Scale Up Sourcebook - Cooley, Larry; Howard, Julie (Purdue University, 2019)
The Scale Up Sourcebook is informed and inspired by the September 2018 conference, Innovations in Agriculture: Scaling Up to Reach Millions, organized by Purdue University, in partnership with the African Development Bank. The Sourcebook consolidates, extends, and disseminates some of the scaling insights presented at the Purdue conference. It is intended as an easy-to-use guidebook targeted to a broad and diverse audience of stakeholders associated with scaling agricultural technologies and innovations to meet the needs of the world’s poor. The Sourcebook has nine chapters: designing with scale in mind; assessing scalability; using commercial markets to drive scaling; financing the transition to scale; creating an enabling environment for scale; tailoring metrics, monitoring, and evaluation to support sustainable outcomes at scale; and the critical role of intermediary and donor organizations. The Sourcebook provides guidance, tips, and examples, along with links and references to additional resources on scale up.

Scale Up Sourcebook - Cooley, Larry; Howard, Julie (Scale Up Conference, 2019)
The Scale Up Sourcebook is informed and inspired by the September 2018 conference, Innovations in Agriculture: Scaling Up to Reach Millions, organized by Purdue University, in partnership with the African Development Bank. The Sourcebook consolidates, extends, and disseminates some of the scaling insights presented at the Purdue conference. It is intended as an easy-to-use guidebook targeted to a broad and diverse audience of stakeholders associated with scaling agricultural technologies and innovations to meet the needs of the world’s poor. The Sourcebook has nine chapters: designing with scale in mind; assessing scalability; using commercial markets to drive scaling; financing the transition to scale; creating an enabling environment for scale; tailoring metrics, monitoring, and evaluation to support sustainable outcomes at scale; and the critical role of intermediary and donor organizations. The Sourcebook provides guidance, tips, and examples, along with links and references to additional resources on scale up.

Scaling up - From Vision to Large-Scale Change - A Management Framework for Practitioners - Cooley, Larry; Kohl, Richard; Ved, Rajani R. (MSI, 2016)
This document was originally published in 2006 and re-issued in a substantially revised Second Edition in 2012.

Taking Innovations to Scale: Methods, Applications and Lessons - Cooley, Larry; Linn, Johannes F. (R4D, 2014)
The international development community increasingly recognizes the need to go beyond fragmented, one-of projects. In response, there is now much talk and some action on scaling up successful innovations and pilot projects with an explicit goal of achieving sustainable impact at scale. However, many questions remain about the practical implications of pursuing a systematic scaling up approach and about how the approaches being pursued by diferent institutions and practitioners relate to each other.

Two Paths to Supporting Grassroots Innovation - Cooper, Nathan; Hazeldine, Shaun; Quaggiotto, Giulio (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2017)
An innovation experiment in Indonesia yields insights on how international development organizations can effectively foster innovation within the communities they aim to help.

Assessing Rural Transformations: Piloting a Qualitative Impact Protocol in Malawi and Ethiopia - Copestake, James; Remnant, Fiona (Bath Papers in International Development and Wellbeing Working Paper, 2014)

The Qualitative Impact Assessment Protocol (QUIP) - Copestake, James; Remnant, Fiona (CDS Briefing Paper, 2015)
This brief presents an overview of the QUIP in three steps: the background to the QUIP and its main aims; the data collection and analysis methodology; and QUIP in the context of other approaches to evaluation. Each section can be read independently, depending on time available.

Participatory action research - Cornish, Flora; Breton, Nancy; Moreno-Tabarez, Ulises; Delgado, Jenna; Rua, Mohi; de-Graft Aikins, Ama; Hodgetts, Darrin (Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 2023)
Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach to research that prioritizes the value of experiential knowledge for tackling problems caused by unequal and harmful social systems, and for envisioning and implementing alternatives. PAR involves the participation and leadership of those people experiencing issues, who take action to produce emancipatory social change, through conducting systematic research to generate new knowledge. This Primer sets out key considerations for the design of a PAR project. The core of the Primer introduces six building blocks for PAR project design: building relationships; establishing working practices; establishing a common understanding of the issue; observing, gathering and generating materials; collaborative analysis; and planning and taking action. We discuss key challenges faced by PAR projects, namely, mismatches with institutional research infrastructure; risks of co-option; power inequalities; and the decentralizing of control. To counter such challenges, PAR researchers may build PAR-friendly networks of people and infrastructures; cultivate a critical community to hold them to account; use critical reflexivity; redistribute powers; and learn to trust the process. PAR’s societal contribution and methodological development, we argue, can best be advanced by engaging with contemporary social movements that demand the redressingl of inequities and the recognition of situated expertise.

Unpacking 'Participation': models, meanings and practices - Cornwall, A. (Community Development Journal, 2008)

Buzzwords and fuzzwords: deconstructing development discourse - Cornwall, Andrea (Development in Practice, 2007)

Democratising Engagement: What the UK Can Learn from International Experience - Cornwall, Andrea (Demos, 2008)

Using Participatory Process Evaluation to Understand the Dynamics of Change in a Nutrition Education Programme - Cornwall, Andrea (IDS Working Papers, 2014)
With roots in approaches to popular education and participatory action research that place the learner and the ‘beneficiary’ of development at the centre of enquiry and action, the participatory visualisation methods associated with Participatory Rural Appraisal have been widely used as tools for learning and accountability. In this article, I reflect on lessons learnt from using these methods in a participatory process evaluation of an educational programme aimed at addressing chronic malnutrition in an East African country. Building on this experience, I explore the educative and empowering dimensions of participatory visualisation methods, and consider the contribution that these methods can make to effective evaluation.
Keywords: Kenya; nutrition; participatory impact evaluation; process evaluation; randomised controlled trials

Deconstructing Development Discourse: Buzzwords and Fuzzwords - Cornwall, Andrea; Eade, Deborah (Oxfam & Practical Action Publishing, 2010)
Writing from diverse locations, contributors critically examine some of the key terms in current development discourse. Why should language matter to those who are doing development? Surely, there are more urgent things to do than sit around mulling over semantics?

From Users and Choosers to Makers and Shapers. Repositioning Participation in Social Policy - Cornwall, Andrea; Gaventa, John (IDS Bulletin, 2000)

17. Shifting perceptions, changing practices in PRA: from infinite innovation to the quest for quality - Cornwall, Andrea; Guijt, Irene (Participatory Learning and Action 50: Critical reflections, future directions, 2004)
In the beginning, there were methods. For many of us in the circle of enthusiasts of participatory approaches in the early 1990s, maps and models, calendars and Venn diagrams, matrices and rankings and the interactions and insights they produced defined what we did and what we had in common. It was this, too, that made participatory rural appraisal (PRA) – and rapid rural appraisal (RRA) before it – something that was very different from anything we’d known before. PRA bridged barriers that might otherwise have kept a social anthropologist and an irrigation engineer like us apart. And it brought us together with dozens of others, from a constellation of disciplines and professions, who shared our excitement about an approach that seemed to offer much for ‘doing development’ differently. In 1995, we co-edited PLA Notes 24 on Critical reflections on practice, in which we sought to engage practitioners and advocates in debate about the looming crises of quality that were to become so much a feature of PRA practice in the later 1990s. In this paper, we look back over more than a decade of engagement with PRA as ‘critical insiders’. Participatory Learning and Action has, naturally enough, served more as a vehicle for practitioners to share their successes and innovations than their critical reflections. Accordingly, we draw here on sources that go beyond it, including reflections from the Pathways to Participation project (see Cornwall and Pratt, 2003a, in PLA Notes 47, and contributions to Cornwall and Pratt 2003b), from work with gender and participatory development (Welbourn, 1992; Guijt and Kaul Shah, 1998; Cornwall 2000), and from the lively debates that we have had for more than a decade with colleagues the world over. These thoughts are our personal reflections, from standpoints associated with the two institutions – IIED and IDS – that were so much part of early efforts to promote and institutionalise PRA in international development practice. Our account is, therefore, very much a partial one. We offer it here as a means of locating some of the threads that have run through debates about PRA since the first issues of Participatory Learning and Action, and some of the challenges that practitioners of participatory learning and action methodologies continue to face. In it, we reflect on distinct phases in the development of PRA (see Figure 1), during which a series of issues emerged as themes for critical reflection. The phases indicated in the diagram relate generally to the prevailing sentiment and practice. Clearly there are exceptions – there have been critical voices and some were using PRA to address issues of power from day one, just as there is still innovation and excitement in some quarters today.

Spaces for Change? The Politics of Citizen Participation in New Democratic Arenas - Cornwall, Andrea; Vera Schattan Coelho (Zed Books, 2006)
The book Spaces for Change?: The Politics of Citizen Participation in New Democratic Arenas

Inclusive Social Accountability - Counterpart International (Counterpart International, 2019)
Counterpart International’s Inclusive Social Accountability (ISA) developmental framework integrates elements of social inclusion and community accountability into one comprehensive approach.

Evaluation for Improvement: A Seven Step Empowerment Evaluation Approach for Violence Prevention Organizations - Cox, PJ; Keener, D; Woodward, T; Wandersman, A (2009)
This guide, written by Pamela J. Cox, Dana Keener, Tifanee L. Woodard, & Abraham H. Wandersman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlines a seven step process for hiring an evaluator to implement an empowerment evaluation. The process begins with preparing for the hiring and concludes with an assessment of an evaluation to ensure its sustainability. Excerpt "...concerns and experiences with independent evaluation led to the development of participatory evaluation approaches as a way to promote an organization’s use of evaluation for the improvement of its strategies. Although there are many participatory evaluation approaches, empowerment evaluation places an explicit emphasis on building the evaluation capacity of individuals and organizations so that evaluation is integrated into the organization’s day-to-day management processes. Through empowerment evaluation, both individual and organizational evaluation capacity are increased through a “learn-by-doing” process, whereby organizations and their staff evaluate their own strategies. Specifically, organizations hire an evaluator to work with them in conducting an evaluation of their strategies. Rather than evaluating an organization’s strategies and presenting an evaluation “report card,” empowerment evaluators coach individuals and organizations through an evaluation of their own strategy(ies) by providing them with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to conduct just such an evaluation." Contents Empowerment Evaluation: An Overview 11 Principles of Empowerment Evaluation 11 Step 1: Preparing for the Hiring Process 23 Step 2: Writing a Job Announcement 31 Step 3: Finding Potential Empowerment Evaluators 39 Step 4: Assessing the Candidates 45 Step 5: Writing An Evaluation Contract 55 Step 6: Building an Effective Relationship With Your Evaluator 61 Step 7: Assessing and Sustaining the Evaluation 65 Appendix A: Resources for General Evaluation and Empowerment Evaluation 73 Appendix B: Worksheets for Hiring an Empowerment Evaluator 75 Appendix C: Sample Hiring Committee Confidentiality Statement 89 Appendix D: Sample Job 90 Appendix E: Sample Request For Proposals 91 Appendix F: Sample Interview Questions 93 Appendix G: Sample Budget and Narrative for an Evaluation Team 95

Tips for Conducting a Gender Analysis at the Activity or Project Level - Cozzarelli, Cathy (USAID, 2010)
I. What is gender analysis? II. Relevant sections of the ADS III. Process – What should you do to collect the information you need to conduct a gender analysis at the activity or project level? IV. What questions should you ask in the context of doing your gender analysis? - Access - Knowledge, Beliefs, and Perceptions - Practices and Participation - Time and Space - Legal Rights and Status - Power and Decision-making IV. What should you do after you ask these questions?

Citizen-Centered Governance: The Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics and the Evolution of CRM in Boston - Crawford, Susan P.; Walters, Dana (Social Science Research Network, 2013)
Over the last three years, the Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, the innovative, collaborative ethos within City Hall fostered by Mayor Menino and h

Emerging Technologies: Smarter ways to fight wildlife crime - Cressa, Douglas; Zommers, Zinta (Environmental Development, 2014)
The illegal trade of animals—for luxury goods, traditional medicine or cultural ceremonies, pets, entertainment, and even research—is a major threat to wildlife conservation and welfare (Baker et al., 2013). Poachers and illegal traders use highly sophisticated and rapidly changing techniques to avoid detection. To keep pace with the "war on wildlife", conservation and law enforcement communities have started to adopt cutting-edge military tools and techniques. High-tech equipment can magnify counter-poaching efforts without requiring armies of rangers or risking lives. Tools include acoustic traps, mobile technology, mikrokopters, radio frequency identification tags, encrypted data digital networks, camera traps, DNA testing, radio collars, metal scanners, and satellite imagery.

Two decades of public sector innovation: building an analytical framework from a systematic literature review of types, strategies, conditions, and results - Criado, J. Ignacio; Alcaide-Muñoz, Laura; Liarte, Irene (Public Management Review, 2023)
Scholarly attention in innovation in the public sector is growing rapidly, provoking analytical complexity. We developed a systematic literature review about Public Sector Innovation (PSI), analysing 169 articles published between 2001 and 2021, using PRISMA. We present a comprehensive approach to PSI testing and empirically develop an analytical framework based on the most common combinations of the studied dimensions. Additionally, we propose three main research avenues for the future of PSI: (1) studying PSI in different contexts, (2) expanding the analysis of configurations in PSI initiatives, and (3) analysing ambidextrous strategies to support the practical implementation of PSI.

Collaborative Overload - Cross, Rob; Rebele, Reb; Grant, Adam (Harvard Business Review, 2016)
Too much teamwork exhausts employees and saps productivity. Here’s how to avoid it.

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.

Introducción a Capacity WORKS + Proyectos de Cambio - Informe - Cuéllar, Daniel (GIZ, 2014)

Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurialism in Public Sector Reform - Cummings, Clare (Public Administration and Development, 2015)
Summary There is growing recognition within the international development sector that there is a need for a new, more effective approach to engaging in public sector reform. This article builds on an emerging body of work that advocates more entrepreneurial and adaptive public sector reform programming. Drawing on knowledge and theory from public sector management, psychology and entrepreneurialism, this article aims to understand what motivates public sector workers to work entrepreneurially and suggest how these ideas can be applied to the way in which international development agencies engage in public sector reform work. This requires a shift in thinking from predesigned, large, externally led programmes promoting international best practice to interventions in which agencies adopt the role of a facilitator, helping to establish the enabling conditions for local partners to work entrepreneurially, developing their own solutions to the problems that they identify in their work. Copyright ? 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Keywords: Development; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Public sector reform; motivation

Monitoring in adaptive co-management: Toward a learning based approach - Cundill, Georgina; Fabricius, Christo (Journal of Environmental Management, 2009)
The recognition of complexity and uncertainty in natural resource management has lead to the development of a wealth of conceptual frameworks aimed at integrated assessment and complex systems monitoring. Relatively less attention has however been given to methodological approaches that might facilitate learning as part of the monitoring process. This paper reviews the monitoring literature relevant to adaptive co-management, with a focus on the synergies between existing monitoring frameworks, collaborative monitoring approaches and social learning. The paper discusses the role of monitoring in environmental management in general, and the challenges posed by scale and complexity when monitoring in adaptive co-management. Existing conceptual frameworks for monitoring relevant to adaptive co-management are reviewed, as are lessons from experiences with collaborative monitoring. The paper concludes by offering a methodological approach to monitoring that actively seeks to engender reflexive learning as a means to deal with uncertainty in natural resource management.
Keywords: Adaptive co-management; Collaborative monitoring; Complexity; Social learning

Large-Scale Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Adaptation Research: Challenges and Insights - Cundill, Georgina; Harvey, Blane; Tebboth, Mark; Cochrane, Logan; Currie‐Alder, Bruce; Vincent, Katharine; Lawn, Jon; Nicholls, Robert J.; Scodanibbio, Lucia; Prakash, Anjal; New, Mark; Wester, Philippus; et al. (Global Challenges, 2019)
An increasing number of research programs seek to support adaptation to climate change through the engagement of large-scale transdisciplinary networks that span countries and continents. While transdisciplinary research processes have been a topic of reflection, practice, and refinement for some time, these trends now mean that the global change research community needs to reflect and learn how to pursue collaborative research on a large scale. This paper shares insights from a seven-year climate change adaptation research program that supports collaboration between more than 450 researchers and practitioners across four consortia and 17 countries. The experience confirms the importance of attention to careful design for transdisciplinary collaboration, but also highlights that this alone is not enough. The success of well-designed transdisciplinary research processes is also strongly influenced by relational and systemic features of collaborative relationships. Relational features include interpersonal trust, mutual respect, and leadership styles, while systemic features include legal partnership agreements, power asymmetries between partners, and institutional values and cultures. In the new arena of large-scale collaborative science efforts, enablers of transdisciplinary collaboration include dedicated project coordinators, leaders at multiple levels, and the availability of small amounts of flexible funds to enable nimble responses to opportunities and unexpected collaborations.
Keywords: Climate change; collaboration; transdisciplinarity

Rethinking systemic change: economic evolution and institutions - Cunningham, Shawn; Jenal, Marcus (BEAM Exchange, 2016)
Resources that contain evidence of market systems interventions. Recently updated.

Rethinking systemic change: economic evolution and institutions. Discussion paper - Cunningham, Shawn; Jenal, Marcus (BEAM Exchange, 2016)
The primary aim of this research project was to find a conceptually sound definition of systemic change. To do so, it was essential to gain a better understanding of how economies change. The central part of the research work, therefore, was an extended literature review on three bodies of knowledge: evolutionary economics new institutional economics complexity theory There is a growing interest in these bodies of knowledge, combined often called New Economic Thinking, and how they affect economic development. Hence, while rethinking systemic change, this work also contributes to answering the broader question of how market systems approaches can contribute to inclusive economic development. The answer, in short, is to shift the focus away from improving transactions at the micro level towards enabling actors to continuously shape an institutional landscape that supports inclusive economic evolution. This discussion paper briefly presents the key messages from the literature review and seven principles drawing from this literature. The principles can be used by market development practitioners, including technical advisers in donor organisations, programme designers and team leaders, to shape programmes and become more in line with how change happens in the economy. A list of selected references is presented at the end. A technical paper contains a much more detailed discussion of the findings and the principles and an extensive list of references. A case study offers a practitioner perspective through the lens of one market systems development programme: DFID-funded Northern Uganda: Transforming the Economy through Climate Smart Agribusiness – Market Development (NUTEC-MD).

Rethinking systemic change: economic evolution and institutions. Technical Paper - Cunningham, Shawn; Jenal, Marcus (BEAM Exchange, 2016)
The primary aim of this research project was to find a conceptually sound definition of systemic change. To do so, it was essential to gain a better understanding of how economies change. The central part of the research work, therefore, was an extended literature review on three bodies of knowledge: evolutionary economics, new institutional economics and complexity theory. There is a growing interest in these bodies of knowledge, combined often called New Economic Thinking, and how they affect economic development. Hence, while rethinking systemic change, this work also contributes to answering the broader question of how market systems approaches can contribute to inclusive economic development. The answer, in short, is to shift the focus away from improving transactions at the micro level towards enabling actors to continuously shape an institutional landscape that supports inclusive economic evolution. This technical paper provides an in-depth review of the fields of evolutionary economics, new institutional economics and complexity and social change. It is argued that economic development is a complex, non-linear and continuous evolutionary process. Both market and non-market institutions matter greatly in shaping economic performance. The paper then explores the consequences of this understanding for market development practice. It discusses how market development practitioners can engage in and shape an intentional change processes. To translate the theory into practice, seven principles are suggested that can be applied to market systems development practice. The paper concludes with a reframed look at systemic change in market systems development. A discussion paper presents the key messages from the literature review and seven principles drawing from this literature, and a case study offers a practitioner perspective through the lens of one market systems development programme: DFID-funded Northern Uganda: Transforming the Economy through Climate Smart Agribusiness – Market Development (NUTEC-MD).

The fascinating world of unconscious bias and development policy - d’Almeida, André Corrêa; Grossi, Amanda Sue (The Guardian, 2016)
In the last few years scientists have exposed thinking patterns that may skew our decision-making. How can we counter these biases in humanitarian work?
Keywords: Academic experts; Higher Education Network; Neuroscience; Psychology; education; higher education

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

Mechanisms of Techno-Moral Change: A Taxonomy and Overview - Danaher, John; Sætra, Henrik Skaug (Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 2023)
The idea that technologies can change moral beliefs and practices is an old one. But how, exactly, does this happen? This paper builds on an emerging field of inquiry by developing a synoptic taxonomy of the mechanisms of techno-moral change. It argues that technology affects moral beliefs and practices in three main domains: decisional (how we make morally loaded decisions), relational (how we relate to others) and perceptual (how we perceive situations). It argues that across these three domains there are six primary mechanisms of techno-moral change: (i) adding options; (ii) changing decision-making costs; (iii) enabling new relationships; (iv) changing the burdens and expectations within relationships; (v) changing the balance of power in relationships; and (vi) changing perception (information, mental models and metaphors). The paper also discusses the layered, interactive and second-order effects of these mechanisms.

Guidelines for Drawing Causal Loop Diagrams - Daniel H., Kim (The Systems Thinker, 1992)
The old adage “if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail” can also apply to language. If our language is linear and static, we will tend to view and interact with our world as if it were linear and static. Taking a complex, dynamic, and circular world and linearizing it into a set of snapshots may make things seem simpler, but we may totally misread the very reality we were seeking to understand. Making such inappropriate simplifications “is like putting on your brakes and then looking at your speedometer to see how fast you were going” says Bill Isaacs of the MIT Center for Organizational Learning. Articulating Reality Causal loop diagrams provide a language for articulating our understanding of the dynamic, interconnected nature of our world. We can think of them as sentences which are constructed by linking together key variables and indicating the causal relationships between them. By stringing together several loops, we can create a coherent story about a particular problem or issue.

Learning in the Thick of It - Darling, Marilyn; Parry, Charles; Moore, Joseph (Harvard Business Review, 2005)
After-action reviews identify past mistakes but rarely enhance future performance. Companies wanting to fully exploit this tool should look to its master: the U.S. Army’s standing enemy brigade, where soldiers learn and improve even in the midst of battle.
Keywords: Aerospace sector; Corporate governance; Decision making and problem solving; Defense industry; Defense sector; Fabrication and manufacturing; Meeting management; Military; North America; Organizational culture; Presentation skills; Project management; Psychology; Telecom

Appropriate Technology Sourcebook - Darrow, Ken; Saxenian, Mike (Village Earth, 1986)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Report on outcomes and get everyone involved: The Participatory Performance Story Reporting Technique - Dart, J. (Presented at the AES conference in Perth, September 2008, 2008)
This paper outlines the background and philosophy of Collaborative Outcomes Reporting (COR) and Performance Story Reporting (PSR), providing an overview of these emerging techniques and showing how they can be used as a framework for reporting on contribution to long-term outcomes (or targets) using mixed methods and participatory process. The report serves as an introduction to these approaches in evaluation and discusses their bias, limitations and where they might best be applied.

Performance Story - Dart, J.; Mayne, J. (Encyclopedia of Evaluation, 2005)
This is a concise description of ‘Performance Story’ written by Jess Dart and John Mayne for the Sage ‘Encyclopaedia of Evaluation’.

Collaborative Outcome Mapping - Dart, J.; Roberts, M. (Better Evaluation, 2014)
Collaborative Outcomes Reporting (COR) is a participatory approach to impact evaluation based around a performance story that presents evidence of how a program has contributed to outcomes and impacts, that is then reviewed by both technical experts and program stakeholders, which may include community members. Collaborative Outcomes Reporting (COR) is a participatory approach to impact evaluation based around a performance story that presents evidence of how a program has contributed to outcomes and impacts, that is then reviewed by both technical experts and program stakeholders, which may include community members. Developed by Jess Dart, COR combines contribution analysis andMultiple Lines and Levels of Evidence (MLLE), mapping existing data and additional data against the program logic to produce a performance story. Performance story reports are essentially a short report about how a program contributed to outcomes. Although they may vary in content and format, most are short, mention program context and aims, relate to a plausible results chain, and are backed by empirical evidence (Dart and Mayne, 2005). The aim is to tell the ‘story’ of a program’s performance using multiple-lines of evidence. COR adds processes of review by an expert panel and stakeholders, sometimes including community members, to check for the credibility of the evidence about what impacts have occurred and the extent to which these can be credibly attributed to the intervention. It is these components of expert panel review (outcomes panel) and a collaborative approach to developing outcomes (through summit workshops) that differentiate COR from other approaches to outcome and impact evaluation.

What Does the Evidence Tell Us about ‘Thinking and Working Politically’ in Development Assistance? - Dasandi, Niheer; Laws, Ed; Marquette, Heather; Robinson, Mark (Politics and Governance, 2019)
Abstract: This paper critically reviews evidence on ‘thinking and working politically’ in development. Scholars and practitioners have increasingly recognised that development is fundamentally political, and efforts are underway to develop more politically informed ways of thinking and working. The literature does not yet constitute a strong evidence base to link these efforts to more effective aid programming: much evidence is anecdotal, does not meet high standards of robustness, is not comparative, and draws on self-selected successes reported by programme insiders. We discuss factors commonly considered to explain the success of politically informed programmes in areas where conventional programming approaches fall short. We consider evidence in three areas—political context, sector and organization—and provide guidance on where to focus next. Finally, we outline ways of testing the core assumptions of the ‘thinking and working politically’ agenda more thoroughly, to provide a clearer sense of the contribution it can make to aid effectiveness.

Thinking and Working Politically: from theory building to building an evidence base - Dasandi, Niheer; Marquette, Heather; Robinson, Mark (Research Paper, 2016)
This paper discusses the steps required to build a robust evidence base for 'thinking and working politically' (TWP) in development. It argues that better understanding what works, when and why is an important step in moving TWP into mainstream development programming. The paper reviews the existing evidence base on TWP, building on this and on other literature on public sector reform and 'pockets of effectiveness' to suggest research questions, case study selection criteria, and a four-level analytical framework: 1) political context; 2) sector; 3) organisation; and 4) individual. The framework aims to help build a 'rigorous enough' evidence base to show whether and how TWP happens and whether or not it influences the effectiveness of programme implementation and outcomes. The paper also calls for more focus on gender issues, and on different – and often more fragile – political contexts.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

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

Monitoring, Evaluating and Learning for Complex Programs in Complex Contexts: Three Facility Case Studies - Davda, Tara; Tyrrel, Lavinia (Governance Working Paper 6, 2019)

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning for Complex Programs in Complex Contexts: Three Facility Case Studies – Governance Soapbox - Davda, Tara; Tyrrel, Lavinia (Abt Associates - Governance Soapbox, 2019)

Pocket Guide to Systems Wayfinding - Davidson, Seanna (The Systems School, 2019)

EvalC3 - Davies, Rick (2019)
Tools for developing, exploring and evaluating predictive models of expected outcomes

Evaluating the impact of flexible development interventions using a ‘loose’ theory of change: Reflections on the Australia-Mekong NGO Engagement Platform - Davies, Rick (Methods Lab, 2016)
• For some interventions, tight and testable theories of change are not appropriate – for example, in fast moving humanitarian emergencies or participatory development programmes, a more flexible approach is needed. • However, it is still possible to have a flexible project design and to draw conclusions about causal attribution. This middle path involves ‘loose’ theories of change, where activities and outcomes may be known, but the likely causal links between them are not yet clear. • In this approach, data is collected ‘after the event’ and analysed across and within cases, developing testable models for ‘what works’. More data will likely be needed than for projects with a ‘tight’ theory of change, as there is a wider range of relationships between interventions and outcomes to analyse. The theory of change plays an important role in guiding the selection of data types. • While loose theories of change are useful to identify long term impacts, this approach can also support short cycle learning about the effectiveness of specific activities being implemented within a project’s lifespan.

ParEvo - Web-assisted participatory evolution of scenarios - Davies, Rick (2020)
ParEvo is a method of exploring alternative futures or histories, using a participatory evolutionary process (hence ParEvo). The process is designed to be used by multiple people, to produce a branching structure of storylines about what did, or could, happen. Participants are anonymous and can choose the extent to which they collaborate with others. Participants are also able to tag, comment on, and evaluate the storylines that are generated. Completed exercises can be analysed using downloaded data describing the content of storylines and the structure of people’s participation. Outcomes can be both cognitive (e.g. how we think about the future) and behavioural (e.g. how we respond to the future).

Representing theories of change: technical challenges with evaluation consequences - Davies, Rick (Journal of Development Effectiveness, 2018)
This paper looks at the technical issues associated with the representation of Theories of Change and the implications of design choices for the evaluability of those theories. The focus is on the description of connections between events rather than the events themselves, because this is seen as a widespread design weakness. Using examples and evidence from Internet sources six structural problems are described along with their consequences for evaluation. The paper then outlines a range of different ways of addressing these problems that could be used by programme designers, implementers and evaluators. The paper concludes with some caution speculating on why the design problems are so endemic but also pointing a way forward. Four strands of work are identified that CEDIL and DFID could invest in to develop solutions identified in the paper.
Keywords: Evaluation; evaluability; representation; theory of change

The 'Most Significant Change' (MSC) Technique - Davies, Rick; Dart, Jess (CARE International, 2005)
This publication is aimed at organisations, community groups, students and academics who wish to use MSC to help monitor and evaluate their social change programs and projects, or to learn more about how it can be used. The technique is applicable in many different sectors, including agriculture, education and health, and especially in development programs. It is also applicable to many different cultural contexts. MSC has been used in a wide variety of countries by a range of organisations. By 2004, MSC had been used both by NGOs and governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and Australasia.

How Artifacts Afford: The Power and Politics of Everyday Things - Davis, Jenny L. (MIT Press, 2020)
Technologies are intrinsically social. They reflect human values and affect human behavior. The social dynamics of technology materialize through design features that shape how a technology functions and to what effect. The shaping effects of technology are represented in scholarly fields by the concept of “affordances.” Affordances are the ways design features enable and constrain user engagement and social action. This has been a central construct for designers and technology theorists since foundational statements on the topic from JJ Gibson and Don Norman in the 1970s and 80s. With the rise of digitization and widespread automation, “affordance” has entered common parlance and resurged within academic discourse and debate. Davis provides a conceptual update on affordance theory along with a cogent scaffold that shifts the orienting question from what technologies afford, to how technologies afford, for whom, and under what circumstances? “How Artifacts Afford” introduces the mechanisms and conditions framework of affordances in which technologies request, demand, encourage, discourage, refuse, and allow social action, varying across subjects and circumstances. Underlying this mechanisms and conditions framework is a sharp focus on the politics and power encoded in sociotechnical systems. In this timely theoretical reboot, Davis brings clarity to the affordance concept, situates the concept within a broader history of technology studies, and demonstrates how the mechanisms and conditions framework can serve as a transferrable tool of inquiry, critique, and (re)design.

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.

Learning and adapting: the use of monitoring and evaluation in countering violent extremism: a handbook for practitioners - Dawson, Laura; Edwards, Charlie; Jeffray, Calum; Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, 2014)
IN 2013, the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) was awarded a grant under the Kanishka Project to develop a handbook for monitoring and evaluating counter violent extremism (CVE) policies and programmes. The aim of this handbook is to support CVE policy-makers and practitioners (those who design, manage and evaluate CVE programmes), by providing them with key terms regarding violent extremism and radicalisation, describing the purpose of evaluation, and providing examples of key methodologies they can employ to conduct monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in this emerging policy field. The handbook will enable readers to understand why, when and how to conduct an evaluation of a CVE policy, programme or project. .

VCoL in action: How to use micro-VCoLs to learn optimally on the fly - Dawson, Theo (Medium, 2019)
VCoL (the virtuous cycle of learning), is designed to optimize learning while leveraging human´s natural motivational system. It’s easiest to tap into this motivational system when VCoLs are small, focused, relevant, and habitual. We call VCoLs with these characteristics micro-VCoLs. What is a micro-VCoL? Micro-VCoLs are frequently iterated learning cycles that are embedded in everyday activities. Like any VCoL, they involve setting a learning goal, gathering information, applying information, and reflecting on outcomes (preferably with input from others). But in the case of the micro-VCoL, the focus is on the smaller skills (micro-skills) that make up complex sets of skills.

Virtuous cycles of learning: Redesigning testing during the digital revolution - Dawson, Theo; Stein, Zachary (International School on Mind, Brain, and Education, 2011)
This paper explores positive new directions for the future of educational testing by examining trends at the interface of the learning sciences and advances in educational technologies. A brief history of the relation between testing and technology sets the stage for a look at emerging “edu-tech” trends and what these might mean for the future of testing. This historical-critical look at past and present testing practices reveals that the learning sciences have been less influential in shaping the growth of testing infrastructures than cumulative advances in technology that have enabled large-scale standardization and automation. We argue that during the current “digital revolution” the learning sciences ought to assume more responsibility for shaping the adoption of new testing technologies. We propose a set of principles that, if followed, would move tomorrow’s testing infrastructures toward learning-centric design. Combining the affordances of new digital technologies with advances in our understanding of learning make it possible to build tests that promote multi-level learning in educational systems, catalyzing virtuous cycles of learning for everyone they affect—students, teachers, school leaders, policy makers, and researchers. The DiscoTest™ Initiative is presented as a reform effort that is guided by these design principles, serving as an example of positive new possibilities for testing at the interface of the learning sciences and new educational technologies.

The 2017 Reader on Results Measurement. An introduction to the DCED Standard - DCED (DCED, 2017)

The Doing Development Different Manifesto - DDD Community (DDD Community, 2014)
Statement from the October 2014 ‘Doing Development Differently’ workshop Too many development initiatives have limited impact. Schools are built but children do not learn. Clinics are built but sic…

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

Why isn’t Tech for Accountability Working in Africa? - de Lanerolle, Indra (Policy Briefing No 161, 2017)
Expanding mobile networks and falling costs could transform communication between African citizens and governments. So far, however, attempts to harness new technologies to improve transparency and accountability in Africa and elsewhere have had disappointing results. What is going wrong? Research suggests that an important reason for this failure is a poor understanding of technologies and limited skills in developing and using them. It seems that civil society organisations (CSOs) and governments often ‘re-invent the flat tyre’: experimenting with new tools without finding out what has been tried (often unsuccessfully) before. They also do not follow best practices in how to source, develop and test technologies to ensure these are ‘fit for purpose’. Decision makers should focus on building an effective innovation ecosystem with better links between technologists and accountability actors in both government and civil society to enable learning from successes – and mistakes.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Sometimes it is about the Tech: Choosing Tools in South African and Kenyan Transparency & Accountability Initiatives - de Lanerolle, Indra; Walker, Tom; Kinney, Sasha (MAVC Research Report, 2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Release the pressure on governance practitioners - de Weijer, Frauke; Hauck, Volker (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

America’s Most Successful Export to Japan: Continuous Improvement Programs - Dean M., Schroeder; Robinson, Alan G. (MIT Sloan Management Review, 1991)
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT Programs (CIPs) unleash employee experience and I creativity to improve both products and processes. They are often cited as the most important difference between the Japanese and Western management styles and as a major factor in Japan’s economic success.2Yet the CIP was conceived, developed, and brought to maturation in the United States. After World War II, the U.S. government helped to export it to Japan, where it was well received and promptly flourished. Despite the long history and well-documented benefits of such systems, few U.S. companies have invested effort in CIPs equivalent to that of their Japanese competitors. Japanese companies have put almost forty years into the development and refinement of CIPs, or kaizen programs as they are known in Japan, and have brought the art and science of managing them to new levels of sophistication. The aim of these programs is precisely to design and implement a system whose natural equilibrium is constant improvement and change. How can a company that does not have such a program compete with one that does? In this paper we give the historical background of CIPs, which we believe is essential for a useful understanding of these programs. We document their export across the Pacific immediately following World War II and illustrate their power as a competitive weapon when fully and properly deployed. We then identify and discuss requirements for successful implementation and suggest reasons why many U.S. firms find them difficult to start and maintain. We conclude by arguing that what is commonly perceived to be the “best practice” of CIP management is itself open to improvement. Throughout the article, we identify promising directions for companies to pursue so that all minds in the company, not just those of a few at the top, are actively solving problems, reducing costs, and eliminating waste.

Scaling up co-design - Dearden, Andrew; Light, Ann; Zamenopoulos, Theodore; Graham, Paula; Plouviez, Emma; de Sousa, Sophia (PDC 2014 : Reflecting connectedness : proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference, 2014)
In this paper we reflect on our experiences in a project where academic researchers and social change organizations are working together to explore how participatory and co-design practices can be disseminated and spread within the 'third sector'. The research project is itself co-designed and co-produced, but within various constraints arising from research funding models. We explore both our immediate outputs and our learning about successful co-research models for this challenge.

The ethical limits of bungee research in ICTD - Dearden, Andrew; Tucker, William D. (2015 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, 2015)
Research in ICTD is difficult because engineers with technical expertise are separated from the challenges that they are trying to address by large physical distances and significant social differences. To overcome these challenges, much research involves occasional short visits by external researchers to developing regions to investigate problems and generate ideas which are then developed back at the engineers' home base before further return visits for deployment and evaluation. This paper highlights the ethical limitations of this `bungee research', and reflects on our experiences in evolving more fruitful research practices. We argue that relying on bungee research as a primary model of research engagement is unethical, and we suggest some minimal conditions that are necessary, but not sufficient, for such visits to be ethically defensible in ICTD research.

Moving ICTD research beyond bungee jumping: practical case studies and recommendations - Dearden, Andy; Tucker, William (IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 2016)
The global spread of Internet and mobile communications has been accompanied by a growing interest in how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can contribute to social and economic development. There are a considerable number of such examples in developing countries. For example, M-Pesa in Kenya allows workers in the cities to send money back to families living in the countryside using SMS messages on basic mobile phones. In Ghana, the Motech project allows community health workers to use feature phones and network services to track ante-natal (and post-natal) care with the objective of improving outcomes for both mothers and babies. Other examples include Gram Vaani's (GRINS) open-source software for community radio stations, or Ushahidi's initiatives, which began with tracking post-electoral violence in Kenya in 2008 using mobile phones and Google maps. These examples illustrate different ways of leveraging ICT to improve lives and livelihoods worldwide. Such stories are inspiring many young (and not so young) researchers and innovators alike to explore how technology might support social and economic development and inclusion in global knowledge exchange

Diffusion Of Innovations Theory, Principles, And Practice - Dearing, James W.; Cox, Jeffrey G. (Health Affairs, 2018)
Aspects of the research and practice paradigm known as the diffusion of innovations are applicable to the complex context of health care, for both explanatory and interventionist purposes. This article answers the question, “What is diffusion?” by identifying the parameters of diffusion processes: what they are, how they operate, and why worthy innovations in health care do not spread more rapidly. We clarify how the diffusion of innovations is related to processes of dissemination and implementation, sustainability, improvement activity, and scale-up, and we suggest the diffusion principles that can be readily used in the design of interventions.

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.

The Realities of Community Based Natural Resource Management and Biodiversity Conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa - DeGeorges, Paul Andre; Reilly, Brian Kevin (Sustainability, 2009)
This is an historic overview of conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa from pre-colonial times through the present. It demonstrates that Africans practiced conservation that was ignored by the colonial powers. The colonial market economy combined with the human and livestock population explosion of the 21st century are the major factors contributing to the demise of wildlife and critical habitat. Unique insight is provided into the economics of a representative safari company, something that has not been readily available to Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) practitioners. Modern attempts at sharing benefits from conservation with rural communities will fail due to the low rural resource to population ratio regardless of the model, combined with the uneven distribution of profits from safari hunting that drives most CBNRM programs, unless these ratios are changed. Low household incomes from CBNRM are unlikely to change attitudes of rural dwellers towards Western approaches to conservation. Communities must sustainably manage their natural areas as "green factories" for the multitude of natural resources they contain as a means of maximizing employment and thus household incomes, as well as meeting the often overlooked socio-cultural ties to wildlife and other natural resources, which may be as important as direct material benefits in assuring conservation of wildlife and its habitat. For CBNRM to be successful in the long-term, full devolution of ownership over land and natural resources must take place. In addition, as a means of relieving pressure on the rural resource base, this will require an urbanization process that creates a middleclass, as opposed to the current slums that form the majority of Africa‘s cities, through industrialization that transforms the unique natural resources of the subcontinent (e.g., strategic minerals, petroleum, wildlife, hardwoods, fisheries, wild medicines, agricultural products, etc.) in Africa.
Keywords: Development; conservation; industrialization; population; wildlife

Reforming solid waste management in Phnom Penh - Denney, Lisa (Working Politically in Practice, 2016)
This paper tracks the efforts of an Asia Foundation team and local stakeholders as they worked to support improvements in the solid waste management sector in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The team worked in a flexible way with a range of partners, and with particular focus on understanding the incentives and politics affecting service delivery. While reform of the sector remains in progress, steps have been taken to introduce more competition and better public sector management of solid waste collection in the city. This case study lays out the real-time decisions and processes which drove the strategy and implementation of this project, providing useful insights into how politically astute and flexible programs can be successfully implemented. This case has emerged from an action research process, which was led by a researcher from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and conducted over the course of almost two years. By capturing and analyzing the experiences of the program team in Phnom Penh, the paper intends to provide practical insights for others in the development community aiming to implement similar kinds of programming.

Using political economy analysis in conflict, security and justice programmes - Denney, Lisa (ODI, 2016)

Walking the adaptive talk - Denney, Lisa (Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre, 2018)
The first in a three-part series on adaptive aid.Lisa Denney clarifies the confusion.

Beyond the toolkit: supporting peace processes in Asia - Denney, Lisa; Barron, Patrick (Working Politically in Practice Series: Case Study, 2015)

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

Political Economy Analysis – Guidance for legal technical assistance - Denney, Lisa; Domingo, Pilar (ROLE UK, 2017)
Political economy analysis is about understanding how change in relation to rule of law and international development is embedded within and shaped by political and economic relations that interact and are particular to each context. These political economy dynamics determine the distribution of power and resources within any given society and must be taken into account when attempting to achieve change. Political economy analysis is important in the justice sector because rule of law and dispute resolution processes reflect the rules of the game about who wins and who loses in the allocation of power and resources. Using political economy analysis in legal technical assistance can help to ensure more relevant and effective assistance that sustainably addresses concrete problems. It can also help to avoid the risk that poorly targeted assistance might inadvertently exacerbate existing power structures in a way that was not intended.

Thinking and Working politically to support developmental leadership and coalitions: The Pacific Leadership Program - Denney, Lisa; McLaren, Rebecca (Research Paper, 2016)

Creating the (organisational) conditions for an OM based M&E and learning practice - Deprez, Steff (Outcome Mapping Learning Community, 2009)

Using stories in evaluation: Participatory Narrative Inquiry and Sensemaking (gLocal Evaluation Week 2022, 2022)
Sensemaking and Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI) are similar approaches, based on collecting stories about a real life experience from a large number of stakeholders on a topic of interest to the evaluation, and giving the storytellers themselves the responsibility for analyzing and making sense of the stories. Because a large number of stories are collected and self-interpreted, it is possible to conduct quantitative analysis of recurrent themes, perspectives and feelings emerging in the narratives. By combining elements of qualitative and quantitative research, these approaches help to make sense of complex and evolving realities. This session presented the general approach of Sensemaking and PNI. Panelists discussed their experiences with this method, recently used in IFAD and WFP’s evaluations and invited participants to share their own experiences with using stories in evaluation.

Moving Targets, Widening Nets: monitoring incremental and adaptive change in an Empowerment and Accountability programme. The experience of the State Accountability and Voice Initiative in Nigeria - Derbyshire, Helen; Barr, Julian; Fraser, Steve; Mwamba, Wilf (DFID, 2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT; Practice

Adaptive programming in practice: shared lessons from the DFID-funded LASER and SAVI programmes - Derbyshire, Helen; Donovan, Elbereth (Synthesis Paper 3, 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

Politically informed, gender aware programming: Five lessons from practice - Derbyshire, Helen; Gibson, Sam; Hudson, David; Roche, Chris (DLP Program, 2018)

From Silos to Synergy: Learning from politically informed, gender aware programs - Derbyshire, Helen; Siow, Orlanda; Gibson, Sam; Hudson, David; Roche, Chris (DLP Program, 2018)

Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose - Dercon, Stefan (C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2022)

Managing to Adapt: Analysing adaptive management for planning, monitoring, evaluation, and learning - Desai, Harsh; Maneo, Gabriele; Pellfolk, Erica; Schlingheider, Annika (Oxfam Research Reports, 2018)
Adaptive management is at the heart of ‘Doing Development Differently’. It emerges from stakeholders’ calls for development programmes to be more flexible and responsive to their contexts. Whether it becomes a mainstreamed practice depends on how much it is

If politics is the problem, how can external actors be part of the solution? - Devarajan, Shantayanan; Khemani, Stuti (The World Bank, 2016)
Despite a large body of research and evidence on the policies and institutions needed to generate growth and reduce poverty, many governments fail to adopt these policies or establish the institutions. Research advances since the 1990s have explained this syndrome, which this paper generically calls
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Development Gateway website - Development Gateway (Development Gateway: an IREX Venture)
We create tools and design processes that help collect, analyze, visualize, and use data to support more effective, open, and engaging institutions.

AID Programming Guide - DFAT (Australian Government, 2019)

Effective Governance. Strategy for Australia’s aid investments - DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government, 2015)

Independent Review of Facilities: review and management response - DFAT (DFAT, 2018)

Market Systems Development - Operational Guidance Note - DFAT (DFAT, 2017)

Assessing the strength of Evidence - DFID (How to Note, 2014)

DFID Data Disaggregation Action Plan: Better Data for Better Lives - DFID (2017)

DFID Smart Rules: Better Programme Delivery - version VI (2016.10) - DFID (DFID, 2016)
Smart Rules provide the operating framework for the Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) programmes.
Keywords: IMPORTANT; Practice

DFID Smart Rules: Better Programme Delivery - version VII (2017.04) - DFID (DFID, 2017)
Smart Rules provide the operating framework for the Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) programmes.
Keywords: IMPORTANT; Practice

DFID Smart Rules: Better Programme Delivery - version VIII (2018.04) - DFID (DFID, 2017)
Smart Rules provide the operating framework for the Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) programmes.
Keywords: IMPORTANT; Practice

DFID Smart Rules: Better Programme Delivery - version X (2019.01) - DFID (DFID, 2019)

Global Learning for Adaptive Management (GLAM) - DFID (DFID Development Tracker, 2016)
To improve the value for money and impact of development interventions by promoting the use of better monitoring, evaluation and learning strategies that support development programmes to gather and respond to emergent evidence on the effects of interventions, as well as changes in the development context. The Global Learning for Adpative Management programme will make available technical assistance to DFID, USAID and partners to develop this ‘adaptive management’ approach, as well as build an evidence base to understand links between the use of adaptive management and more effective, efficient, relevant and sustainable development interventions.

Guidance on using the revised Logical Framework - How to note - DFID (DFID, 2011)
The principal changes to the logframe from the earlier (2008) 4 x 4 matrix are: - Objectively Verifiable Indicators (OVIs) have been separated into their component elements (Indicator, Baseline and Target), and Milestones added. - Means of Verification has been renamed ‘Source’. - Inputs are now quantified in terms of funds (expressed in Sterling for DFID and all partners) and use of DFID staff time (expressed as annual Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs). - A DFID Share box now indicates the financial value of DFID’s Inputs as a percentage of the whole. - Assumptions are shown at Purpose and Output level only. - Risks are shown at Activities level only, but also rated at Output level; - At the Output level, the Impact Weighting is now shown in the logframe together with a Risk Rating for individual Outputs. - Activities are now shown separately (so do not normally appear in the logframe sent for approval), although they can be added to the logframe if this is more suitable for your purposes. - A renewed emphasis on the use of disaggregated beneficiary data within indicators, baselines and targets. The Logical Framework (logframe) was significantly re-designed in February 2009. In January 2011 a slightly amended logframe template was introduced at the same time as the launch of the new DFID Business Case. Given the extent of changes that took place in February 2009 it was only necessary to make minor amendments in January 2011. These amendments are as follows: - Results Chain terminology aligned across DFID (the terms Goal and Purpose in the old logframe template have been replaced by Impact and Outcome) - Rows added to allow achieved results to be captured alongside the planned results determined at project design stage - Word version of the logframe template removed – excel is the preferred format for logical frameworks from January 2011 - Indicator numbering introduced within logframe template

Political Economy Analysis - How to note - DFID (Practice Paper, 2009)
Political economy analysis is a powerful tool for improving the effectiveness of aid. Bridging the traditional concerns of politics and economics, it focuses on how power and resources are distributed and contested in different contexts, and the implications for development outcomes. It gets beneath the formal structures to reveal the underlying interests, incentives and institutions that enable or frustrate change. Such insights are important if we are to advance challenging agendas around governance, economic growth and service delivery, which experience has shown do not lend themselves to technical solutions alone. Political economy analysis is not a magic bullet for the resolution of intractable development problems. However, it can support more effective and politically feasible development strategies, as well as inform more realistic expectations of what can be achieved, and the risks involved. It can also contribute to better results by identifying where the main opportunities and barriers for policy reform exist and how donors can use their programming and influencing tools to promote positive change. This understanding is particularly relevant in fragile and conflict-affected environments where the challenge of building peaceful states and societies is fundamentally political. There are an increasing number of political economy tools available to development agencies for a range of analytical and operational purposes. This note brings together this material with a view to explaining the relevance and uses of political economy analysis. It is intended to be used by a wide range of DFID programme managers and advisers, as well as staff in other HMG departments and partner organisations. The main questions it addresses are: 􀂃 what is political economy analysis? 􀂃 how and why does political economy analysis add value to DFID work? 􀂃 what approaches and tools are available? 􀂃 how should the analysis be prepared, undertaken and applied to DFID’s work? 􀂃 how should we work with other development partners and across HMG on analysis? Key messages include: • Political economy analysis is central to the formulation of sound country plans and sector programmes, and can play a key role in risk mitigation and ensuring that donors avoid harmful practices. • Political economy analysis can help to improve development effectiveness by identifying how and where donors should focus efforts to promote positive change. • There are a growing number of operationally relevant tools which can be used to inform development strategies at the country or sector level, or in relation to particular development problems. • Several DFID country offices have used political economy analysis to improve the quality and impact of aid. This experience provides valuable lessons that should be considered when commissioning and undertaking political economy analysis. • Where possible, analysis should be conducted on an ongoing basis with key partners in HMG and the wider development community to encourage shared understanding and joint action.

Rwanda Multi-Donor Civil Society Support Programme (2015-2021) - DFID (Development Tracker, 2018)
Project data for the Rwanda Multi-Donor Civil Society Support Programme (2015-2021). Strengthened civil society engagement on critical social cohesion, reconciliation and governance issues in Rwanda. DFID will provide funding and technical support to Rwandan civil society organisations to support the design and implementation of governance and reconciliation focused initiatives, and to support more effective engagement (influencing) with government on these issues.

Design Thinking is not enough – Innovate DFID - DFID, Innovate (Medium, 2016)
By Tamara Giltsoff

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.

Principles for Digital Development - digitalprinciples.org (2018)

Nuru Kenya transition from Nuru International, Kenya - Dillan, Haley; Ouma, Joel; Yamron, David (What Transformation Takes - Evidence of Responsible INGO Transitions to Locally Led Development Around the World, 2020)
This case study is an example of a phased transfer of ownership and responsibility from INGO Nuru International to Nuru Kenya, including the exit of all international staff. Post-transition, Nuru Kenya is managed entirely by Kenyan staff, although it continues to receive financial support from Nuru International. A lot of the elements described are aligned with Adaptive Management ways of working.

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.

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

The case for thinking and working politically. The implications of 'doing development differently' - DLP (Research Paper, 2014)
This paper discusses the steps required to build a robust evidence base for 'thinking and working politically' (TWP) in development. It argues that better understanding what works, when and why is an important step in moving TWP into mainstream development programming. The paper reviews the existing evidence base on TWP, building on this and on other literature on public sector reform and 'pockets of effectiveness' to suggest research questions, case study selection criteria, and a four-level analytical framework: 1) political context; 2) sector; 3) organisation; and 4) individual. The framework aims to help build a 'rigorous enough' evidence base to show whether and how TWP happens and whether or not it influences the effectiveness of programme implementation and outcomes. The paper also calls for more focus on gender issues, and on different – and often more fragile – political contexts.

Impact Evidence and Beyond: Using Evidence to Drive Adoption of Humanitarian Innovations - Dodgson, Kate; Crowley, Catie (Scaling series, 2021)
This learning paper provides guidance to humanitarian innovators on how to use evidence to enable and drive adoption of innovation. Innovation literature and practice show time and time again that it is difficult to scale innovations. Even when an innovation is demonstrably impactful, better than the existing solution and good value for money, it does not automatically get adopted or used in mainstream humanitarian programming. Why do evidence-based innovations face difficulties in scaling and how can innovators best position their innovation to scale? This learning paper is for innovators who want to effectively use evidence to support and enable their journey to scale. It explores the underlying social, organisational and behavioural factors that stifle uptake of innovations. It also provides guidance on how to use, prioritise and communicate evidence to overcome these barriers. The paper aims to help innovators generate and present their evidence in more tailored and nuanced ways to improve adoption and scaling of their innovations.

The politics of legal empowerment: Legal mobilisation strategies and implications for development - Domingo, Pilar; O'Neil, Tam (ODI, 2014)
 Legal mobilisation can improve the lives of poor or marginalised people by: o contributing to pro-poor change in policy, law and regulation of service delivery across different sectors; o advancing the realisation of rights, and achieving redress for rights violations; o contesting unjust and illegal practices of resource allocation and power relations, including in relation to land and natural resources; o enabling citizens to exercise social accountability through legal action.  The outcomes of legal empowerment of the poor are not politically neutral and need to be understood within broader social and political environments;  Better coordination between justice, sector and governance interventions will maximise the development and social impact of international support for legal empowerment.

The political economy of pre-trial detention: Indonesia case study - Domingo, Pilar; Sudaryono, Leopold (ODI, 2016)

Monitoring for problem-solving, adaptive management, reporting and learning - Dominique Morel; Dzino-Silajdzic, Velida; Hagens, Clara (Catholic Relief Services, 2020)
Internal and external stakeholders have different information needs over a project’s life, for purposes that include adaptive management, accountability, compliance, reporting and learning. A project’s monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning, or MEAL, system should provide the information needed by these stakeholders at the level of statistical reliability, detail and timing appropriate to inform data use. In emergency contexts where the situation is still fluid, ‘informal monitoring’ has proved helpful to staff’s ongoing assessment of the broader environment in order to identify changes in the situation, in other actors’ responses, and in priority unmet needs that would require corresponding changes in the response.2 The same distinction between informal monitoring of possible changes in the project’s operating context—whether identified as project assumptions and risk factors or not—and formal monitoring of the activities included in the response and project indicators, is relevant for development contexts too. Informal monitoring: Ongoing assessment of changes in operating context Formal monitoring: Tracking progress against project activities and indicators Within formal monitoring, it is useful to further differentiate between light monitoring and rigorous monitoring: - Light monitoring aims to provide timely feedback on new activities (or new locations or target groups) or aspects of the project’s theory of change (activity-to-output or output-to-IR change) logic that staff are less confident about, to check for early signs that progress is being made and that assumptions are holding true while there is still ample time to make adjustments if necessary.3 - Rigorous monitoring aims to collect representative data for evidence-based project management, reporting and learning, not just at midterm but throughout project implementation.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning in Emergencies - Dominique Morel; Hagens, Clara (Catholic Relief Services, 2012)

Why to be Wary of "Design for Developing Countries" - Donaldson, Krista (Ambidextrous, 2008)

Donor perceptions and processes: Risks to success of adaptive programming? - Browse - Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law - Donovan, Elbereth (Knowledge Platform - Security & Rule of Law, 2017)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

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

The rise of the randomistas: on the experimental turn in international aid - Donovan, Kevin P. (Economy and Society, 2018)
In recent years, the use of experimental methodologies has emerged as a central means of evaluating international aid interventions. Today, proponents of randomized control trials (so-called randomistas) are among the most influential of development experts. This paper examines the growth of this thought collective, analysing how uncertainty has become a central concern of development institutions. It demonstrates that transformations within the aid industry – including the influence of evidence-based policy, the economization of development and the retreat from macro-planning – created the conditions of possibility for experimentation. Within this field, the randomistas adeptly pursued a variety of rhetorical, affective, methodological and organizational strategies that emphasized the lack of credible knowledge within aid and the ability of experiments to rectify the situation. Importantly, they have insisted on the moral worth of experimentation; indeed, the experimental ethic has been proposed as the way to change the spirit of development. Through causal certitude, they propose to reduce human suffering. The rise of experimentation has not, however, eliminated accusations of uncertainty; rather, it has redistributed the means through which knowledge about development is considered credible.
Keywords: Development; Evidence; Experimentation; aid; uncertainty

Adaptive Management, the Endangered Species Act, and the Institutional Challanges of New Age Environmental Protection - Doremus, Holly (Washburn Law Journal, 2001)

Making Good Use of Adaptive Management - Doremus, Holly; Andreen, William L.; Camacho, Alejandro E.; Farber, Daniel A.; Glicksman, Robert L.; Goble, Dale D.; Karkkainen, Bradley C.; Rohlf, Dan; Tarlock, A. Dan; Zellmer, Sandra B.; Jones, Shana Campbell; Huang, Yee (White Paper #1104, 2011)

Positive Deviant - Dorsey, David (Fast Company, 2000)
Jerry Sternin’s job was to help save starving children in Vietnam. Faced with an impossible time frame, he adopted a radical approach to making change. His idea: Real change begins from the inside.

Real-Time Data for Adaptive Management at USAID - Doshi, Samir (Health Communication Innovation Webinar, 2016)

What can the Thinking and Working Politically community learn from peace and conflict mediation? - Douglas, Alex (From Poverty to Power, 2018)
Wily aid practitioners have long understood the importance of adapting their programs to the political environment, and even use their activities to push politics in a progressive direction. But this magic was spun secretly, hidden behind logframes and results frameworks. Only recently has a range of programs been permitted to escape the dead hand of technocracy. But there was one corner of the development and humanitarian world that never needed to shroud its political ambitions; those of us working on resolving violent conflicts. Donors have always understood our work could never be disembodied from politics. This field included elements of the UN, regional organisations, and NGOs, such as the one I work for: the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. With a new focus on development being enabled by a series of ‘deals’ between different actors, it seems timely to examine the strategies used to reach peace agreements and whether they contain broader lessons for TWP/DDD/Adaptive Management.

Innovation histories: A method from learning from experience - Douthwaite, B; Ashby, J (ILAC Brief, 2005)
Preparing an ‘innovation history’ is a method for recording and reflecting on an innovation process. People who have been involved in the innovation jointly construct a detailed written account (sometimes referred to as a ‘learning history’) based on their recollections and on available documents. The process of preparing this history stimulates discussion, reflection and learning amongst stakeholders. Subsequent planning can build on the lessons learned, formulate a shared vision and act as a catalyst for change. Based on the initial detailed account of the innovation process, more concise informational products can be prepared that summarize the innovation process for wider dissemination of findings. These may include public awareness materials, policy briefs or articles in professional journals.

Evaluating complex interventions: A theory-driven realist-informed approach - Douthwaite, Boru; Mayne, John; McDougall, Cynthia; Paz-Ybarnegaray, Rodrigo (Evaluation, 2017)
There is a growing recognition that programs that seek to change people’s lives are intervening in complex systems, which puts a particular set of requirements on program monitoring and evaluation. Developing complexity-aware program monitoring and evaluation systems within existing organizations is difficult because they challenge traditional orthodoxy. Little has been written about the practical experience of doing so. This article describes the development of a complexity-aware evaluation approach in the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems. We outline the design and methods used including trend lines, panel data, after action reviews, building and testing theories of change, outcome evidencing and realist synthesis. We identify and describe a set of design principles for developing complexity-aware program monitoring and evaluation. Finally, we discuss important lessons and recommendations for other programs facing similar challenges. These include developing evaluation designs that meet both learning and accountability requirements; making evaluation a part of a program’s overall approach to achieving impact; and, ensuring evaluation cumulatively builds useful theory as to how different types of program trigger change in different contexts.

Enabling Innovation: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Fostering Technological Change - Douthwaite, M. B. (Zed Books, 2002)
Enabling Innovation is an engrossing look at some of the disaster—and success—stories surrounding technological development and diffusion in industrialized and developing countries. The book tells the story of widely divergent technologies—agricultural appliances, wind turbines, Green Revolution high yielding seeds, the Linux computer operating system, and Local Economic Trading Systems. Boru Douthwaite has constructed a "how to do it" guide to innovation management that runs counter to so many current "top-down", "big is good", and "private sector is best" assumptions.
Keywords: Political science

Learning Evaluation Theory: Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method - Downes, Andrew (Watershed, 2016)
Brinkerhoff’s model isn’t restricted to learning. It can be used to analyze any major business change, such as the purchase of new equipment or implementation of a new process. It’s based on the assumption that any initiative, no matter how successful or unsuccessful, will always include some success and some failure. It seeks to uncover the most impactful successes and failures of an initiative and then tell the stories behind them, backed by evidence. Your organization can use these stories to learn how to be more successful in the future.

Engage. Empower. Enact. - Citizen Engagement & Democratic Innovation Programme White Paper - Doyle, Linda; Smith, Bethan (Cognitive Edge, 2021)
The Cynefin Centre’s Citizen Engagement & Democratic Innovation programme provides tools for collective sense-making in the areas of community development and youth work; civic engagement and democratic innovation; collaborative service/policy design and evaluation; housing/tenant engagement; futures and planning; shared learning and peer to peer knowledge exchange.

DE 201: A practitioner's guide to developmental evaluation - Dozois, Elizabeth; Langlois, Marc; Blanchet-Cohen, Natasha (J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, 2010)
Developmental evaluation has emerged fairly recently as a way to support adaptive learning in complex and emergent initiatives. Combining the rigour of evaluation with the flexibility and imagination required for development, this new form of evaluation brings critical thinking to bear on the creative process in initiatives involving high levels of uncertainty, innovation, emergence, and social complexity. This guidebook from J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and the International Institute for Child Rights and Development explores key aspects of Developmental Evaluation (DE) and offers suggestions for implementing the practice and includes a range of DE resources to help with its facilitation. Contents What is developmental evaluation? When is developmental evaluation appropriate? What competencies are needed to be an effective DE? How is developmental evaluation practiced? Challenges Appendices Assessing Readiness Stakeholder analysis Sample Learning Framework Systems Analysis Framework - Key Components Data Analysis Resources

DPPD Handbook. A step-by-step guide for development practitioners to apply the Data Powered Positive Deviance method - DPPD (DPPD Initiative, 2021)
The Method Positive Deviance (PD) is based on the observation that in every community or organization, there are a few individuals who achieve significantly better outcomes than their peers, despite having similar challenges and resources. These individuals are referred to as positive deviants, and adopting their solutions is what is referred to as the PD approach¹. The method described in this Handbook follows the same logic as the PD approach but uses pre-existing, non-traditional data sources instead of — or in conjunction with — traditional data sources. Non-traditional data in this context broadly refers to data that is digitally captured (e.g. mobile phone records and financial data), mediated (e.g. social media and online data), or observed (e.g. satellite imagery). The integration of such data to complement traditional data sources generally used in PD is what we refer to as Data Powered Positive Deviance² (DPPD). The digital data opportunity Recent developments in the availability of digital data provide an opportunity to look for positive deviants³ in new ways and in unprecedented geographical and on temporal scales. A number of studies⁴ have described the challenges related to the application of the PD approach in development. Given these challenges, there are obvious opportunities for innovation in PD and our particular interest here is in the innovative opportunities offered by non-traditional data, following the increasing “datafication” of development and the growing availability of big datasets in a variety of development sectors⁵. DPPD builds on this and expands our ability to extract value from non-traditional digital data while providing a systematic process for leveraging local know-how and the collective wisdom of communities. Data Powered Positive Deviance The DPPD method described in this Handbook emerged from a process of research and testing and follows the same stages as the PD approach. The difference is that DPPD integrates pre-existing, non-traditional data across the five stages, requiring a series of new and specific methods and practices that are not required in the PD approach. The first stage is also somewhat different because it not only defines the problem, but it also checks if it is suitable and feasible to use the DPPD method for the proposed project. Table 1 lists the five stages of the DPPD method. This Handbook dedicates a section to each stage. Stage 1 Assess problem-method fit Stage 2 Determine positive deviants Stage 3 Discover underlying factors Stage 4 Design and implement interventions Stage 5 Monitor and evaluate

Guidance Note: Practical introduction to adaptive management - DT Global (DT Global, 2022)
DT Global is proud to introduce our new Guidance Note: Practical Introduction to Adaptive Management There is a growing consensus around adaptive management as an effective (even necessary) approach when programs are tackling complex development problems. While there is no standard definition of adaptive management, there is general agreement that such programs need to routinely engage with and respond to program context; constantly test what works in that context; and adjust approaches, plans, and activities based on continuous learning. However, there remains a more limited body of evidence about what this looks like in practice—the enabling conditions, systems, resourcing, skills, and attitudes to effectively operationalise adaptive management. There is also limited guidance around when adaptive management is required, and to what extent—both critical and often overlooked considerations when planning for successful adaptive management. This Guidance Note draws together lessons and good practice in adaptive management from across DT Global’s diverse portfolio of donor-funded programs. It outlines our conceptual framework for adaptive management, with practical guidance on how it can be applied by our program teams. It is also designed to help our teams distinguish adaptive management from good (non adaptive) project management, consider when adaptive management is most useful on a program, and how adaptive a program (or part of a program) should be.

Using Randomization in Development Economics Research: A Toolkit - Duflo, Esther; Glennerster, Rachel; Kremer, Michael (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2006)
This paper is a practical guide (a toolkit) for researchers, students and practitioners wishing to introduce randomization as part of a research design in the field. It first covers the rationale for the use of randomization, as a solution to selection bias and a partial solution to publication biases. Second, it discusses various ways in which randomization can be practically introduced in a field settings. Third, it discusses designs issues such as sample size requirements, stratification, level of randomization and data collection methods. Fourth, it discusses how to analyze data from randomized evaluations when there are departures from the basic framework. It reviews in particular how to handle imperfect compliance and externalities. Finally, it discusses some of the issues involved in drawing general conclusions from randomized evaluations, including the necessary use of theory as a guide when designing evaluations and interpreting results.

Five Ways to Make a Difference: Perceptions of Practitioners Working in Urban Neighborhoods - Durose, Catherine; van Hulst, Merlijn; Jeffares, Stephen; Escobar, Oliver; Agger, Annika; de Graaf, Laurens (Public Administration Review, 2015)

Sara Earl Outcome Mapping pt 1, 2, and 3 - Earl, Sara (2008)
These three videos from Sarah Earl provide an introduction to the concepts of Outcome Mapping

Outcome Mapping: Building Learning and Reflection into Development Programs - Earl, Sarah; Carden, Fred; Smutylo, Terry; Patten, Michael Quinn (IDRC Books, 2001)
"Outcome Mapping provides not only a guide to essential evaluation map-making, but also a guide to learning and increased effectiveness, and affirmation that being attentive along the journey is as important as, and critical to, arriving at a destination." - Michael Quinn PattonMore and more, development organizations are under pressure to demonstrate that their programs result in significant and lasting changes in the well-being of their intended beneficiaries. However, such "impacts" are often the product of a confluence of events for which no single agency or group of agencies can realistically claim full credit. As a result, assessing development impacts is problematic, yet many organizations continue to struggle to measure results far beyond the reach of their programs. "Outcome Mapping" recognizes that development is essentially about people relating to each other and their environment. The originality of this approach lies in its shift away from assessing the products of a program to focus on changes in behaviour, relationships, actions, and activities in the people, groups, and organizations it works with directly. In doing so, "Outcome Mapping" debunks many of the myths about measuring impact. It will help a program be specific about the actors it targets, the changes it expects to see, and the strategies it employs and, as a result, be more effective in terms of the results it achieves. This publication explains the various steps in the outcome mapping approach and provides detailed information on workshop design and facilitation. It includes numerous worksheets and examples.

Planners versus Searchers in Foreign Aid - Easterly, William (Asian Development Review, 2006)
Only for the recipients of foreign aid is something akin to central planning seen as a way to achieve prosperity. The end of poverty is achieved with free markets and democracy—where decentralized “searchers” look for ways to meet individual needs—not Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The PRSPs and MDGs create lots of bureaucracy but hold no one specific agency in foreign aid accountable for any one specific task. Planners in foreign aid use the old failed models of the past—the “Financing Gap”, the “poverty trap”, the government-to-government aid model; and the “expenditures = outcomes” mentality. Searchers in foreign aid would imitate the feedback and accountability of markets and democracy to provide goods and services to individuals until homegrown markets and democracy end poverty in the society as a whole. An example of the more promising “searchers” approach in foreign aid is 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate Mohammad Yunus and Grameen Bank.

The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good - Easterly, William (Oxford University Press, 2007)
We are all aware of the extreme hunger and poverty that afflict the world's poor. We hear the facts, see the images on television, buy the T-shirt and are moved as individuals and governments to dig deep into our pockets. Yet what happens to all this aid? Why after 50 years and $2.3 trillion are there still children dying for lack of twelve cents medicine? Why are there so many people still living on less than $1 a day without clean water, food, sanitation, shelter, education or medicine? In The White Man's Burden William Easterly, acclaimed author and former economist at the World Bank, addresses these twin tragedies head on. While recognising the energy and compassion behind the campaign to make poverty history he argues urgently and powerfully that grand plans and good intentions are a part of the problem not the solution. Giving aid is not enough, we must ensure that it reaches the people who need it most and the only way to make this happens is through accountability and by learning from past experiences. Without claiming to have all the answers, William Easterly chastises the complacent and patronising attitude of the West that attempts to impose solutions from above. In this book, which is by turns angry, moving, irreverent but always rigorous, he calls on each and everyone of us to take responsibility, whether donors, aid workers or ordinary citizens, so that more aid reaches the people it is supposed to help, the mother who cannot feed her children, the little girl who has to collect firewood rather than go to school, the father who cannot work because he has been crippled by war.

Accountability Myopia: Losing Sight of Organizational Learning - Ebrahim, Alnoor (Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 2005)
This article challenges a normative assumption about accountability in organizations: that more accountability is necessarily better. More specifically, it examines two forms of “myopia” that characterize conceptions of accountability among service-oriented nonprofit organizations: (a) accountability as a set of unconnected binary relationships rather than as a system of relations and (b) accountability as short-term and rule-following behavior rather than as a means to longer-term social change. The article explores the effects of these myopias on a central mechanism of accountability in organizations—evaluation—and proposes a broader view of accountability that includes organizational learning. Future directions for research and practice are elaborated.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Strategies for learning from failure - Edmondson, Amy C. (Harvard Business Review, 2011)

Teaming: how organizations learn, innovate, and compete in the knowledge economy - Edmondson, Amy C. (Jossey-Bass, 2012)
New breakthrough thinking in organizational learning, leadership, and change Continuous improvement, understanding complex systems, and promoting innovation are all part of the landscape of learning challenges today's companies face. Amy Edmondson shows that organizations thrive, or fail to thrive, based on how well the small groups within those organizations work. In most organizations, the work that produces value for customers is carried out by teams, and increasingly, by flexible team-like entities. The pace of change and the fluidity of most work structures means that it's not really about creating effective teams anymore, but instead about leading effective teaming. Teaming shows that organizations learn when the flexible, fluid collaborations they encompass are able to learn. The problem is teams, and other dynamic groups, don't learn naturally. Edmondson outlines the factors that prevent them from doing so, such as interpersonal fear, irrational beliefs about failure, groupthink, problematic power dynamics, and information hoarding. With Teaming, leaders can shape these factors by encouraging reflection, creating psychological safety, and overcoming defensive interpersonal dynamics that inhibit the sharing of ideas. Further, they can use practical management strategies to help organizations realize the benefits inherent in both success and failure. Presents a clear explanation of practical management concepts for increasing learning capability for business results Introduces a framework that clarifies how learning processes must be altered for different kinds of work Explains how Collaborative Learning works, and gives tips for how to do it well Includes case-study research on Intermountain healthcare, Prudential, GM, Toyota, IDEO, the IRS, and both Cincinnati and Minneapolis Children's Hospitals, among others Based on years of research, this book shows how leaders can make organizational learning happen by building teams that learn.

Extreme Teaming: Lessons in Complex, Cross-Sector Leadership - Edmondson, Amy C.; Harvey, Jean-Francois (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2017)
Extreme Teaming Lessons in Complex, Cross-Sector Leadership Today’s global enterprises increasingly involve collaborative work by teams of experts operating across different professions, organizations, and industries. Extreme Teaming provides new insights into the world of complex, cross industry projects and the ways they must be managed. Leading experts Amy Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey analyze contemporary cases that expose the complex demands of cross-boundary collaboration on management, and inform our understanding of teams. Containing powerful insights and practical guidelines that allow managers to bridge professional divides and organizational boundaries in order to work together effectively, this is a new exploration of the challenges involved in today’s global enterprises. The authors demonstrate that the work done in the modern organization is less and less about looking inward and creating strong teams inside the company, and more about teaming across boundaries – that often are in flux. Extreme Teaming is a must-read book for all courses related to leading open innovation; teamwork and collaboration; project management; and cross-boundary work.

It’s About Results at Scale, Not Collective Impact - Edmondson, Jeff; Santhosh-Kumar, Parvathi (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2017)
Improving outcomes at scale requires a paradigm shift in how we work.

Systems Thinking. Applied. A primer - Edson, Robert (ASysT Institute, 2008)

MAKING - Fostering new ideas for social inclusion and accountable, responsive governance - Edwards, Duncan (Think Piece, 2014)

Understanding the Conditions for fostering the right kind of innovation - Edwards, Duncan (Making All Voices Count, 2014)
MAVC's Duncan Edwards reflects on the first in a series of thematic discussions led by the Institute of Development Studies. The second of two posts.

Transforming governance: what role for technologies? - Edwards, Duncan; Brock, Karen; McGee, Rosie (MAVC, 2016)
The technological innovations of the last two decades – cell phones, tablets, open data and social media – mean that governments and citizens can interact like never before. Around the world, in different contexts, citizens have fast-increasing access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) that enable them to monitor government performance and express their views on it in real time. In February 2016, a learning event in Manila, convened by Making All Voices Count, brought together 55 researchers and practitioners from 15 countries. They all work on using new technologies for accountable governance. They shared their diverse experiences, reflected on how they approach transformative governance, and visited Filipino accountable governance initiatives. This report shares some of what they learned.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Supporting innovation and the use of technologies in accountability initiatives: lessons from Making All Voices Count - Edwards, Duncan; Hudson, Hannah; Anderson, Colin; McGee, Rosemary; Brock, Karen (MAVC Learning Report, 2018)
Making All Voices Count was an international initative that harnessed the power of innovation and new technologies to support effective, accountable governance. Focusing on six countries in Africa and Asia, the programme was implemented by a consortium of implementing partners, and used funding from four donors to make grants to support new ideas that amplified the voices of citizens, and enabled governments to listen and respond. From the start, Making All Voices Count was also a learning programme. The objective of this learning was not only to bring about change during the programme’s life cycle, but also to leave a legacy that would help to ensure that future governance programmes and initiatives seeking to capitalise on the transformative potential of innovation and technology are more informed, inclusive and impactful. This programme learning report emerged from a wider process of analysing, discussing and synthesising the data and learning from the programme, which wove together evidence-based learning about technology for accountable governance initiatives with experiential learning on how best to support such work. The report highlights five of the lessons learned from Making All Voices Count about how – and how not – to run large, complex programmes that intend to support innovation in governance.

Future Positive: International Co-operation in the 21st Century - Edwards, Michael (Routledge, 1999)
An optimistic assessment of the prospects for a new international order - acting as a counter-blast to global pessimism. The text explains how the international system operates, the pressures it faces and the changes it must undergo, and offers concrete ideas to re-frame international relations, foreign aid and humanitarian intervention, without using jargon or simplistic judgements.

edX MOOC: Adaptive Leadership in Development - edX (edX, 2016)
Gain the skills to be an adaptive leader in development and learn how to uncover local solutions to complex problems in developing countries.

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

Strategy as Simple Rules - Eisenhardt, Kathleen M.; Sull, Donald (Harvard Business Review, 2001)
When the business landscape was simple, companies could afford to have complex strategies. But now that business is so complex, they need to simplify. Smart companies have done just that with a new approach: a few straightforward, hard-and-fast rules that define direction without confining it.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial management; Internet; Strategy; Strategy execution

Smart Environmental Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Networks - El-Bendary, Nashwa; Fouad, Mohamed; Ramadan, Rabie; Banerjee, Soumya; Hassanien, Aboul (Wireless Sensor Networks, 2013)

Information lives of the poor: fighting poverty with technology - Elder, Laurent; Samarajiva, Rohan; Gillwald, Alison; Galperin, Hernan (2014)

Humanitarian Innovation Guide - ELHRA (2018)
The Humanitarian Innovation Guide is a growing online resource to help individuals and organisations define humanitarian problems and successfully develop innovative solutions. ABOUT THE GUIDE The humanitarian sector is investing in exciting innovations, but it is not yet producing a steady pipeline of well-designed solutions that effectively address problems, evidence their impact, and have the potential to be scaled. As stated in a recent independent evaluation of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (Triple Line, 2017), a review of the innovation ecosystem in 2015 found significant gaps in resources for innovation, including a shortage of guidance on the skills needed to manage successful innovation projects. These findings were echoed in the research carried out to inform this resource. As part of a grant agreement with the European Commission to provide financial and technical support to emerging humanitarian innovations, and in line with our strategic aim to develop the sector’s skills and capabilities in humanitarian innovation, this resource aims to translate our own learning, along with learning from across the sector, into a practical, grounded guide for innovators working in humanitarian contexts. Building on our unique position in the sector, the Humanitarian Innovation Guide is designed to provide targeted support to individuals and organisations attempting to develop innovative solutions to the challenges facing humanitarian assistance, resulting in a more effective humanitarian response. The Guide is written with two audiences in mind: humanitarian practitioners who are seeking to develop a new approach to their work and want to apply an innovation lens to solving problems; and social entrepreneurs from outside the sector who have identified an opportunity to engage with the sector and need a humanitarian framework to contextualise their innovation plans. We also hope that it will be a useful resource for innovation managers who are tasked with supporting innovation in their agencies, labs or networks. As the first step-by-step guide to managing innovation in the humanitarian sector, we hope that its continued development will better enable individuals, organisations and the wider sector to: Plan the activities involved in an innovation process and systematise the management of innovation. Manage a successful innovation project and generate evidence for innovation. Ensure that innovations are developed in an ethical way, with full consideration of risks and responsibilities.

Systems change: A guide to what it is and how to do it - Ellen Harries; Rachel Wharton; Rob Abercrombie (NPC, 2015)
Systems change has been attracting the attention of those in the social sector who want to deal with the root causes of problems, but, despite the buzz, much of what is written is abstract in tone. With the support of LankellyChase Foundation we have produced this guide to plug a gap in the systems change literature—providing accessible material and recommendations for action. Systems change has been attracting the attention of a range of progressive charities, funders and practitioners who are interested in dealing with the root causes of social problems. But while there is a buzz about a subject relatively new to the social sector, it is easy to feel frustrated by the literature—much of what is written is abstract in tone and there are few examples of success. We have produced this paper to address this problem and offer accessible material and recommendations for action. This systems change guide: Clarifies what is meant by systems and systems change Describes the main perspectives on systems change Outlines good practice for systems change Identifies what is and is not agreed upon by experts in the field Provides recommendations for charities, funders and the public sector on how to act systemically. We hope this presents a manageable introduction to the systems change field, especially for those new to it, and also guides those interested in acting systemically to improve the lives of people in need. Our conclusion is that although it may not be as novel as some claim, there is a good deal of value in a systems change approach and it offers a welcome reminder of what effective action looks like when it comes to the pursuit of social change.

Should development agencies have official views? - Ellerman, David (Development in Practice, 2002)

A reliability and validity study of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills—Modified - Elliot, Jacquelyn; Lee, Steven W; Tollefson, Nona (School Psychology Review, 2001)
Examined the psychometric properties of a set of preliteracy measures modified from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) with a sample of 75 kindergarten students. The modified battery (called DIBELS—M) includes measures of Letter Naming Fluency, Sound Naming Fluency, Initial Phoneme Ability, and Phonemic Segmentation Ability. These measures were assessed through repeated administrations in 2-wk intervals at the end of the kindergarten year. Results indicate interrater reliability estimates and coefficients of stability and equivalence for 3 of the measures ranged from .80 to the mid .90s with about one-half of the coefficients above .90. Correlations between DIBELS—M scores and criterion measures of phonological awareness, standardized achievement measures, and teacher ratings of achievement yielded concurrent validity coefficients ranging from .60 to .70. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that the 4 DIBELS—M measures accounted for 73% of the variance in scores on the Skills Cluster of the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery—Revised. The contributions of the study, including psychometric analysis of the DIBELS—M with a new sample and formation of composite scores, are discussed in relation to the extant literature.

Locating the energy for change: an introduction to appreciative inquiry - Elliott, Charles (International Institute for Sustainable Development, 1999)
Keywords: Appreciative inquiry; Organizational change

Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance - Elstub, Stephen; Escobar, Oliver (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019)
Democratic innovations are proliferating in politics, governance, policy, and public administration. These new processes of public participation are reimagining the relationship between citizens and institutions. This Handbook advances understanding of democratic innovations, in theory and practice, by critically reviewing their importance throughout the world. The overarching themes are a focus on citizens and their relationship to these innovations, and the resulting effects on political equality. The Handbook therefore offers a definitive overview of existing research on democratic innovations, while also setting the agenda for future research and practice.
Keywords: Democracy; Public Affairs & Administration

Responding to change: Learning to adapt in development cooperation - Engel, Paul; Keijzer, Niels; Ørnemark, Charlotte (Policy Management Brief 19, 2007)

Social learning and climate change adaptation: evidence for international development practice - Ensor, Jonathan; Harvey, Blane (Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2015)
The potential for social learning to address complex, interconnected social and environmental challenges, such as climate change adaptation, is receiving increasing attention in research and practice. Social learning approaches vary, but commonly include cycles of knowledge sharing and joint action to co-create knowledge, relationships, and practices among diverse stakeholders. This results in learning and change that goes beyond the individual into communities, networks, or systems. Many authors have focused on analysis of case studies to better understand the contexts in which such learning occurs. In this paper, we look across this literature to draw out lessons for international development practice. To support those looking to purposively design social learning interventions for adaptation, we focus on four areas: lessons learned and the principles adopted when using a social learning approach, examples of tools and methods used, approaches to evaluating social learning, and examples of its impact. While we identify important lessons for practice within each of these areas, three cross-cutting themes emerge. These are: the importance of developing a shared view among those initiating learning processes of how change might happen and of how social learning fits within it, linking this locus of desired change to the tools employed; the centrality of skilled facilitation and in particular how practitioners may shift toward being participants in the collective learning process; and the need to attend to social difference, recognizing the complexity of social relations and the potential for less powerful actors to be co-opted in shared decision making. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:509–522. doi: 10.1002/wcc.348 This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Learning from Cases and Analogies Climate and Development > Knowledge and Action in Development

Framework for the Biodiversity Cross-Mission Learning Program - Environmental Incentives; Foundations of Success; ICF International (Measuring Impact, 2015)
USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and the Environment/Office of Forestry and Biodiversity (E3/FAB) launched the five-year Measuring Impact program (MI) to help strengthen USAID’s biodiversity programs by building the capacity of the Agency to design, monitor, and evaluate effective programs and by enhancing the evidence base that informs programming decisions. A core programmatic strategy of MI is to “Improve Biodiversity Conservation Approaches” with the life-of-project (LOP) objective that E3/FAB and the Missions engaged with MI have a greater understanding of conditions under which commonly deployed conservation strategic approaches are effective. To accomplish this, MI is working with E3/FAB to design and implement a Biodiversity Cross-Mission Learning Program (Learning Program) to systematically capture and share lessons on theories of change1 (TOCs) for common conservation strategic approaches in the USAID biodiversity portfolio.

Summary of Indicators for Combating Wildlife Trafficking - Environmental Incentives; Foundations of Success; ICF International (Measuring Impact, 2015)
USAID's Measuring Impact conducted a survey and analysis of existing wildlife crime indicators to inform the development of USAID indicators and build the evidence base for better alignment of the Agency’s monitoring efforts with best practices. This report summarizes the search strategy and main results of the survey.

Towards an evidence base on the value of social learning-oriented approaches in the context of climate change and food security - Epp, Marissa Van; Garside, Ben (Environmental Policy and Governance, 2019)
Attention to social learning's potential to improve development outcomes in the context of climate change and food security challenges is growing. Yet evidence supporting the wide range of assertions about the outcomes of social learning processes is insufficient. More work is needed to understand when and how a social learning-oriented approach is effective. We respond to the gap in evidence by piloting the Climate Change and Social Learning initiative's monitoring and evaluation framework for social learning. Our objectives are to begin building an evidence base and to test the theory of change behind the framework. Using a peer-assist approach, we apply the framework to eight case studies in partnership with five initiatives. We analyse trends in evidence gathered across the case studies in four dimensions of social learning (engagement, iterative learning, capacity development, and challenging institutions) along three dimensions of change (process, learning outcomes, and changes in values and practice).
Keywords: Climate change adaptation; Monitoring and Evaluation; Social learning; food security

Rethinking Participation and Re-enacting Its Dilemmas? Aarhus 2017 and “The Playful Society” - Eriksson, Birgit; Stephensen, Jan Løhmann (Conjunctions. Transdisciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation, 2016)
In 2012 the Danish city of Aarhus was appointed European Capital of Culture for 2017. The appointment was based on an ambitious programme that – under the headline Rethink – tried to set an agenda of societal transformation, mainly by seeking to increase the impact of art and culture, and to enhance civic participation at all levels of society. In this article we examine one of the first attempts of Aarhus 2017 to realize these grand ambitions: ‘The Playful Society’, a series of micro grants aimed at enabling young people to make their own art/culture projects and participate in the overall Rethink project. Informed by theoretical distinctions between different forms of participation, and the diverse interests invested in participatory processes, we investigate how the young cultural entrepreneurs and the artistic administrators of Aarhus 2017 separately, in conjunction, and sometimes even in opposition to each other, translated these overall ambitions into practice. We argue that they illuminate some of the dilemmas of contemporary cultural participation, including the importance of question- ing who participates in what, how they do it, and in what context.
Keywords: Cultural Entrepreneurship; Participation; youth

Peacebuilding design, monitoring, and evaluation: A Training Package for participants and trainers at intermediate to advanced levels - Ernstorfer, Anita; Barnard-Webster, Kiely (Carnegie Corporation, 2019)
This training package includes 7 Training Modules and a set of Annexes (Annexes A-O). The Training Modules build on each other and should ideally be used in a sequenced way in a training setting. However, for groups with specific training needs around particular areas, modules can also be used individually, but need to be tailored by the trainers and facilitators to meet the needs of specific audiences. The annexes provide worksheets and hand-outs that can be used as resources during the training for specific modules and exercises.

Desired and unwanted: Policy work by participation practitioners - Escobar, Óliver (XXII World Congress of Political Science: ‘Reordering Power, Shifting Boundaries’, 2012)
"This paper presents findings from doctoral research in a Scottish Local Authority Area, where I am developing an interpretive ethnography of ‘the work of participation’ (cf. Colebatch, 2005c, 2006). My focus is on engagement practitioners:
Keywords: Academia; Biology; Computer Science; Earth Sciences; Geography; History; Law; Math; Medicine; Philosophy; Physics; Political science; Psychology; Religion; Research; economics; universities

Participatory Budgeting in Scotland: An overview of strategic design choices and principles for effective delivery - Escobar, Oliver; Harkins, Chris (2015)
Description

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?

Who counts reality? Participatory monitoring and evaluation: A literature review - Estrella, M.; Gaventa, John (IDS Working Paper, 1998)

How do we know what works? Interview with Prof. Michael Woolcock, Lead Social Scientist at the World Bank - Evans, Alice (2018)
Dr Alice Evans and leading experts discuss growth, governance, & gender inequalities. Alice is a Lecturer at King's College London, and Faculty Associate at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Is there a new Washington Consensus? An analysis of five World Development Reports - Evans, Alice (From Poverty to Power, 2017)
Is there a new Washington Consensus? Alice Evans analyses the last five World Development Reports and finds significant changes in orthodoxy, but also big gaps

'Leaving No One Behind': Why Ideas Matter - Evans, Alice (2016)

The process approach - Eyben, R. (Getting the Balance Right: How Should ODA Deal with Cross-Disciplinary Issues’?, 1992)

Donors' Learning Difficulties: Results, Relationships and Responsibilities - Eyben, Rosalind (IDS Bulletin, 2005)

The Politics of Evidence and Results in International Development: Playing the Game to Change the Rules? - Eyben, Rosalind; Guijt, Irene; Roche, Chris; Shutt, Cathy (Practical Action Publishing, 2015)
Understanding and demonstrating the effectiveness of efforts to improve the lives of those living in poverty is an essential part of international development practice. But who decides what counts as good or credible evidence? Can the drive to measure results do justice to and promote transformational change change that challenges the power relations that produce and reproduce inequality, injustice and the non-fulfillment of human rights? The Politics of Evidence in International Development provides a critical examination of the results agenda, with practical strategies for rendering it more helpful in supporting transformative development. The book deconstructs the origins and concepts of the results and evidence agendas employed in international development. It describes with concrete examples the current effects and consequences of the agenda, and goes on to outline a range of strategies used by individuals and organizations to resist, adapt or comply with the useful and problematic demands for results-oriented measurement and evidence of value for money."

'Development': A visual story of shifting power - Faciolince, Maria; Obando, Hansel (From Poverty to Power, 2021)
The work of shifting power is fundamentally the work of changing our gaze. People act on how they see, and to change how we see, is to radically change how we act. By not exploring other forms of expressing, looking and creating, we’re limiting ourselves.  The development space is fixated on the written word. ... This exhibit, called “‘Development’: a visual story of shifting power”, tells the story of ‘development’, from its origin to its current challenge, from its contradictions to its possible horizons. Our guiding principles were the twin notions of decolonization and intersectionality: moving away from the unequal power structures that reinforce legacies of colonialism, and advancing explicitly anti-racist and feminist agendas.

Food security indicators - FAO (ESS Website, 2018)

How to design and plan public engagement processes: a handbook - Faulkner, Wendy; Bynner, Claire (What Works Scotland, 2020)
There is a growing hunger for more, and more meaningful, citizen participation in decisions that affect our lives. Across the world, calls for open government, workplace democracy, community empowerment are gaining support, as are innovative developments in deliberative democracy. The current COVID-19 pandemic makes these calls more pressing than ever, given the deepening inequalities it has caused and the complex challenges of building a progressive road out of the crisis. So, now more than ever we need people capable of designing and planning public engagement processes that are empowering and worthwhile. Experienced practitioners know that, without considerable forethought, care and preparation, public engagement processes risk achieving little or, worse, alienating people so that they never engage (with you or anyone else) again. This Handbook seeks to deepen people’s skills in designing and planning effective public engagement processes, by providing a structured four-stage framework for tackling the task. It draws on the authors’ extensive practical experience of training and working with public engagement facilitators across sectors as well as international expertise. You may be a citizen, a community or public engagement practitioner, an elected or government representative, or some other sponsoring organisation or stakeholder. You may be new to this kind of work or experienced but wanting to review and improve your practice. Or you may be studying public participation in democratic processes. Wherever you are coming from, and whatever type of public engagement you are doing, this Handbook promises to be a useful addition to your toolbox.

Development entrepreneurship: how donors and leaders can foster institutional change - Faustino, Jaime; Booth, David (Working Politically in Practice, 2014)
Various communities of practice have been established recently to advance the general idea of thinking and working politically in development agencies. This paper makes a contribution by describing the practice of what has been called development entrepreneurship and explaining some of the ideas from outside the field of development that have inspired it.

FCDO Beneficiary Engagement - FCDO (FCDO, 2021)
This guide has been developed to help build confidence and capability, distilling useful tips and considerations that may help teams think through programme delivery issues and interpret elements of the PrOF Rules. This PrOF Guide lays out: - The definition of beneficiary engagement. - The case for beneficiary engagement. - FCDO’s approach to beneficiary engagement. - Practical tips for how to integrate beneficiary engagement throughout the programme cycle, including guiding questions to ask, rules of thumb to apply, tools to use and challenges and special topics to consider during Design, Mobilisation, Delivery and Closure phases. At its core, beneficiary engagement is about processes that recognise the dignity and support the agency of the people whose lives we are trying to improve. It is about beneficiaries and programme constituents having a say over what assistance they receive and how they receive it. It is about engaging beneficiaries and programme constituents as people with valuable insights and capabilities, rather than a compliance exercise. It is about empowering all beneficiaries and programme constituents to improve their lives by engaging them in helping us make better design and delivery decisions for the programmes that affect their lives. It’s about ensuring that a diverse set of voices are heard. Harnessing the power of beneficiary engagement can also improve outcomes and help programmes reach them more efficiently. It helps define and promote Value for Money, improve transparency and ensure that beneficiaries are safe from harm and empowered to speak out wherever harm does occur. Beneficiary engagement is supported by FCDO policy commitments, PrOF Rules, internal guidance and key international commitments. Beneficiary engagement is applicable to, and valuable in, a range of contexts, including humanitarian contexts. Beneficiary engagement requires time and resources, but programmes can help ensure the benefits of engagement outweigh the costs by Doing No Harm, Engaging Early and Closing the Loop. It is ultimately the Programme Responsible Owner’s responsibility to determine what beneficiary engagement is suitable and feasible for a programme. Quality beneficiary engagement is not about applying the one “right” approach but rather thoughtfully considering key questions and applying key principles and proven tools to the programme’s context to achieve a programme that supports the dignity and agency of all beneficiaries as much as possible.

FCDO Programme Operating Framework - FCDO (FCDO, 2021)
The Programme Operating Framework (PrOF) sets the standard for how the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) delivers its programmes and projects.

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

Switchboard Survey Analysis (Internal Document) - Feedback Labs (LearnAdapt Programme, 2018)

Development and radical uncertainty - Feinstein, Osvaldo (Development in Practice, 2020)
Development strategies, programmes and projects are designed making assumptions concerning several variables such as future prices of outputs and inputs, exchange rates and productivity growth. However, knowledge about the future is limited. Uncertainty prevails. The usual approach to deal with uncertainty is to reduce it to risk. Uncertainty is perceived as a negative factor that should and can be eliminated. This article presents an alternative approach which recognises that radical uncertainty is irreducible to risk, identifying a positive dimension of uncertainty and showing its implications for development practice.

Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho - Ferguson, James (University Of Minnesota Press, 1994)
Development, it is generally assumed, is good and necessary, and in its name the West has intervened, implementing all manner of projects in the impoverished regions of the world. When these projects fail, as they do with astonishing regularity, they nonetheless produce a host of regular and unacknowledged effects, including the expansion of bureaucratic state power and the translation of the political realities of poverty and powerlessness into "technical" problems awaiting solution by "development" agencies and experts. It is the political intelligibility of these effects, along with the process that produces them, that this book seeks to illuminate through a detailed case study of the workings of the "development" industry in one country, Lesotho, and in one "development" project.Using an anthropological approach grounded in the work of Foucault, James Ferguson analyzes the institutional framework within which such projects are crafted and the nature of "development discourse," revealing how it is that, despite all the "expertise" that goes into formulating development projects, they nonetheless often demonstrate a startling ignorance of the historical and political realities of the locale they are intended to help. In a close examination of the attempted implementation of the Thaba-Tseka project in Lesotho, Ferguson shows how such a misguided approach plays out, how, in fact, the "development" apparatus in Lesotho acts as an "anti-politics machine," everywhere whisking political realities out of sight and all the while performing, almost unnoticed, its own pre-eminently political operation of strengthening the state presence in the local region.James Ferguson is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California at Irvine.

Adaptive Management and Social Learning in Collaborative and Community-Based Monitoring: a Study of Five Community-Based Forestry Organizations in the western USA - Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria; Ballard, Heidi; Sturtevant, Victoria (Ecology and Society, 2008)
Fernandez-Gimenez, M. E., H. L. Ballard, and V. E. Sturtevant. 2008. Adaptive management and social learning in collaborative and community-based monitoring: a study of five community-based forestry organizations in the western USA. Ecology and Society 13(2): 4. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02400-130204

Measuring the Barriers to Big Data for Development: design-reality gap analysis - Fernando Gomez, L.; Heeks, R. (Manchester University Development Informatics Working Paper Series, 2016)

Hacking by the prompt: Innovative ways to utilize ChatGPT for evaluators - Ferretti, Silva (New Directions for Evaluation, 2023)
“Hacking by the prompt”—writing simple yet creative conversational instructions in ChatGPT's message window—revealed many valuable additions to the evaluator's toolbox for all stages of the evaluation process. This includes the production of terms of reference and proposals for the dissemination of final reports. ChatGPT does not come with an instruction book, so evaluators must experiment creatively to understand its potential. The surprising performance of ChatGPT leads to the question: will it eventually substitute for evaluators? By describing ChatGPT through four personality characteristics (pedantic, “I know it all,” meek, and “speech virtuoso”), this article provides case examples of the potential and pitfall of ChatGPT in transforming evaluation practice. Anthropomorphizing ChatGPT is debatable, but the result is clear: tongue-in-cheek personality characteristics helped hack ChatGPT more creatively while remaining aware of its challenges. This article combines practical ideas with deeper reflection on evaluation. It concludes that ChatGPT can substitute for evaluators when evaluations mostly focus on paperwork and conventional approaches “by the book” (an unfortunate trend in the sector). ChatGPT cannot substitute engagement with reality and critical thinking. Will ChatGPT then be a stimulus to rediscover the humanity and the reality we lost in processes?

Empowerment Evaluation Blog - Fetterman, David (2006)
This blog, by Dr David Fetterman, provides a range of resources on empowerment evaluation theory and practice. The blog includes links to videos, guides and relevant academic literature that provide a detailed analysis and discussion of using empowerment evaluation.

Empowerment evaluation - Fettermen, David (2014)

Community Moderation Guidelines Template - FeverBee (FeverBee)
Community Moderation Guidelines for [Organisation] 1.0 INTRODUCTION Welcome to [the community]. We’re excited to have you as a moderator and we can’t wait for you to get started. We’ve put together this document to help guide your moderation decisions. Our goal...

FeverBee’s Online Community Strategy Template - FeverBee (FeverBee, 2018)

FeverBee's Strategic Project Plan Template - FeverBee (FeverBee)
Gantt Chart [ client] COMMUNITY STRATEGY- PROJECT PLAN [ client] Community Strategy, COMPANY NAME,[ client] BY RICHARD MILLINGTON, DATE, 25/ 7/ 2018 No, TASK TITLE, TASK OWNER, START DATE, DUE DATE, DURATION, PCT OF TASK COMPLETE, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, DEVELOPING THE STRATEGIC PLAN, BUILD...

Survey Template - Help decide the future of the [name] Community Survey - FeverBee (FeverBee, 2018)

Learning to Adapt: Exploring Knowledge, Information and Data for Adaptive Programmes and Policies - Workshop Summary Report - fhi360 (IDS, 2015)
Adaptive management is increasingly seen as critical capability for development programmes and policies that are more effective, efficient, relevant and sustainable. There is increasing recognition that such work requires significant changes to the organizational structures, management processes, accountability and performance cultures and indivi

Evaluating Countering Violent Extremism: Practice and Progress - Fink, Naureen Chowdhury; Romaniuk, Peter; Barakat, Rafia (Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, 2013)

Knowledge-based Communication Processes in Software Engineering - Fischer, Gerhard; Schneider, Matthias (IEEE Press, 1984)
A large number of problems to be solved with the help of computer systems are ill-structured. Their solution requires incremental design processes, because complete and stable specifications are net available. For tasks of this sort, life cycle models are inadequate. Our design methodology is based on a rapid prototyping approach which supports the coevolution of specification and implementation. Communication between customers, designers and implementors and communication between the humans and the knowledge base in which the emerging product is embedded are of crucial importance. Our work is centered around knowledge-based systems which enhance and support the communication needs in connection with software systems. Program documentation systems are used as an example to illustrate the relevance of knowledge-based human-computer communication in software engineering.
Keywords: Rapid prototyping; experimental programming environments; human-computer communication; incremental design; knowledge-based systems; program documentation; user interfaces

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.

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.

Importing Democracy: The Role of NGO's in South Africa, Tajikistan, & Argentina - Fisher, Julie (Kettering Foundation Press, 2013)
While street protesters demanding democratic reforms make headlines in the international news, Importing Democracy: The Role of NGOs in South Africa, Tajikistan, and Argentina, written by Julie Fisher and published by the Kettering Foundation Press, focuses on a quieter movement led by democratization NGOs. In South Africa, the Good Governance Learning Network shares participatory tools to make local governments more responsive. In Tajikistan, Jahan teaches local police about human rights. In Argentina, seven democratization NGOs sponsor public deliberations in local communities and have organized a nationwide citizens network to combat municipal government corruption. The book is organized around three chapters for each country, South Africa, Tajikistan, and Argentina. The first chapter of each country s section begins with the historical, political, and economic context and continues with a discussion of the general contours of civil society. The second chapter in each section deals with the role of democratization NGOs in promoting both loyal opposition and law-based civil liberties. The third chapter focuses on their role in promoting political culture and political participation. Loyal opposition and law-based civil liberties help define democratization at the national level, whereas changes in political culture and increased political participation often occur throughout society. Following the nine country chapters, the book concludes with a comparative overview and implications for international policy. Fisher, a former Kettering Foundation program officer, writes that the idea that democracy can be exported has lost credibility in recent years. In many countries, however, democratization NGOs are importing democratic ideas and recovering local democratic traditions.

Urban climate change adaptation as social learning: Exploring the process and politics - Fisher, Susannah; Dodman, David (Environmental Policy and Governance, 2019)
Responses to climate change that build on adaptive natural resource management conceptualise social learning processes as having the potential to form a key component of climate adaptation. Social learning processes represent a way of managing the inherent uncertainties and interconnectedness of adaptation issues through ongoing learning, iterative reflection, and change of responses over time. Although the theoretical case is emerging for social learning as adaptation, there is limited empirical evidence of how these processes play out as local governments engage in urban adaptation planning. This paper starts to address this gap by examining social learning processes in two cities in India. We show how the social learning processes interact with complex governance contexts in the two cities and how evidence of outcomes is emerging across individuals, networks, and systems. We go on to argue that there are several areas of social learning that need further theorisation to support its application in the urban context. First, theories of social learning need to allow for unequal power relationships to continue to shape learning processes and take into account structural and historical dynamics as well as relational forms of power. Second, the way that scale is understood needs to be reopened as a point of analysis to understand how scalar concepts are used by actors to frame and locate problems and solutions rather than being understood as fixed and immutable.
Keywords: Climate change; India; Social learning; governance; urban planning