Sum of the Parts? - Crowley, James; Ryan, Morgana (Kumarian Press, 2013)
In the wake of tremendous growth in the size and scope of their activities, as well as the increased complexity of their programs, how can large international NGOs work effectively―so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts? James Crowley and Morgana Ryan address this question, drawing on their extensive hands-on experience to offer a practical and even provocative guide. The authors cover a range of essential topics, among them: What are INGOs good at? What should they be good at? Where does new technology fit in? What about accountability? What’s the best way to tackle strategic planning? In the process, they challenge those in leadership positions to recognize and implement the changes that are needed so that their organizations can perform better―and stay relevant―in the decades to come.

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

Building a Learning Community in Liberia Through Partnerships at iCampus - iCampus (USAID LEARN, 2018)
Accountability Lab Liberia (ALab) and iLab Liberia established iCampus- a shared innovation, co-working and community space for organizations focusing on the intersection of technology, accountability and social change in Liberia. ALab implements DAI’s Learning activities at iCampus, and it is referred to as the Strategic Learning Partner of USAID Liberia Accountability and Voice Initiative (LAVI). LAVI is a five year USAID program with an overarching goal to strengthen multi-stakeholder partnerships to advocate for and monitor policy and accountability reforms. The iCampus CLA case scenario captures joint efforts of Accountability Lab Liberia, iLab Liberia and USAID LAVI, to ensure that learning and methodologies are shared and applied by development actors; address common capacity challenges that particularly hinder civil society from engaging in evidence-based and issues-based advocacy using various approaches, including network-building, creation of a cross-sectoral learning space- through collaboration and learning. In 2017, iCampus conducted a learning mapping survey to understand how organizations are learning in Liberia. The result indicated that frameworks and concepts of organizational learning are not yet well understood or used to guide strategic or programmatic practices, by either Liberian or international organizations. ALab, iLab and USAID LAVI then adopted a set of strategies, that led to the implementation of a CLA, enabling the establishment of the first multi-sectoral learning community in Liberia.

Building a Learning Culture – The case of the Market Development Facility in Fiji - Miehlbradt, Alexandra (The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development, 2015)
Keywords: Case Report

Building Bridges to an Uncertain Future Lived Now: Lessons from the Use of Participatory Action Research and Theory of Change Towards A Realistic Community-Based Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation System - Avila, Enrique M.; Tolentino, Lutgarda L.; Binondo, Claudia B.; Perez, Maripaz L.; Apgar, J. Marina (International Journal of Agriculture System, 2016)
Building on experience from the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems implemented by WorldFish in the Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippines, known as the VisMin Hub, we describe the development and evolution of a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system emerging from the facilitated action-reflection cycles of testing and adopting theories of change carried out with community partners through participatory action research (PAR). The former guides our community partners and us, as members of the potentially emergent PAR groups, towards the realization of the community’s vision; the latter facilitates learning to understand what, how and why change is unfolding. Unlike the conventional M&E system where indicators are pre-set at the beginning of program implementation, these processes result in an organically-evolved, communitybased participatory M&E system that is continuously revised according to contexts to guide communities towards realizing their visions. Its ultimate outcome is enhanced people’s capacity to own the product and process, giving rise to an internally-driven change. Towards the end, the paper offers an iterative discussion of learnings from implementing such an approach.
Keywords: Aquatic agricultural systems; CGIAR; Community-based participatory MEL; Learning; Participatory action research; research in development; theory of change

Building capability by delivering results: Putting Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) principles into practice - Andrews, Matt; Pritchett, Lant; Samji, Salimah; Woolcock, Michael (A Governance Practitioner’s Notebook: Alternative Ideas and Approaches, 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

Building Democracy from Below: Lessons from Western Uganda - King, Sophie; Hickey, Sam (The Journal of Development Studies, 2016)
How to achieve democratisation in the neo-patrimonial and agrarian environments that predominate in sub-Saharan Africa continues to present a challenge for both development theory and practice. Drawing on intensive fieldwork in Western Uganda, this paper argues that Charles Tilly’s ‘democratisation as process’ provides us with the framework required to explain the ways in which particular kinds of association can advance democratisation from below. Moving beyond the current focus on how elite-bargaining and certain associational forms may contribute to liberal forms of democracy, this approach helps identify the intermediate mechanisms involved in building democracy from below, including the significance of challenging categorical inequalities, notably through the role of producer groups, and of building trust networks, cross-class alliances and synergistic relations between civil and political society. The evidence and mode of analysis deployed here help suggest alternative routes for supporting local efforts to build democracy from below in sub-Saharan Africa.
Keywords: FRUGAL

Building elevators for development mutants - Quaggiotto, Giulio (Disrupt & Innovate, 2016)
I recently had the opportunity to learn about General Mill’s (the US food giant) “emerging brands elevator” program (also known as 301 Inc). Traditionally, General Mills has grown either through mergers and acquisitions, or by building new businesses from the ground up. Increasingly, however, it found that small brands were much faster at innovation, so … Continue reading Building elevators for development mutants

Building intentional networks that drive impact - Mohr, Jeff (In Too Deep, 2016)
These days everyone is familiar with some type of network — whether that’s their professional network on LinkedIn, their social network on…

Building intentional networks that drive impact (part 2) - Mohr, Jeff (In Too Deep, 2016)
This is part 2 of our series on building intentional networks. Make sure you’ve read part 1 before diving into this article!