Evaluation Feedback for Effective Learning and Accountability - OECD (Evaluation and Aid Effectiveness, 2001)
Evaluation is a key tool in improving the quality and effectiveness of development co-operation. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Working Party in Aid Evaluation is the only international forum where bilateral and multilateral evaluation experts meet regularly. Its Members meet to improve evaluation practice and to learn lessons from development co-operation activities and experiences. A series "Evaluation and Aid Effectiveness" was launched to share selected pieces of work with a broader public. This publication is composed of two parts: The Workshop Report, based on the fore-mentioned meeting, highlights the various issues raised, topics of discussion and different feedback systems, and outlines the areas identified by participants as most relevant for improving evaluation feedback. The Background Synthesis Report, intended as a starting point for discussion at the workshop, outlines the main concerns and challenges facing evaluation feedback and the means to address these. The report is based on an analysis of questionnaire results, and a review of previous initiatives in this area. The print version of the above report is available free of charge from the Development Co-operation Directorate; please send an email to dac.contact@oecd.org to get a copy.

Evaluation for equitable development results - Segone, M (UNICEF, 2011)
This document is made up of a range of Evaluation Working Papers (EWP) focused on evaluation for equitable development. Put together by evaluation specialists they present strategic evaluation findings, lessons learned and innovative approaches and methodologies. Part 1:Evaluation and equity Evaluation to accelerate progress towards equity, social justice and human rights 2 Human rights and gender equality in evaluation 13 When human rights is the starting point for evaluation 25 Strengthening Equity- focused evaluations through insights from feminist theory and approaches 39 Decolonizing evaluation in a developing world. Implications and cautions for Equity-focused evaluations 59 Part 2: Methodological implications for Equity-focused evaluations Methodological issues to design and implement equity-focused evaluations 86 Developmental evaluation for Equity-focused evaluations 102 Systems thinking and Equity-focused evaluations 115 Methodological challenges in using programme theory to evaluate pro-poor and equity-focused programmes by Patricia Rogers, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University and Richard Hummelbrunner, Independent consultant 142 Case Study and equity in Evaluationby Saville Kushner, University of the West of Englan 172 Values-Engaged Evaluationsby Jennifer Greene, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 192 Part 3: Examples of Equity-focused evaluations Evaluating the contribution of UNDP to equity-focused public policies in Brazil and China 210 Using a human rights approach to evaluate ILO’s discrimination strategy 222 CONEVAL experience in evaluating interventions for Indigenous populations in Mexico 244 UNICEF supported evaluations with elements of equity-focused evaluations 258

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

Evaluation of development programmes - OECD - OECD (2019)
Data & research on evaluation of development programmes inc. paris declaration, budget support, multilateral effectiveness, impact evaluation, joint evaluations, governance, aid for trade

Evaluation of International Development Interventions: An Overview of Approaches and Methods - Vaessen, Jos; Lemire, Sebastian; Befani, Barbara (World Bank, 2020)
This guide provides an introductory overview of a range of methods that have been selected for their actual and potential use in the field of international development evaluation. For each method, a detailed guidance note presents the method’s main features and procedural steps, key advantages and disadvantages, as well as its applicability. Each guidance note includes references for relevant background readings (basic and advanced) as well as references to other additional resources of interest. Both the choice of approaches and methods and the associated guidance are by no means definitive. IEG plans to periodically update the guide as evaluation practices evolve.

Evaluation of the market systems development approach: Lessons for expanded use and adaptive management at Sida Volume I: Evaluation Report - Ruffer, Tim; Bailey, Helen; Dahlgren, Stefan; Spaven, Patrick; Winters, Mark (Evaluation of the market systems development approach, 2018)
This report presents the findings of an evaluation of Sida’s management of the market systems development (MSD) approach. It aims to inform thinking on how Sida can best manage its growing portfolio of MSD programs. Beyond this, it provides insights relevant to Sida’s wider support to complex and adaptive programs. The evaluation identified several factors that affect Sida’s ability to ensure that conducive conditions are in place for effective MSD programs and good development programming more generally. Sida’s relatively flexible framework of rules, guidelines and systems for project management provide the space needed for staff to innovate and manage adaptively. But for this to happen consistently and effectively, Sida needs to invest more deliberately in building the capacity of its staff in relevant areas. In addition, leadership and incentives are key to shaping a culture of active experimentation and learning. This needs to be supported with clearer guidance for those involved in the design and appraisal of MSD projects; and strengthened oversight of project performance, including through adjustments to Sida’s contracts and funding agreements.

Evaluation of the market systems development approach: Lessons for expanded use and adaptive management at Sida Volume II: Case studies - Ruffer, Tim; Bailey, Helen; Dahlgren, Stefan; Spaven, Patrick; Winters, Mark (Evaluation of the market systems development approach, 2018)
This report presents the findings of an evaluation of Sida’s management of the market systems development (MSD) approach. It aims to inform thinking on how Sida can best manage its growing portfolio of MSD programs. Beyond this, it provides insights relevant to Sida’s wider support to complex and adaptive programs. The evaluation identified several factors that affect Sida’s ability to ensure that conducive conditions are in place for effective MSD programs and good development programming more generally. Sida’s relatively flexible framework of rules, guidelines and systems for project management provide the space needed for staff to innovate and manage adaptively. But for this to happen consistently and effectively, Sida needs to invest more deliberately in building the capacity of its staff in relevant areas. In addition, leadership and incentives are key to shaping a culture of active experimentation and learning. This needs to be supported with clearer guidance for those involved in the design and appraisal of MSD projects; and strengthened oversight of project performance, including through adjustments to Sida’s contracts and funding agreements.

Evaluative reasoning in complexity - King, Julian (Evaluation and Value for Investment, 2023)

Everyday patterns for shifting systems - GCSI (GCSI, 2022)

Everyday patterns for shifting systems - Right scaling - GCSI (GCSI, 2022)

Everyday Political Analysis - Hudson, David; Marquette, Heather; Waldock, Sam (Developmental Leadership Program, 2016)
This short note introduces a stripped-back political analysis framework designed to help frontline development practitioners make quick but politically-informed decisions. It aims to complement more in-depth political analysis by helping programming staff to develop the 'craft' of political thinking in a way that fits their everyday working practices. Everyday Political Analysis involves two steps: Understanding interests: What makes people tick? Understanding change: What space and capacity do people have to effect change? For each step five questions, accompanied by prompts, aim to help staff to conduct quick political analysis. The EPA framework can be used at any stage of the aid management cycle, and can help users to respond rapidly to unexpected change. We are keen to hear back from people on their experience of using EPA to help us adapt the framework. Was it useful (or not)? Do people tend to use just one or both steps? Are there missing statements or prompts that would improve the analysis? Please email us at info [at] dlprog.org.

Evidence Base for Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting: summary of the literature review (2016.08) - Learning Lab (USAID, 2016)
LEARN and USAID/PPL are managing an area of work known as Evidence Base for Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (EB4CLA). The purpose of this work is to answer key learning questions:

Evidence Base for Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting: summary of the literature review (2017 update) - Learning Lab (USAID, 2017)
LEARN and USAID/PPL are managing an area of work known as Evidence Base for Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (EB4CLA). The purpose of this work is to answer key learning questions:

Evidence base for Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting: summary of the literature review (2020 update) - Learning Lab (USAID, 2020)
The LEARN contract and the United States Agency for International Development/Bureau of Policy, Planning, and Learning (USAID/PPL) are managing an area of work known as the Evidence Base for Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (EB4CLA). The purpose of this work is to answer the following key learning questions: ● Does an intentional, systematic, and resourced approach to collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) contribute to organizational effectiveness and/or development outcomes? ● If so, how? And under what conditions? ● How do we know? How do we measure any contribution that CLA makes to development results? As we began this work, we identified the need to conduct a literature review looking at these questions to understand what is known, what remains unknown, and how others have tried to answer these questions to date. We were primarily interested in answering these questions: ● What evidence is there, if any, that collaborating, learning, and/or adapting contributes to organizational effectiveness, development outcomes, or both? What are the strongest pieces of evidence? ● Does the literature identify any factors critical to CLA that are not currently included in the CLA framework? ● Who else is working on measuring the impact of collaborating, learning and adapting? ● What methods and measures did researchers use to study the effects of collaborating, learning, and adapting? ● Where are there gaps in the research relevant to collaborating, learning, and adapting? ● When taken together, what practical guidance does the evidence for collaborating, learning, and adapting offer to practitioners and policy makers to improve organizational effectiveness and development outcomes?

Evidence, hierarchies, and typologies: horses for courses - Petticrew, M; Roberts, H (Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2003)
Debate is ongoing about the nature and use of evidence in public health decision making, and there seems to be an emerging consensus that the "hierarchy of evidence" may be difficult to apply in other settings. It may be unhelpful however to simply abandon the hierarchy without having a framework or guide to replace it. One such framework is discussed. This is based around a matrix, and emphasises the need to match research questions to specific types of research. This emphasis on methodological appropriateness, and on typologies rather than hierarchies of evidence may be helpful in organising and appraising public health evidence.
Keywords: Decision Making; Policy making; Public Health; Public policy

Evidence-led adaptive programming: Lessons from MUVA - Sharp, Samuel; Riemenschneider, Nils; Selvester, Kerry (ODI, 2022)
Calls for more ‘adaptive programming’ have been prominent in international development practice for over a decade. Learning-by-doing is a crucial element of this, but programmes have often found it challenging to become more learning oriented. Establishing some form of reflective practice, against countervailing incentives, is difficult. Incorporating data collection processes that generate useful, timely and practical information to inform these reflections is even more so.This paper explores MUVA - an adaptive female economic empowerment programme in Mozambique. MUVA, we suggest, is atypically evidence-led. It combines systematic, inclusive reflective practice with extensive real-time data collection. We describe the fundamental features of MUVA’s monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) approach that supported this. One, how data collection and analysis are synchronised with set cycles for learning and adapting projects. Two, how MEL systems are designed to prioritise actionable learning, with data collection oriented more to the needs of implementing staff than to the reporting requirements of funders.This approach was enabled by building collective ownership over the programme’s objectives and the purpose of MEL from the outset. Implementers are asked about their motivations, and these are related to the programme’s Theory of Change. The evidence culture is supported by the proximity of MEL staff to implementing staff; and through structuring upwards accountability to funders around justifying evidence-based adaptations instead of reporting on more narrow indicators. We conclude by considering the relevance, or not, of MUVA’s approach to programmes in other contexts or issue areas trying to replicate a similarly evidence-informed approach to adaptive management. Key messages Learning-by-doing is essential to adaptive programming, but it can be challenging to establish data collection processes that generate useful, timely and practical information. MUVA – a female economic empowerment programme in Mozambique – has an atypically evidence-led adaptive management approach. This has two fundamental features. One, data collection and analysis are synchronised with set cycles for learning and adapting projects. Two, data collection is oriented more to the needs of implementing staff than to the reporting requirements of funders. Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) systems are designed to prioritise actionable learning. This approach was enabled by building collective ownership over the programme’s objectives and the purpose of MEL from the outset. Implementers are asked about their motivations, and these are related to the programme’s Theory of Change. The evidence culture is supported by the proximity of MEL staff to implementing staff; and through structuring upwards accountability to funders around justifying evidence-based adaptations instead of reporting on more narrow indicators.

Evidence to Action: Research to Address Illegal Wildlife Trade - Milner-Gulland, E. J.; Cugniere, Laure; Hinsley, Amy; Phelps, Jacob; Rolfe, Michael 't Sas; Veríssimo, Diogo (2018)
Tools and expertise to improve the evidence base for national and international Illegal Wildlife Trade policy already exist but are underutilised. Tapping into these resources would produce substantive benefits for wildlife conservation and associated sectors, enabling governments to better meet their obligations under the Sustainable Development Goals and international biodiversity conventions. This can be achieved through enhanced funding support for inter-sectoral research collaborations, engaging researchers in priority setting and programme design, increasing developing country research capacity and engaging researchers and community voices in policy processes. This briefing, addressed to policy makers and practitioners, is part of the 2018 Evidence to Action: Research to Address Illegal Wildlife Trade event programme, organised by five of the UK’s most active IWT research institutions, to support the London 2018 IWT Conference.

Examining the results and adaptation ideas in foreign aid - Janus, Heiner (University of Manchester, 2020)
This thesis applies ideational and institutional theories to analyse how two specific ideas, results and adaptation, have changed the theory and practice of development cooperation. The thesis addresses the question of why the results and adaptation ideas are often treated as binaries and how this debate has evolved historically. In a first theoretical paper, the evolution of results and adaptation is conceptualised as a combination of institutional layering and diffusion within development organisations. The second theoretical paper applies ideational theory, in particular, the coalition magnet framework, to China as a donor country. The empirical papers apply ideational and institutional theories to study aid projects funded by the World Bank and China in the Rwandan agriculture sector. The third paper analyses through which mechanism, results-based principal-agent relationships or problem-driven iterative adaptation, the World Bankâs Program for Results in the agriculture sector in Rwanda has led to increased agricultural productivity. The paper combines causal process tracing and contribution analysis to investigate two underlying theories of change of the Program for Results. The fourth paper applies the same framework and methodology to the Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center in Rwanda. The fifth paper compares both projects, the World Bank project and the Chinese project. The thesis finds that the ideas of results and adaptation are often presented as mutually exclusive mainly at the general level of public philosophies or paradigms, but show overlap and potential for integration on the level of framing policy problems and policy solutions. The thesis also demonstrates that there is unexplored potential for convergence between China and Development Assistance Committee donors around âcoalition magnetâ ideas. The empirical part of the thesis reveals how results-based and adaptive causal mechanisms co-exist within given aid interventions by the World Bank and China, how these interact and how they ultimately contribute to achieving development outcomes. The key finding is that the broader political context of the Rwandan agricultural sector is the main factor for determining development outcomes, which neither the World Bank project nor the Chinese projects take into account. The comparison of the World Bankâs and Chinaâs interventions finds that donor organisations need to address how results-based ideas in combination adaptive development ideas can be better tailored to fit into the specific context of the Rwandan agriculture sector.

Exit for Sustainability Checklists - Cekan, Jindra (Valuing Voices, 2020)
These Checklists for Exit along the Sustainability Project Cycle are based on lessons from ex-post evaluations that Valuing Voices has done or researched. Ex-post project completion evaluations are rare and even more so those that consulted partners and participants in the field about sustained impacts. Over $3.5 trillion has been spent on public foreign aid projects in the past 70 years (OECD 2019) yet we have evaluated less than 1% of these projects for sustainability. Our Valuing Voices ex-post research of 39 organizations’ evaluations of sustainability shows that most project results decrease (20-90%) as early as two years ex-post in addition to An Asian Development Bank study of post-completion sustainability found that “some early evidence suggests that as many as 40% of all new activities are not sustained beyond the first few years after disbursement of external funding,” Most project exits are in the last quarter and sustainability handover assumptions are not validated expost. Learning from what was sustained helps us know how to exit for sustainability from the very onset of the project (green slices) as compared to the typical project cycle (orange), above. We encourage those tasked with funding, designing, implementing, monitoring & evaluating projects to use these longer checklists and view the full recording shared with participants. A partial PowerPoint can also be found on „Sustaining All of our Hard Work“ presentation for the Vienna Evaluation Network (10/20). These checklists are aimed at donors/designers and implementers of foreign aid projects outcomes and impacts and can be adapted by local NGOs, national governments, private sector, academics, to create exit plans. Local participation in creating these and feedback on how well exit is going will help them sustain results.

Experiential Learning: Fostering lasting behavioural change - Norton, Brittney M. (Prospects practice paper, 4, 2016)
The term ‘experiential learning’ is often mistakenly used to describe any learning experience that involves participatory activities. This paper presents an overview of what true experiential learning is and how this form of learning allows for real-world application - thus promoting lasting behavioural change. Furthermore, it explains how experiential learning was adopted as the methodological core of the Prospects psychosocial programme in Liberia, which builds ‘pre-employment skills’ in 3,500 vulnerable youth aged 15-24 years. The goal of the paper is to provide other youth and education development practitioners with a resource that can be used to strengthen youth and behaviour change programmes through the incorporation of the experiential learning theory. In addition, this paper explains its application in the Prospects programme, before concluding with key considerations of such a design. 1

Explaining positive deviance in public sector reforms in development - Andrews, Matt (World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER), 2013)
Public sector reforms are commonplace in developing countries. Much of the literature about these reforms reflects on their failures. This paper asks about the successes and investigates which of two competing theories best explain why some reforms exhibi
Keywords: Development; Innovation; Reform; case survey; governance; growth; leadership

Exploring a new governance agenda: What are the questions that matter? - Nixon, Nicola; Verhulst, Stefaan; Matin, Imran; Vermonte, Philips J. (From Poverty to Power, 2021)
The 100 Questions Initiative, pioneered by the GovLab, seeks to overcome the chasm between supply and demand. It begins not by searching for what data is available, but by asking important questions about the biggest challenges societies and countries face, and then seeking more targeted and relevant data solutions. In doing this, it narrows the gap between policy makers and constituents, providing opportunities for improved evidence-based policy and community engagement in developing countries. As part of this initiative, we seek to define the ten most important questions across several domains, including Migration, Gender, Employment, the Future of Work, and—now–Governance. On this occasion, we invited over 100 experts and practitioners in governance and data science –whom we call “bilinguals”– from various organizations, companies, and government agencies to identify what they see as the most pressing governance questions in their respective domains. Over 100 bilinguals were encouraged to prioritize potential impact, novelty, and feasibility in their questioning — moving toward a roadmap for data-driven action and collaboration that is both actionable and ambitious.

Exploring new territories for evaluation - Sharp, Cathy (Collective Leadership for Scotland, 2018)
Drawing on action research, this paper recasts evaluation as ‘action inquiry’, an embedded evaluative learning practice that can help navigate complexity when enacting collective leadership. It is offered as an invitation to inquiry amongst a reasonably well-informed audience of policy makers and practitioners who work in and for public services. It will particularly interest those who provide research, evaluation and facilitation support, and those seeking to develop a more relational approach to research and evaluation. Action inquiry is a model of practising change together in environments where ‘nothing is clear, and everything keeps changing’ that significantly challenges the prevailing discourse on evaluation. Action inquiry can be wrapped around and enmeshed within initiatives and programmes that work with complexity - anywhere where success will depend on the quality of relationships that can be developed. The paper reviews some important interrelated concepts that underpin the ideals of collective leadership and public service reform and which confront deeply embedded traditional notions of leadership, expertise and participation. These offer important challenges to ideas about how change happens and recognise that relationships are at the heart of practising change. This warrants a re-examination of the high expectations of evidence-based or informed practice. Collective leadership makes new demands of evidence as it rests on help to determine ‘wise actions’ in real-life situations. This confronts the practical reality of how to work together in conditions often expressed as ‘dynamic’ or ‘turbulent’ and the added human complexities of power, emotions and relationships; too often these elements are denied or avoided aspects of a change process. Facilitated action inquiry makes these elements part of the conversations, in the midst of ‘work-as-we-are-doing-it’, to increase areas of choice for individuals and a group as a whole. Within public policy, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence about ‘what works’ yet change seems to be stubborn and slow. The paper explores some of the deep-rooted vestiges of a ‘hierarchy of evidence’ and assumptions about standardisation and generalisability that act as a ‘barrier to transformation’. These include the narrow framing of what counts as evidence and consequent relegation of community perspectives, lived experience and practice-based evidence. The paper acknowledges the clear appetite for different approaches to evaluation, especially those that better reflect deeply held values and avoid creating a culture of ‘gaming’, rooted in fear of failure and loss of funding, at the expense of learning. The need for new forms of developmental evaluative thinking, collaborative inquiry and action research to create embedded learning is well overdue. Action inquiry is a desirable and necessary response to the complex situations and challenges of human services and recognises the essentialness of knowledge co-production. It is a model of co-creation at every stage and endorses the idea that people learn from participation in evaluation and by testing theories of change through action. Action inquiry builds on the idea of inquiry, or a moment-to-moment awareness and quality of attention and draws from several elements of action research practice. It sees inquiry as an intervention in itself, one that furthermore, explicitly seeks to enhance the probability of the success of a programme, focus on learning, the collaborative development of practice-based knowledge and positive relationships. The paper highlights the importance of building inquiry into living systems, the role of facilitation, systemic inquiry, and evaluative thinking. It proposes an expansion of ideas of appreciation as a relational and collaborative practice that is a driver of emergence. Social recognition that acknowledges someone’s social value to the community and implies mutual moral obligations to cooperation and participation is particularly crucial in a work context that requires successful coordination and multiple contributions to achieve results across hierarchies of position, professional rank and sectors. Hence, appreciation goes beyond the idea of positivity to include social recognition, valuing more explicit forms of inquiry, building participants’ aspirations to design new social systems and acting in new ways to embed change. In developing this discussion, the paper contributes to emerging dialogues about the need for a model of ‘5th generation evaluation’. Such a model would be based on the idea that appreciative and challenging inquiry that is contextual, relational and open-minded will create better opportunities for change and development. The paper sets out some ‘provocative propositions’ that can help us to navigate this terrain, perhaps of a fledgling ‘5th generation approach’ to inquiry. Facilitated action inquiry can hold the key to developing both new knowledge and an adaptive, collaborative and improvisational skill-set, able to respond in new ways to systemic and complex issues on the ground. It’s common to hear the expression ‘it’s all about relationships’ and it is clearly time to shift our focus to relationships; not relationships as ‘things’, but as co-created and dynamic relational processes in which we are embedded. In this way we can bring new qualities to our talking to each other about our various and shared visions of a better future.

Exploring new territories for evaluation - Provocative propositions - Sharp, Cathy (2018)

Exploring the new world: practical insights for funding, commissioning and managing in complexity - Lowe, Toby; Plimmer, Dawn (Collaborate & Newcastle University, 2019)
The world is complex. If we want to contribute to creating positive social outcomes, we must learn to embrace this complexity. This is the New World that funders and commissioners are discovering: • People are complex: everyone’s life is different, everyone’s strengths and needs are different. • The issues we care about are complex: issues – like homelessness – are tangled and interdependent. • The systems that respond to these issues are complex: the range of people and organisations involved in creating ‘outcomes’ in the world are beyond the management control of any person or organisation. Building on the findings from our previous report, A Whole New World, we have spent the last 12 months working with a growing movement of funders, public sector commissioners, and organisations working on the ground to begin to explore this New World: to find examples of practice that will help people to navigate it effectively. This report explores the key features of their response: working in a way that is human, prioritises learning and takes a systems approach.

Exploring the potential for interactive radio to improve accountability and responsiveness to small-scale farmers in Tanzania - Gilberds, Heather; Handforth, Calum; Leclair, Mark (IDS, 2016)
What are the possibilities of using new digital technologies alongside radio to help ensure that agricultural development projects are farmer-centred, and meet the needs of the rural citizens they intend to serve? This research assesses Farm Radio International’s Listening Post – a model that combines radio and digital technologies with the aim of collecting and aggregating farmer feedback to aid decision-making and adaptive project implementation. The research shows that linking a mobile-based crowd-sourcing tool with radio is effective at ensuring engagement from a large number of farmers, who felt it was a useful way of raising their questions and concerns to NGOs, policy-makers and experts. The model has clear potential to strengthen the chain of relationships between citizens, extension services suppliers, projects and policymakers. It has also demonstrated its potential to collect real-time feedback from farmers that could be used to aid decision-making and improve accountability in agricultural development initiatives, helping to ensure they are more responsive to farmers. However, it also concludes that ‘closing the feedback loop’ – ensuring that farmer’s comments, questions and concerns are responded to – is a challenge for the Listening Post. Sometimes, the interactive radio programmes close the loop by disseminating answers to questions or concerns raised by farmers, or by connecting farmers to extension services – but only when a solid and systematic process had been developed for this to happen. Therefore is critical to identify and incentivise actors who are capable of responding during the design phase of a Listening Post, and to ensure that they are involved in every stage of the process. It also important that project partners who are interested in beneficiary feedback identify the flexible or actionable points in their project frameworks from the outset, rather than collecting data that they are not able to use to adapt their programmes

Exploring the prospects for adaptive governance in marine transboundary conservation in East Africa - Tuda, Arthur Omondi; Kark, Salit; Newton, Alice (Marine Policy, 2019)
This article explores the prospects for adaptive governance in a proposed marine transboundary conservation initiative in East Africa. Adaptive governance that involves interdependent state and non-state actors learning and taking action on joint environmental problems is suggested for effective transboundary resource governance. Using the concept of adaptive co-management, the current multi-stakeholder marine governance systems in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania are compared to illuminate opportunities and constraints for adaptive marine transboundary conservation governance between Kenya and Tanzania. The concept of networks and the formal method of social network analysis (SNA) are applied as the main methodological device. Using questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, social network data of 70 organizations (local resources users, government agencies and NGOs) was generated from Kenya (n = 33) and Tanzania (n = 37). Results show the existence of strong collaboration networks for marine resource governance in both Kenya and Tanzania. Social proximity is the common driver of network formation. Collaboration networks in Kenya and Tanzania have contributed to enhanced learning among marine resource managers. Conclusions point to the need to focus on common challenges relating to low levels of rule-compliance, limited access to information on the state of resources and poor integration of science into marine management decisions. Finally, differences in views regarding the state of marine ecosystems need to be addressed to improve prospects for joint problem-solving in marine transboundary conservation.
Keywords: Adaptive co-management; Adaptive governance; Collaboration; Marine transboundary conservation; Social network analysis

Exploring the science of complexity: Ideas and implications for development and humanitarian efforts - Ramalingam, Ben; Jones, Harry; Reba, Toussaint; Young, John (Working Paper 285, 2008)
This paper draws on the science of complexity to outline alternative approaches to analysing and understanding problems faced in humanitarian and development work.

Exploring ways to reconcile accountability and learning in the evaluation of niche experiments - Regeer, Barbara J.; de Wildt-Liesveld, Renée; van Mierlo, Barbara; Bunders, Joske F. G. (Evaluation, 2016)
While evaluation is seen as a mechanism for both accountability and learning, it is not self-evident that the evaluation of niche experiments focuses on both accountability and learning at the same time. Tensions exist between the accountability-oriented needs of funders and the learning needs of managers of niche experiments. This article explores the differences in needs and expectations of funders and managers in terms of upwards, downwards and internal accountability. The article shows that as the multi-stakeholder contexts in which niche experiments take place give rise to various requirements, tensions in evaluation are essentially a specific manifestation of tensions between niche experiments and their multiple contexts. Based on our findings, an adjusted accountability framework is proposed, including several strategies that can reconcile a learning approach with accountability needs in niche experiments aiming to change current practices in a more sustainable direction.

Extending epistemology for programme evaluation – can After Action Reviews become spaces for critical reflection? - Apgar, Marina; Snijder, Mieke (Methodspace - Sage, 2020)
The term After Action Review (AAR) is becoming more common in the world of development evaluation, particularly in programmes that focus on evaluation as a formative learning process. As structured and facilitated learning moments, AARs take many shapes always built to support a specific team in a specific moment on their journey. Across such a diversity of practice how do we understand the evolution of the AAR as a method with an action research orientation? Being mindful always of the risk of instrumentalising and co-opting participatory methods, there is danger that AARs become an empty programme ritual, remaining at the surface and failing to achieve critical reflection and so falling short of their intention of pushing for deeper change in our practice. As the evaluation and learning team of two large complex, multi-partner projects using research to address development challenges, we have been applying the AAR method while adapting to virtual COVID working with partners across the world. As action researchers we have been thinking about what critical reflection means within a programme AAR process and whether and how they can open up a second person inquiry space.

External Review of the Building Effective and Accessible Markets (BEAM) programme - Snedden, Ewan; Freer, Gordon; Moffatt, Michelle (WYG International, 2016)

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

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.

Facilitating collaborative problem solving with human-centred design: the Making All Voices Count governance programme in 12 countries of Africa and Asia - Jackson, Carl (Knowledge Management for Development Journal, 2015)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making - Kaner, Sam (John Wiley & Sons, 2014)
Unleash the transformative power of face to face groups The third edition of this ground–breaking book continues to advance its mission to support groups to do their best thinking. It demonstrates that meetings can be much more than merely an occasion for solving a problem or creating a plan. Every well–facilitated meeting is also an opportunity to stretch and develop the perspectives of the individual members, thereby building the strength and capacity of the group as a whole. This fully updated edition of The Facilitator′s Guide to Participatory Decision–Making guides readers through the struggle and the satisfaction of putting participatory values into practice, helping them to fulfill the promise of effective group decision–making. With previous editions already embraced by business and community leaders and consulting professionals around the world, this new book is even more insightful and easy to use. New for this edition: 60 pages of brand new skills and tools Many new case examples Major expansion and reorganization of the advanced sections of the book. New chapter: Teaching A Group About Group Dynamics Doubled in size: Classic Facilitator Challenges. Substantially improved: Designing Realistic Agendas now three chapters, with wise, insightful answers to the most vexing questions about meeting design.

Facilities deserve a place in development - Lacy, Jacqui de (Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre, 2017)
There are different ways to deliver aid programs, DFAT often uses facilities in its larger relationships, what are the rationales and risks behind this?

Failing Forward: How CARE is focusing on what goes wrong to improve impact - Janoch, Emily (2019 CLA Case Competition, 2019)
CARE's Failing Forward initiative is sparking opportunities to showcase the ideas that don't work so we can spend more time implementing the ones that do. It's changing the conversation inside the organization, and leading to changes in the way we design and implement programs. It's also allowing us to make connections across a global portfolio of more than 900 projects, and with new and different partners to learn from their experience.

Failing Forward: How CARE is Focusing on What Goes Wrong to Improve Impact - Janoch, Emily (CLA Case Competition, 2019)
CARE's Failing Forward initiative is sparking opportunities to showcase the ideas that don't work so we can spend more time implementing the ones that do. It's changing the conversation inside the organization, and leading to changes in the way we design and implement programs.

Failure, Success and Improvisation of Information Systems Projects in Developing Countries - Heeks, Richard (Development Informatics Working Paper Series, No.11/2002, 2002)
Research on the Information Society, the Digital Divide and Information and Communication Technologies for development

Fall in love with the solution, not the problem - Quaggiotto, Giulio; Leurs, Bas; Hazeldine, Shaun (Nesta, 2016)
Three strategies for international development organisations to solve problems without defining them.

Farewell DFID … a personal obituary - Mason, Phil (LinkedIn - Phil Mason, 2020)
Reflection on how DFID was created.

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

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.

Feasibility Study: Crowdsourcing High-frequency food price data in rural Indonesia - UN Global Pulse (2015)

Feedback Commons (Keystone Accountability, 2018)

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

Finding and using causal hotspots: a practice in the making - Apgar, Marina; Snijder, Mieke (Institute of Development Studies, 2021)
This is the second blog in our series ‘Lessons on using Contribution Analysis for impact evaluation’. In our first blog, we introduced Contribution Analysis (CA) as an overarching approach to theory-based evaluation and the idea of causal hotpots as a way to zoom in, unpack and make the hard choices of where to focus evaluation research. Identifying specific links in the theory of change (ToC) with specific evaluation questions enables you to then choose appropriate methods. We have applied the approach in diverse settings, testing how robust Contribution Analysis can really be. Here we walk you through an example.

Finding the Spaces for Change: A Power Analysis - Gaventa, John (IDS Bulletin, 2006)

Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research - Flyvbjerg, Bent (Qualitative Inquiry, 2006)
This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

Five tips for evaluating your impact in international development - Pasanen, Tiina (The Guardian, 2015)
How can impact evaluations actually be helpful? These top tips will save development professionals time, energy and money. International development can be messy – with uncertain, complex settings, and multiple partners with different interests, goals and capacities. At the same time, we are under increasing pressure to demonstrate impact. We have to show that our projects have made a real change in people’s lives and that donor or taxpayer money hasn’t been wasted. But impact evaluations, which are often seen as a solution to this, aren’t always used. And in some cases they are unhelpful. So how can we improve the quality of impact evaluations, so that they produce results that are useful? This is where evaluability assessments come in. By asking whether we should evaluate a project – and if so, when and how – these assessments can improve the quality of impact evaluations. Here are five other reasons to assess evaluability before starting an impact evaluation.

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)

FOCEVAL – Promoting Evaluation Capacities in Costa Rica:: Smart(er) Implementation with Capacity WORKS? - Storm, Sabrina (Transformation, Politics and Implementation, 2017)
The National Monitoring and Evaluation System of Costa Rica and its corresponding laws were established during the 1990s. Since then, the country has endeavored to implement monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities as part of its public policy framework. Nevertheless, hardly any systematic evaluations had been conducted, and monitoring activities had been reduced mainly to the institutional self-reporting of implementation compliance. Persisting regional disparities and growing levels of inequality among the population raised the level of pressure on the government to present reliable information on the effectiveness of public interventions. Hence, results-oriented evaluations were promoted by some Costa Rican departments as

Follow the rabbit: Field Guide to Systemic Design - CoLab (Government of Alberta, 2018)
This Field Guide is designed to support budding systemic designers to facilitate and lead systemic design projects. It’s designed for systemic designers who have basic familiarity with SD concepts and are looking for some practical tips and tools to put theory into action. While this Guide was designed with Government of Alberta staff in mind, the content applies across a range of issue areas, sectors, and intersections. The Guide goes through a systemic design project from concept to implementation. It takes you through the workshop planning process, and discusses workshop roles and client relations. In the FAQs, you’ll find explanations to some commonly asked questions about systemic design concepts to help you introduce others to SD and bring them along with you. You’ll get the most out of this field guide if you approach it with a systemic design mindset – open, willing to try things, a desire to learn, and a ‘yes, and’ orientation. Think of this field guide as an early stop in your systemic design journey: it’s not the end of your learning – it’s a jumping off point. In the Additional Resources section, you can connect to more in-depth explorations of concepts and practical applications.

Food security indicators - FAO (ESS Website, 2018)

Foreign Aid and Its Unintended Consequences - Koch, Dirk-Jan (Routledge, 2023)
Foreign aid and international development frequently bring with it a range of unintended consequences, both negative and positive. This book delves into these consequences, providing a fresh and comprehensive guide to understanding and addressing them. The book starts by laying out a theoretical framework based on complexity thinking, before going on to explore the ten most prevalent kinds of unintended effects of foreign aid: backlash effects, conflict effects, migration and resettlement effects, price effects, marginalization effects, behavioural effects, negative spillover effects, governance effects, environmental effects, and ripple effects. Each chapter revolves around a set of concrete case studies, analysing the mechanisms underpinning the unintended effects and proposing ways in which policymakers, practitioners, and evaluators can tackle negative side effects and maximize positive side effects. The book also includes personal testimonies, a succinct overview of unintended effects, and suggestions for further reading. Providing a clear overview of what side effects to anticipate when planning, executing, and evaluating aid, this book will be an important resource for students, development practitioners, and policymakers alike.

Foreign policy and complex adaptive systems: Exploring new paradigms for analysis and action - Frej, William; Ramalingam, Ben (Santa Fe Institute, 2011)

Foresight and International Development* - Bingley, Kate (IDS Bulletin, 2016)
This article provides an overview of the use of foresight-type approaches and techniques in policy-related work in international development. It draws primarily on published and grey literatures, as well as select interviews with foresight practitioners. It begins with a brief introduction to the approaches and tools used in the field of strategic foresight, and then a broad mapping of the foresight landscape as relevant to international development. It provides reflections on the evidence of use and impact of foresight initiatives, and makes suggestions around future directions for foresight in international development.

Forget the money: De-linking technical assistance - Manuel, Clare (Synthesis Paper, 4, 2016)

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

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

Fostering Learning and Effectiveness through Collaboration: A New Collaborative on Transparency, Accountability, and Participation (TAI, 2018)
What are the features, values, and practices of effective learning organizations? How do learning practices contribute to more effective programming? And, how can collaborations between academics, researchers and practitioners better support learning organizations in the global South?  These are just a few of the questions that a new global learning collaborative seeks to explore. In …

Fostering Learning in Large Programmes and Portfolios: Emerging Lessons from Climate Change and Sustainable Development - Harvey, Blane; Pasanen, Tiina; Pollard, Alison; Raybould, Julia (Sustainability, 2017)
In ﬁelds like climate and development, where the challenges being addressed can be described as “wicked”, learning is key to successful programming. Useful practical and theoretical work is being undertaken to better understand the role of reﬂexive learning in bringing together different knowledge to address complex problems like climate change. Through a review of practical cases and learning theories commonly used in the areas of resilience, climate change adaptation and environmental management, this article: (i) reviews the theories that have shaped approaches to reﬂexive learning in large, highly-distributed climate change and resilience-building programmes for development; and (ii) conducts a comparative learning review of key challenges and lessons emerging from early efforts to promote and integrate reﬂexive learning processes in programmes of this nature. Using a case study approach, the authors focus on early efforts made in four large, inter-related (or nested) programmes to establish, integrate and sustain learning processes and systems. Eight themes emerged from the review and are considered from the perspective of learning programmes as emergent communities of practice. By investigating how these themes play out in the nested programming, the paper contributes to the limited existing body of evidence on learning in large climate change programmes and identiﬁes areas where future efforts might focus.

Fostering Systems Change - Gopal, Srik; Kania, John (2015)
Five simple rules for foundations seeking to create lasting social change.

Four ways development practitioners can borrow from private sector adaptive approaches - Pett, Jamie (LearnAdapt, 2020)
Agile, lean startup and human-centred design can be an answer — if you’re asking the right questions

Fractal approaches to scaling transformations to sustainability - O’Brien, Karen; Carmona, Rosario; Gram-Hanssen, Irmelin; Hochachka, Gail; Sygna, Linda; Rosenberg, Milda (Ambio, 2023)
Responses to sustainability challenges are not delivering results at the scale and speed called for by science, international agreements, and concerned citizens. Yet there is a tendency to underestimate the large-scale impacts of small-scale, local, and contextualized actions, and particularly the role of individuals in scaling transformations. Here, we explore a fractal approach to scaling sustainability transformations based on “universal values.” Universal values are proposed as intrinsic characteristics that connect humans and nature in a coherent, acausal way. Drawing on the Three Spheres of Transformation framework, we consider how enacting universal values can generate fractal-like patterns of sustainability that repeat recursively across scales. Fractal approaches shift the focus from scaling through “things” (e.g., technologies, behaviors, projects) to scaling through a quality of agency based on values that apply to all. We discuss practical steps involved in fractal approaches to scaling transformations to sustainability, provide examples, and conclude with questions for future research.
Keywords: Agency; Fractals; Relational paradigms; Scaling; Three Spheres of Transformation; Universal values

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.

From a last mile century to a first mile revolution: the future is OSLO - Indy Johar (Medium, 2013)
The Future is OSLO

From analysis to action: operationalising learning and adaptation in Savings at the Frontier - Salehi, Yusef (2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

From best practice to best fit: understanding and navigating wicked problems in international development - Ramalingam, Ben; Laric, Miguel; Primrose, John (Working Paper, 2014)

From Design Thinking to Systems Change - Conway, Rowan; Masters, Jeff; Thorold, Jake (RSA, 2017)
This report takes the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), a twophase pre-procurement innovation programme that aims to match social challenges with new ideas, as its primary case study. It suggests augmenting the excellent design thinking deployed through SBRI with a think like a system, act like an entrepreneur lens in order to drive better social outcomes from SBRI-originating innovations. Programmes like SBRI have great potential to drive change and address pressing challenges, but must be guided by a more developed understanding of how change happens. The stakes are too high to not raise our game when it comes to social innovation. Wicked problems can be overcome but will require sophisticated theories of change able to account for the complexity and unpredictability of modern life. We offer think like a system, act like an entrepreneur as a contribution to this effort. This report is based on the following research: •• Desk based review of relevant literature; •• A series of structured interviews with participants in SBRI competitions; and •• An expert round table that brought together policymakers, commissioners, procurement experts and entrepreneurs to consider and develop initial findings.
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

From ‘Feedback Loops’ to ‘Responsive Governance’ - McGee, Rosie (Making All Voices Count, 2014)
Part of a sequenced learning process for MAVC's Research and Evidence Component, the summary of a thematic discussion led by researcher Rosemary McGee.

From mouthset to mindset shifts in co-creating systems change - Blomkamp, Emma; Snow, Thea; Burkett, Ingrid (Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation, 2023)

From political economy analysis to doing development differently: a learning experience - Booth, David; Harris, Daniel; Wild, Leni (ODI, 2016)
A study of how development efforts can be strengthened by an awareness of political economy, reflecting on the experiences of PoGo policy researchers.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

From Political Won't to Political Will: Building Support for Participatory Governance - Malena, Carmen (Kumarian Press, 2009)
* Geographically diverse examples of participatory governance in action* Practical case studies show how citizens can participate more fully in the political process Despite a recent wave of democratization around the world, traditional systems of representative democracy seem to be in crisis. Citizens in both the North and the South lack opportunities, rights and access to information and have expressed growing disillusionment with their governments. Ordinary citizens (especially women, poor people and other marginalized groups) are largely excluded from the political processes that directly affect their lives. There is now growing consensus that good governance is participatory governance (PG), but public officials are often reluctant to adopt such an approach. From Political Won’t to Political Will addresses the particular challenge of encouraging these officials to involve citizens in the political process. The book presents contributions by participants from CIVICUS’ 2008 conference on building political will for PG. Representing the perspectives of both civil society and government actors, they propose a number of strategies and lessons such as demonstrating the benefits of PG to governments, complementing formal democratic institutions, building trust, supporting PG champions and using strategic political timing. Their practical and highly original findings will interest anyone eager to see the empowerment of people around the world.

From poverty to power: how active citizens and effective states can change the world - Green, Duncan (2012)
From Poverty to Power From Poverty to Power argues that a radical redistribution of power, opportunities, and assets rather than traditional models of charitable or government aid is required to break the cycle of poverty and inequality. The forces driving this transformation are active citizens and effective states. Published in association with Oxfam GB. Full description

From PRA to PLA and pluralism: practice and theory - Chambers, Robert (2007)
PRA (participatory rural appraisal) and the more inclusive PLA (participatory learning and action) are families of participatory methodologies which have evolved as behaviours and attitudes, methods, and practices of sharing. During the 1990s and 2000s PRA/PLA has spread and been applied in most countries in the world. Among the multifarious domains of application, some of the more common have been natural resource management and agriculture, programmes for equity, empowerment, rights and security, and community-level planning and action. Related participatory methodologies which have co-evolved and spread widely as movements include farmer participatory research, Integrated Pest Management, Reflect, Stepping Stones and Participatory Geographic Information Systems. Ideologically and epistemologically PRA/PLA seeks and embodies participatory ways to empower local and subordinate people, enabling them to express and enhance their knowledge and take action. It can be understood as having three main components: facilitators’ behaviours, attitudes and mindsets linked with precepts for action; methods which combine visuals, tangibles and groups; and sharing without boundaries. The interplay of these resonates with theories of chaos, complexity, emergence and deep simplicity, especially self-organising systems on the edge of chaos. Good practice has moved towards an eclectic pluralism in which branding, labels, ownership and ego give way to sharing, borrowing, improvisation, creativity and diversity, all these complemented by mutual and critical reflective learning and personal responsibility. Keywords: participatory methodologies; networks; pluralism; practice; theory.

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

From purposeful to meaningful adaptive programming: how about adaptive operations? - Nixon, Nicola (Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre, 2019)
Embracing adaptive programming approaches but sticking with rigid, traditional systems-based operations? It's time to take a long hard look at all the boring stuff, says Nicola Nixon.

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

From Thinking Politically To Working Politically: Are We Really Doing Development Any Differently? (2019)
In June it will be seven years since the Center for Global Development published the Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) paper. Few academic papers have had such an impact on development thinking. The question is whether the paper – and subsequent debate and experimentation - have had a demonstrable and beneficial impact on development practice. Experience to date suggests thinking politically is easier than working politically. Practitioners in development agencies, governments and contractors find that convincing theoretical literature can be tricky to operationalize in a fractious environment. Still, a growing number of programs have set out to be politically informed in design and politically savvy in implementation. Engaging the reality of politics creates the potential to promote change. To consider these issues, Abt Associates is hosting a workshop for international development practitioners in Washington, DC, on June 18th, 2019, to discuss the successes and failures in operationalizing this agenda. The session will allow practitioners to discuss experiences in TWP and propose solutions or approaches. Please join us in this Innovations in Governance series finale where four internationally renowned thinkers and doers will join us to offer their perspectives.

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

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

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

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

Gendered voices for climate action - Fisher, Susannah; Shakya, Clare (iied Working Paper, 2018)
Including local women and men who have experienced the impacts of climate change in decision-making forums is key to developing a just process hearing local voices and experiences. The Paris Agreement signs up the international community to delivering countrydriven, gender-responsive climate action. Including local women and men will be critical to this transition and to achieving the scale and pace of change needed through both procedural and distributional justice. However, there is scarce evidence on how these voices and experiences can impact on and strengthen climate responses, or how best to enable and facilitate this participation.

Gestión de la complejidad para el impacto sistémico: respuestas a entornos VUCA y BANI - Peña-López, Ismael (SociedadRed, 2023)
Research on the Information Society, the Digital Divide and Information and Communication Technologies for development

Getting beneath the surface in program planning, monitoring and evaluation: Learning from use of participatory action research and theory of change in the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems - Apgar, J Marina; Allen, Will; Albert, Joelle; Douthwaite, Boru; Paz Ybarnegaray, Rodrigo; Lunda, Jeston (Action Research, 2017)
Many rural poor and marginalized people strive to make a living in social-ecological systems that are characterized by multiple and often inequitable interactions across agents, scale and space. Uncertainty and inequality in such systems require research and development interventions to be adaptive, support learning and to engage with underlying drivers of poverty. Such complexity-aware approaches to planning, monitoring and evaluating development interventions are gaining strength, yet, there is still little empirical evidence of what it takes to implement them in practice. In this paper, we share learning from an agricultural research program that used participatory action research and theory of change to foster learning and support transformative change in aquatic agricultural systems. We reflect on our use of critical reflection within participatory agricultural research interventions, and our use of theory of change to collectively surface and revisit assumptions about how change happens. We share learning on the importance of being strengths-based in engaging stakeholders across scales and building a common goal as a starting point, and then staging a more critical practice as capacity is built and opportunities for digging deeper emerge.

Getting good at disruption in an uncertain world: Insights from Southern NGO leaders - Buckley, Lila; Ward, Halina (International Institute for Environment and Development, 2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Getting intentional about M&E: choosing suitable approaches for adaptive programmes - Management, Global Learning for Adaptive (GLAM Blog, 2020)
Does the choice of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) approaches and tools matter for adaptive programmes? In short, yes: monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) and adaptive management (AM) are intertwined. While programme monitoring data and evaluation results are not the only sources of evidence that programmes use for learning and iteration, they often are amongst most important ones — or at least they should be. Selecting what type of information to collect and analyse — and how — is critical for any type of programme. However, what AM especially focuses on is intentionally building in opportunities for structured and collective reflection, ongoing and real-time learning, course correction and decision-making in order to improve effectiveness.

Getting Past the Rhetoric #1: Tendering for ‘Thinking and Working Politically’ in Large Facilities - Tyrrel, Lavinia (Abt Associates - Governance Soapbox, 2018)

Getting Past the Rhetoric #2: Managing for ‘Thinking and Working Politically’ in Large Facilities - Tyrrel, Lavinia (Abt Associates - Governance Soapbox, 2018)

Getting Practical With Causal Mechanisms: The application of Process-Tracing Under Real-World Evaluation Constraints - Raimondo, Estelle (New Directions for Evaluation, 2020)
Over the past decade, the field of development evaluation has seen a renewed interest in methodological approaches that can answer compelling causal questions about what works, for whom, and why. Development evaluators have notably started to experiment with Bayesian Process Tracing to unpack, test, and enhance their comprehension of causal mechanisms triggered by development interventions. This chapter conveys one such experience of applying Bayesian Process Tracing to the study of citizen engagement interventions within a conditional cash transfer program under real-world evaluation conditions. The chapter builds on this experience to discuss the benefits, challenges, and potential for the applicability of this approach under real-world evaluation conditions of time, money, and political constraints.

Getting Real about Unknowns in Complex Policy Work - Andrews, Matt (Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE), 2021)
As with all public policy work, education policies are demanding. Policy workers need to ‘know’ a lot—about the problems they are addressing, the people who need to be engaged, the promises they can make in response, the context they are working in, and the processes they will follow to implement. Most policy workers answer questions about such issues within the structures of plan and control processes used to devise budgets and projects. These structures limit their knowledge gathering, organization and sense-making activities to up-front planning activities, and even though sophisticated tools like Theories of Change suggest planners ‘know’ all that is needed for policy success, they often do not. Policies are often fraught with ‘unknowns’ that cannot be captured in passive planning processes and thus repeatedly undermine even the best laid plans. Through a novel strategy that asks how much one knows about the answers to 25 essential policy questions, and an application to recent education policy interventions in Mozambique, this paper shows that it is possible to get real about unknowns in policy work. Just recognizing these unknowns exist—and understanding why they do and what kind of challenge they pose to policy workers—can help promote a more modest and realistic approach to doing complex policy work.

Getting Strategic about Technology and Accountability: MAVC Learning and Inspiration Event in Manila - Halloran, Brendan (Politics, Governance and Development, 2016)
Two years ago, Jonathan Fox released a widely read and well-received paper looking at the evidence for citizen-led accountability.  In it, he noted the proliferation of short-term, isolated interve…

Getting strategic: vertically integrated approaches - Aceron, Joy; Isaac, Francis (Institute of Development Studies, 2016)
Holding power to account requires understanding where power lies and how it is exercised. It entails understanding how decisions are made, who makes them and what decision criteria are used to make them. Vertically integrated civil society action takes into account how power is exercised and how decisions are made in a given policy, programme or process.

GIZ's Evaluation Policy: Principles, guidelines and requirements of our evaluation practice - GIZ (GIZ, 2018)

GIZ’s evaluation system - GIZ Evaluation Unit (GIZ GmbH, 2018)
This provides a general description of GIZ’s new evaluation system, which is designed to implement our new policy and to achieve the objectives of evaluation reform. This general description is accompanied by two other documents that provide supplementary details of GIZ’s key evaluation instruments: project evaluations for BMZ business and corporate strategic evaluations. They are geared in particular to GIZ staff members who commission, implement or support evaluations and to evaluators who conduct evaluations on behalf of GIZ as well as repre-sentatives of commissioning parties, clients and cooperation partners. The current versions are very much a ‘work in progress’ in many regards. We are well aware that we will only be able to meet our own high expectations of our evaluations if we continue to develop their quality in dialogue with project staff, our commissioning parties, clients and partners and with evaluation practitioners and experts from the academic, scientific and research community. We look forward to taking on this task and to sharing our experience with all interested parties.

GLAM Monitoring and Learning Strategy (internal document) - GLAM (ODI, 2018)

Glass Half Full: Civic Space and Contestation in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal - Surie, Mandakini D.; Saluja, Sumaya; Nixon, Nicola (The Asia Foundation, 2023)
The past decade has witnessed a surge of interest in and concern over the global trend toward democratic regression. In South Asia, regulatory and institutional frameworks have become increasingly restrictive, curbing the ability of citizens and civil society organizations to occupy and use civic spaces to organize, express themselves, and participate in decisions that affect the lives of people whose interests they serve. Of course, this is only one half of the story. The other half is how citizens, collectives, and organizations adapt by carving out spaces where they can maintain—or even expand—the boundaries of their engagement in local and national civic spaces. In this paper, we examine how civic spaces are evolving in three South Asian countries—Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal—drawing on the experiences and perspectives of civil society representatives. The paper concludes with recommendations for donors and development practitioners on how they can make relevant investments that will strengthen civic spaces and support democratic resilience in the region.

Global Affairs Canada: an approach to development innovation - GAC (Global Affairs Canada, 2018)
For Global Affairs Canada, development innovation includes new or improved business models, policy practices, approaches, technologies, behavioral insights or ways of delivering products and services that benefit and empower the poorest and most vulnerable people in developing countries.

Global Delivery at the World Bank Group - GDI (Global Delivery Initiative, 2014)

Global governance and local peace: accountability and performance in international peacebuilding - Campbell, Susanna (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Local peacebuilding and global accountability -- The country context--Burundi from 1999 to 2014 -- Ingos in peacebuilding--globally unaccountable, locally adaptive -- International organizations in peacebuilding--globally accountable, locally constrained -- Bilateral development donors--accountable for global targets, not local change

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.

Global mapping of technology for transparency and accountability - Avila, Renata; Feigenblatt, Hazel; Heacock, Rebekah; Heller, Nathaniel (Transparency & Accountability Initiative, 2010)

Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results Based Management - OECD (OECD, 2009)

Glossary of Knowledge Management - Serrat, Olivier (Knowledge Solutions: Tools, Methods, and Approaches to Drive Organizational Performance, 2017)
The knowledge management discipline can be cryptic. These Knowledge Solutions define its most common concepts in simple terms.
Keywords: Definitions; Knowledge management; Taxonomy; Terminology

Going Local 2.0: How to Reform Development Agencies to Make Localized Aid More Than Talk - Ang, Yuen Yuen (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2018)
More and more global aid agencies believe they should replace one-size-fits-all best practices with locally tailored solutions, but they must shift from just agreeing to “go local” to preparing development experts for the task by taking on three major problems with their internal practices.

Going vertical: citizen-led reform campaigns in the Philippines - Aceron, Joy; Isaac, Francis (Making All Voices Count Research Report, 2016)
The Philippines has a long history of state–society engagement to introduce reforms in government and politics. Forces from civil society and social movements have interfaced with reform-oriented leaders in government on a range of social accountability initiatives – to make governance more responsive, to introduce policy reforms, and to make government more accountable. Several theoretical propositions on which strategic approaches work best for social accountability initiatives have been put forward – including the idea of vertically integrated civil society monitoring and advocacy. This multi-authored research report uses vertical integration as a framework for examining seven successful civil society social accountability initiatives in the Philippines, looking at what made them successful, and how the gains they realised can be deepened and sustained.

Good Enough Governance Revisited - Grindle, Merilee S. (Development Policy Review, 2007)
The concept of good enough governance provides a platform for questioning the long menu of institutional changes and capacity-building initiatives currently deemed important (or essential) for development. Nevertheless, it falls short of being a tool to explore what, specifically, needs to be done in any real world context. Thus, as argued by the author in 2004, given the limited resources of money, time, knowledge, and human and organisational capacities, practitioners are correct in searching for the best ways to move towards better governance in a particular country context. This article suggests that the feasibility of particular interventions can be assessed by analysing the context for change and the implications of the content of the intervention being considered.

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

Governance Diaries: An Approach to Governance Research from the Ground Up - Loureiro, Miguel; Joshi, Anuradha; Barnes, Katrina; Chaimite, Egídio (IDS, 2020)
Research on empowerment and accountability tends to focus on collective action and its potential for empowering citizens undertaking the action and on achieving state accountability. In fragile, conflict and violence-affected settings (FCVAS) collective action is rare and risky. So how do citizens, particularly the chronically poor and most marginalised, interact and make claims on the different public authorities that exist in these settings, and how do these interactions contribute to citizens’ sense of empowerment and accountability? Given the current agenda of ‘leave no one behind’, an understanding of how such populations interact with public authorities to meet their governance needs can help identify the constraints to achieving development for all in these challenging settings. We developed ‘governance diaries,’ a cross between a panel survey and multi-sited ethnographies, as an iterative approach to capture their experiences around governance issues over time. We explain here how this approach works, and the challenges and opportunities it offers for research.

Governance for Growth in Vanuatu: Review of a decade of thinking and working politically - Hadley, Sierd; Tilley, Helen (ODI, 2017)

Grounded Theory Method in HCI and CSCW - Muller, Michael J; Kogan, Sandra (IBM Center for Social Software, 2010)

Grow - Scale - Impact: How to help inclusive business achieve scale - Pérez Castro, Andrea A.; Tora, Krisztina (GIZ, 2016)

Guidance Note for Adaptive Management - Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (Government of Denmark, 2022)
This note explains what adaptive aid management is; why and when it should be considered; and how it should be applied. It covers all Danish development support channels and modalities, including bilateral country assistance, assistance to and through civil society, the private sector and to and through multilateral organisations. This guide has three chapters. Chapter 1 provides an executive overview of what adaptive management is. Chapter 2 goes deeper into five key operational principles of adaptive management. Chapter 3 details the main tenets of adaptive management processes during the programming cycle.

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.

Guidance on tasks and deliverables for different evaluation phases - Methods Lab (2015)
This tool describes the five key phases of evaluation, from planning and design, to implementation and communication of results. It provides a list of the main tasks and deliverables for each phase, intended for use by anyone managing an impact evaluation. This tool was developed by Irene Guijt, Simon Hearn, Tiina Pasanen and Patricia Rogers for use in Methods Lab projects. It follows to some extent the BetterEvaluation Rainbow Framework.

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

Guidance: Rigor and Reproducibility in Grant Applications | grants.nih.gov - NIH (National Institutes of Health, 2018)

Guide for Adopting Remote Monitoring Approaches During COVID-19 - USAID (USAID, 2020)
USAID maintains staff and operations in more than 80 countries around the world, all of which the COVID-19 pandemic will disrupt. USAID remains committed to protecting the health and safety of our staff, while continuing appropriate oversight of our programs and ensuring the accountable and effective use of U.S. taxpayer funds. In the current operating environment, USAID and implementing partners face new challenges in implementing activities, monitoring progress, collecting data, and tracking indicators. As we adapt our approaches, we will work with implementing partners to find innovative, responsible, and safe ways to monitor and evaluate programming. Digital tools can support novel approaches to remote monitoring. Responsible use of digital tools also supports operating unit alignment with the Digital Data Collection mandate in the Agency’s new Digital Strategy. This guide provides information for Agency staff and implementing partners on remote monitoring techniques and when they can be employed. We encourage use of this guide to identify and pursue appropriate remote-monitoring approaches for your needs. CORs/AORs and Activity Managers should work with implementing partners to document updated approaches in each agreement’s plans for monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), and should upload these amended Activity MEL Plans into the Agency Secure Image and Storage Tracking System (ASIST) as soon as possible. This can be done in collaboration with Mission and Washington Bureau M&E Specialists, as appropriate

Guide to Evaluating Participatory Processes - Practical guide - Parés, Marc (2013)
Guide to Evaluating Participatory Processes - Practical guide
Keywords: Academia; Biology; Computer Science; Earth Sciences; Geography; History; Law; Math; Medicine; Philosophy; Physics; Political science; Psychology; Religion; Research; economics; universities

Guide to Innovation Partnerships – A United Nations Ghide - Halse, Michelle; Ginsberg-Fletcher, Gabriella; Balbi, Luisa (UN Global Pulse, 2023)

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

Guidelines for Country Strategic Frameworks Programmes and Projects - Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (Government of Denmark, 2020)

Guidelines for designing and monitoring social accountability interventions - Franco, Erika Lopez; Shankland, Alex (IDS, 2018)

Guidelines for good market development program design. A managers’ perspective - Bekkers, Harald; Roggekamp, Peter (BEAM Exchange, 2014)
Good programme design is a key factor contributing to the success of market development programmes. Unfortunately, too many current designs have major flaws which prevent programmes becoming successful even before they get started. This document considers what makes market development programmes consistently successful and how to prevent programme design from being a hurdle to sustainable and efficient impact as scale.

Guidelines for the Monitoring System for Development-Related Changes (MERV) - SDC (SDC, 2013)

Guidelines for writing a case study on implementation (Book Project: Smart Implementation in Governance) - Kirsch, Renate (GIZ GmbH, 2015)

Guiding questions to help narrow the scope of an evaluation - Methods Lab (2015)
Time and budget constraints can mean that programmes are not able to assess all possible evaluation questions; this is especially true for multi-component or multi-site programmes operating in challenging environments. This tool identifies areas of enquiry to help programmes prioritise the number of questions and measurement indicators used. This tool was developed by Anne Buffardi for use in in Methods Lab projects.

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

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?

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

Has Kenya’s ICT revolution triggered more citizen participation? - Salome, Nyambura (MAVC Research Briefing, 2016)
Lessons from policy in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Help! I’m hiring new staff and I want them to work adaptively. A guide to hiring adaptive employees. - Salib, Monalisa (USAID LEARN, 2019)
If you are involved in hiring, this tool can help you increase your chances of selecting staff members skilled in adaptive management. It will help answer the questions: Which competencies should I recruit for in order to hire more adaptive employees? Which desired qualifications should I incorporate into position descriptions to attract adaptive employees? Which interview questions should I ask to screen for adaptive employee competencies? You should use this tool when you decide to hire a new individual - whether that be a direct hire, contractor, or consultant - or when you are changing an individual’s current position description or scope of work. Specifically, this tool will help you determine which qualifications are most important for the position and offers interview questions you can use with candidates. --- You’re in luck! We just released a new guide for hiring adaptive employees. This visual and user-friendly tool will help increase your chances of selecting staff skilled in adaptive management. Here are the details: What do you mean by “work adaptively” or an “adaptive employee”? An adaptive employee is an individual who, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, systematically acquires and uses knowledge to make decisions and adjustments in their work in order to achieve greater impact. Why focus on adaptive employees? Why does it matter? With industries, technologies, and organizations in a near constant state of flux, leaders are recognizing the importance of adaptability as a critical capacity. Because of this, it’s not surprising that a recent LinkedIn report found that adaptability was the most important soft skill hiring managers were screening for. In addition, evidence shows that teams that apply more data-driven and adaptive leadership practices perform better than those that focus less on these practices. It makes sense, then, that managers want to recruit more team members who are skilled in adaptive management - it helps achieve results. Who should use this tool? Anyone involved in hiring, responsible for developing or approving position descriptions, participating in interviews, and/or approving new hires. When should I use this tool? Use it as soon as you decide to hire a new staff person or when you’re adjusting existing position descriptions. What does the tool help me do? It will help you think through: Which competencies should I recruit for in order to hire more adaptive employees? Which desired qualifications should I incorporate into position descriptions to attract adaptive employees? (You can even copy and paste qualification language from the tool into scopes of work!) Which interview questions should I ask to screen for adaptive employee competencies? (You can copy and paste interview questions into your screening, interview, and reference check protocols!) Has the tool been tested? Yes, staff within USAID’s Global Development Lab and on the USAID LEARN contract tested the tool, providing feedback on the minimum viable product and subsequent versions. Testers confirmed finding the tool useful, and gave it a 9/10 score when asked if they would recommend it to colleagues. Some specific feedback from testers included: "The tool prompts deeper thought on what you might need and want in a job candidate" and "All [of the interview questions I used from the tool] worked well." What about the existing staff? How can they gain greater skills in adaptive management? Existing USAID staff and implementing partners can access online training in collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) and find resources in the CLA Toolkit. USAID staff also have access to an internal CLA community of practice and five-day, in-person CLA training.

HERMES (Highly Extensible Resource for Modeling Event-Driven Supply Chains) - HERMES (hermes.psc.edu, 2015)
Systems modeling is a tool for policymakers and program managers to capture all the direct and indirect effects of changes to a supply chain, identify sustainable solutions to the root causes of issues and save time, effort and resources in costly trial and error. Without systems modeling, evaluating the supply chain, identifying gaps, and implementing solutions can be insufficient, unsustainable and costly. Stock2 Vaccine supply chains are complex systems, comprising all the equipment, personnel, policies and processes needed to deliver a vaccine from its point of origin to the population. Understanding how the various components of a vaccine supply chain interact with each other is critical to evaluating supply chain function, identifying the root causes of issues and formulating sustainable solutions. HERMES (Highly Extensible Resource for Modeling Event-Driven Supply Chains) is a software program that allows users to generate a detailed computer simulation model of a supply chain

Herramientas de Conocimiento y Aprendizaje: Una Guía para Organizaciones Humanitarias y de Desarrollo - Ramalingam, Ben (ODI, 2006)
This toolkit presents entry points and references to the wide range of tools and methods that have been used to facilitate improved knowledge and learning in the development and humanitarian sectors.
Keywords: spanish

Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things - Grant, Adam (WH Allen, 2023)
#1 New York Times bestseller "This brilliant book will shatter your assumptions about what it takes to improve and succeed. I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would've helped me find a more joyful path to progress."-Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles tennis championThe #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again illuminates how we can elevate ourselves and others to unexpected heights.We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distances we ourselves can travel. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess – it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.This book reveals how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there.

Historical roots of Agile Methods: Where did “Agile Thinking” come from? - Abbas, Noura; Gravell, Andrew M.; Wills, Gary B. (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2008)
The appearance of Agile methods has been the most noticeable change to software process thinking in the last fifteen years [16], but in fact many of the “Agile ideas” have been around since 70’s or even before. Many studies and reviews have been conducted about Agile methods which ascribe their emergence as a reaction against traditional methods. In this paper, we argue that although Agile methods are new as a whole, they have strong roots in the history of software engineering. In addition to the iterative and incremental approaches that have been in use since 1957 [21], people who criticised the traditional methods suggested alternative approaches which were actually Agile ideas such as the response to change, customer involvement, and working software over documentation. The authors of this paper believe that education about the history of Agile thinking will help to develop better understanding as well as promoting the use of Agile methods. We therefore present and discuss the reasons behind the development and introduction of Agile methods, as a reaction to traditional methods, as a result of people’s experience, and in particular focusing on reusing ideas from history.
Keywords: Agile methods; Software Development

HIV, food and drugs: Livelihoods, nutrition and Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) in Kenya and Zambia - Samuels, Fiona; Rutenberg, Naomi (Briefing Paper, 2008)
Key points • ART has restored the health of many people living with HIV, but their livelihoods lag behind • Good nutrition is important for people on ART. Food supplementation can help, but is no substitute for sustainable livelihoods • The livelihoods of people on ART can be bolstered through skills, livelihood networks, assets and cash or food transfers

Holistic Flexibility for Deploying Systems Thinking as a Cognitive Skill - Chowdhury, Rajneesh (Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2023)
Considering Systems Thinking (ST) as a cognitive skill can create greater acceptability of and openness to the discipline from practitioners and researchers outside operations research and management science. Rather than associating ST with frameworks and methodologies, ST as a cognitive skill can help popularize and democratize the discipline. This paper highlights how the conceptual lens of Holistic Flexibility can help practitioners deploy ST as a cognitive skill without the application of any traditional systems methodology. Holistic Flexibility is defined as the dynamic interplay between a state of mind that has the ability to absorb systemic complexity and a state of practice that has the ability to embrace flexibility, both in intent and in form. Through two case-studies, discussions in this paper highlight how Holistic Flexibility can serve as a conceptual lens for systems practitioners. The case-studies demonstrate the importance of a practitioner’s ability to seamlessly manage and work with multiple variables, stakeholders, and factors to deliver responsible outcomes with the aid of learning loops. The main contribution of this paper lies in the case-studies and analyses presented that provide use cases for Holistic Flexibility in ST, which will help address recent calls in the discipline for ST to be considered as a cognitive skill.

Horizontal Evaluation: Stimulating social learning among peers - Thiele, G; velasco, C; Manrique, K (ILAC Brief, 2006)
Horizontal evaluation is a flexible evaluation method that combines self-assessment and external review by peers. We have developed and applied this method for use within an Andean regional network that develops new methodologies for research and development (R&D). The involvement of peers neutralizes the lopsided power relations that prevail in traditional external evaluations, creating a more favourable atmosphere for learning and improvement. The central element of a horizontal evaluation is a workshop that brings together a group of ‘local participants’ who are developing a new R&D methodology and a group of ‘visitors’ or ‘peers’ who are also interested in the methodology. The workshop combines presentations about the methodology with field visits, small group work and plenary discussions. It elicits and compares the perceptions of the two groups concerning the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology; it provides practical suggestions for improvement, which may often be put to use immediately; it promotes social learning among the different groups involved; and it stimulates further experimentation with and development of the methodology in other settings.

Hospicing The Old - Robinson, Cassie (Stewarding Loss, 2019)
In 2010 I was introduced to the Berkana Institutes’s Two Loop model, and I come back to it again and again. As I’ve moved across different…

How adaptive M&E from the peace sector can help demonstrate the value of aid - Kratzer, Sebastian (2023)
Over the last decade, the peace sector has been developing and adapting Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems and tools to fit their contexts and ways of working. This evolution may hold some insights for the aid community in how to go beyond more traditional, backwards-looking M&E to navigate today’s volatile, interest-based world of politics and aid.

How Adaptive Management is challenging the monitoring and evaluation of complex programmes - Simister, Nigel (INTRAC, 2018)
By Nigel Simister Adaptive management is a broad approach designed to support development or humanitarian programmes in complex or uncertain …

How AI Fits into Lean Six Sigma - Holweg, Matthias; Davenport, Thomas H.; Snyder, Ken (Harvard Business Review, 2023)
AI already is being used in some areas of process improvement, and the usage of this technology — including generative AI — promises to grow. That’s because it can perform tasks faster and much less expensively than humans alone. But it will never fully replace people — and that poses management challenges.

How and Why Practitioners Think and Work Politically - Evidence from Chemonics Programming Across Sectors - Kantelberg, Renee; Swift-Morgan, Jennifer; Watson, Bryce (Chemonics International, 2022)
Most development practitioners have long recognized that deep contextual knowledge is crucial to understanding how projects interact with their local systems and, in turn, to navigating these systems. Moreover, this knowledge must complement projects' technical solutions, or they will fall flat and may even undercut project objectives as they clatter down. What, then, explains practitioners' particular interest in TWP as an explicit strategy and more than just "doing good development"? This report responds to that question and to the many calls for a more comprehensive picture of TWP by presenting new evidence of the various forms that TWP may take in practice. The evidence comes from a 2022 study that Chemonics undertook to foster more robust learning about TWP. Specifically, we closely examined Chemonics implemented projects that used or are using various forms of TWP in nine countries: Bangladesh, Iraq, Mozambique, the Philippines, Pakistan, Syria, Timor-Leste, and Tunisia. In conducting the study, we interviewed multiple staff from these projects. We complemented what we learned from these projects with a review of eight additional Chemonics- implemented projects applying TWP that had received dedicated support from Chemonics’ Center for Politically Informed Programming (the Center). We consider these findings alongside those of the recent (2022) USAID-Chemonics study on political economy analysis (PEA) usage to identify and articulate what is different and more effective about PEA processes and TWP practices that have received more support.

How are Research for Development Programmes Implementing and Evaluating Equitable Partnerships to Address Power Asymmetries? - Snijder, Mieke; Steege, Rosie; Callander, Michelle; Wahome, Michel; Rahman, M. Feisal; Apgar, Marina; Theobald, Sally; Bracken, Louise J.; Dean, Laura; Mansaray, Bintu; Saligram, Prasanna; Garimella, Surekha; et al. (The European Journal of Development Research, 2023)
The complexity of issues addressed by research for development (R4D) requires collaborations between partners from a range of disciplines and cultural contexts. Power asymmetries within such partnerships may obstruct the fair distribution of resources, responsibilities and benefits across all partners. This paper presents a cross-case analysis of five R4D partnership evaluations, their methods and how they unearthed and addressed power asymmetries. It contributes to the field of R4D partnership evaluations by detailing approaches and methods employed to evaluate these partnerships. Theory-based evaluations deepened understandings of how equitable partnerships contribute to R4D generating impact and centring the relational side of R4D. Participatory approaches that involved all partners in developing and evaluating partnership principles ensured contextually appropriate definitions and a focus on what partners value.

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.

How Beijing Commands: Grey, Black, and Red Directives from Deng to Xi - Ang, Yuen Yuen (The China Quarterly, 2022)

How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration - Flyvbjerg, Bent; Gardner, Dan (Macmillan, 2023)
World expert Bent Flyvbjerg and bestselling author Dan Gardner reveal the secrets to successfully planning and delivering ambitious projects on any scale.Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant new reality. Think of how Apple’s iPod went from a project with a single employee to an enormously successful product launch in eleven months. But such successes are the exception. Consider how London’s Crossrail project delivered five years late and billions over budget. More modest endeavours, whether launching a small business, organizing a conference, or just finishing a work project on time, also commonly fail. Why?Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life’s work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg. In How Big Things Get Done, he identifies the errors that lead projects to fail, and the research-based principles that will make yours succeed:- Understand your odds. If you don’t know them, you won’t win.- Plan slow, act fast. Getting to the action quick feels right. But it’s wrong.- Think right to left. Start with your goal, then identify the steps to get there.- Find your Lego. Big is best built from small.- Master the unknown unknowns. Most think they can’t, so they fail. Flyvbjerg shows how you can.Full of vivid examples ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House to the making of the latest Pixar blockbusters, How Big Things Get Done reveals how to get any ambitious project done – on time and on budget.

How can we be more adaptive? AdaptScan identifies critical areas for improvement - Mercy Corps (Mercy Corps & IRC, 2017)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

How Change Happens - Green, Duncan (OUP Oxford, 2016)
Human society is full of would-be 'change agents', a restless mix of campaigners, lobbyists, and officials, both individuals and organizations, set on transforming the world. They want to improve public services, reform laws and regulations, guarantee human rights, get a fairer deal for those on the sharp end, achieve greater recognition for any number of issues, or simply be treated with respect. Striking then, that not many universities have a Department of Change Studies, to which social activists can turn for advice and inspiration. Instead, scholarly discussions of change are fragmented with few conversations crossing disciplinary boundaries, rarely making it onto the radars of those actively seeking change. This book bridges the gap between academia and practice, bringing together the best research from a range of academic disciplines and the evolving practical understanding of activists to explore the topic of social and political change. Drawing on many first-hand examples from the global experience of Oxfam, one of the world's largest social justice NGOs, as well as the author's insights from studying and working on international development, it tests ideas on How Change Happens and offers the latest thinking on what works to achieve progressive change. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is available as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

How China Escaped the Poverty Trap - Ang, Yuen Yuen (Cornell University Press, 2016)
Before markets opened in 1978, China was an impoverished planned economy governed by a Maoist bureaucracy. In just three decades it evolved into the world's second-largest economy and is today guided by highly entrepreneurial bureaucrats. In How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, Yuen Yuen Ang explains this astonishing metamorphosis. Rather than insist that either strong institutions of good governance foster markets or that growth enables good governance, Ang lays out a new, dynamic framework for understanding development broadly. Successful development, she contends, is a coevolutionary process in which markets and governments mutually adapt.By mapping this coevolution, Ang reveals a startling conclusion: poor and weak countries can escape the poverty trap by first harnessing weak institutions―features that defy norms of good governance―to build markets. Further, she stresses that adaptive processes, though essential for development, do not automatically occur. Highlighting three universal roadblocks to adaptation, Ang identifies how Chinese reformers crafted enabling conditions for effective improvisation.How China Escaped the Poverty Trap offers the most complete synthesis to date of the numerous interacting forces that have shaped China’s dramatic makeover and the problems it faces today. Looking beyond China, Ang also traces the coevolutionary sequence of development in late medieval Europe, antebellum United States, and contemporary Nigeria, and finds surprising parallels among these otherwise disparate cases. Indispensable to all who care about development, this groundbreaking book challenges the convention of linear thinking and points to an alternative path out of poverty traps.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

How Decent is Decent Work? Using SenseMaker to understand workers’ experiences - Mager, Franziska; Smith, Becca; Gujit, Irene (Oxfam, 2018)

How DFID can better manage complexity in development programming - Sharp, Samuel; Valters, Craig; Whitty, Brendan (ODI, 2019)
The United Kingdom’s (UK) Department for International Development (DFID) is an ambitious government department that is committed to reducing poverty and conflict overseas. Many of the issues on which DFID works are complex; whether focused on climate change, gender equality, health or other priorities, simple solutions rarely exist. And to tackle these complex challenges, DFID staff must interact with unpredictable systems of political, organisational and individual behaviours and incentives. There is a risk that complex problems spur more complicated programmes; that the complexity of development challenges is addressed through designing programmes with too many projects and implementers. While there may be valid reasons for this, too many of these complicated programmes will overburden staff. This briefing note is the outcome of an ongoing process within DFID to confront these issues and answer the question: how can DFID design and manage programmes to address complex development challenges without creating too much staff workload? Key messages DFID deals with complex problems, which require flexible systems to support testing, learning and adaptation. • Complex problems do not necessarily require workload-heavy delivery structures, but simpler approaches depend on delivery partners’ experience and competence. • However, programmes that tackle complex problems do require more hands-on engagement and face more workload from inflexible compliance requirements. We suggest that DFID and similar agencies: • Pay closer attention to delivery options in programme design, making use of existing options where possible and, where not, fostering local organisations through long-term investments. • Encourage programme designers to articulate how ambition matches resources and consider ‘good enough’ design. • Reduce the burden of compliance by cultivating partner autonomy, reassessing results and valuefor-money requirements and promoting more flexible contracting and procurement. • Plan and prioritise management resources across a portfolio of programmes to make sure they can be focused in the right areas, where the complexity of the problem requires greater engagement.

How DFID learns - ICAI (Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), 2014)
Excellent learning is essential for UK aid to achieve maximum impact and value for money. We take learning to mean the extent to which DFID uses information and experience to influence its decisions. Each ICAI review assesses how well learning takes place. Our reports to date indicate a mixed performance. This review seeks to identify the way DFID learns and what inhibits it from doing so consistently. We drew on our reviews, assessed data from DFID’s own surveys and carried out interviews inside and outside the department. Review DFID generates considerable volumes of information, much of which, such as funded research, is publicly available. DFID does not clearly or consistently link this investment to how it can deliver better impact. We made five recommendations and gave an amber-red score. Findings DFID does not clearly identify how its investment in learning links to its performance and delivering better impact. DFID has the potential to be excellent at organisational learning if its best practices become common. DFID staff learn well as individuals. They are highly motivated and DFID provides opportunities and resources for them to learn. DFID is not yet, however, managing all the elements that contribute to how it learns as a single, integrated system. DFID does not review the costs, benefits and impact of learning. Insufficient priority is placed on learning during implementation. The emphasis on results can lead to a bias to the positive. Learning from both success and failure should be systematically encouraged. Recommendations DFID needs to focus on consistent and continuous organisational learning based on the experience of DFID, its partners and contractors and the measurement of its impact, in particular during the implementation phase of its activities. All DFID managers should be held accountable for conducting continuous reviews from which lessons are drawn about what works and where impact is actually being achieved for intended beneficiaries. All information commissioned and collected (such as annual reviews and evaluations) should be synthesised so that the relevant lessons are accessible and readily usable across the organisation. The focus must be on practical and easy-to-use information. Knowhow should be valued as much as knowledge. Staff need to be given more time to acquire experience in the field and share lessons about what works and does not work on the ground. DFID needs to continue to encourage a culture of free and full communication about what does and does not work. Staff should be encouraged always to base their decisions on evidence, without any bias to the positive.

How did China create “Directed Improvisation”? - Pritchett, Lant (Building State Capability, 2017)
written by Lant Pritchett Yuen-Yuen Ang, a Professor of Political Science at University of Michigan came to speak at Harvard the other day and I was lucky enough to hear her presentation.  Her most…
Keywords: IMPORTANT

How Do Donor-led Empowerment and Accountability Activities Take Scale into Account? Evidence from DFID Programmes in Contexts of Fragility, Conflict and Violence - Anderson, Colin; Fox, Jonathan; Gaventa, John (IDS, 2020)
Development donors invest significantly in governance reform, including in contexts characterised by conflict and fragility. However, there is relatively little comparative study of their change strategies, and little understanding of what works and why. This paper explores the strategies of six recent DFID-funded programmes in Mozambique, Myanmar, and Pakistan with empowerment and accountability aims. Document review and field interviews are used to analyse the application of multi-scalar or multi-level change strategies, since such approaches are hypothesised to potentially generate more leverage for public accountability reforms. Analysis suggests that these strategies can strengthen citizen ability to navigate governance systems to resolve problems and claim accountability, and can bolster pro-accountability coalitions’ internal solidarity and external legitimacy. Multi-level strategies also appear associated with establishing more significant pressure for reform than exclusively local or national approaches. Yet conventional project reporting focuses on counting activities and outputs rather than analysing the dynamic, interactive processes at work in these strategies, and few evaluations are publicly accessible. To fully understand what kinds of action strengthen citizen demands for accountability requires a more transparent and rigorous approach to learning from donor-led governance interventions.

How do we know we are doing good work? - Sharp, Cathy; McLaughlin, Dot; Whitley, Janet; Lawson, Karen (Collective Leadership for Scotland, 2022)
Collective leadership feels timely and important in an uncertain, fast changing, and challenging world. This report comes at this heightened moment of urgency and appetite for renewal, bringing potential to do things differently in public services and communities. The opportunities and challenges of true collaboration-in-practice, in the absence of blueprints, mean that it has never been more necessary to change ways of working and foreground learning. As outcomes remain important, and time and resources are scarcer than ever, the approach of collective leadership makes the creation of impact a shared, conscious, and actionable choice. A pathway to ultimate impact at scale is co-created through dialogue about expectations and contributions, and by design, not assuming change will happen because we have good intentions. Collective Leadership for Scotland (CLfS) has a strong vision and enjoys continuing active interest, drawing together participants from a variety of agencies working in public services. People are looking for fresh thinking, space and time for reflection, connection with others, a chance to think about how to tackle difficulties, and to test out what it takes to do, and continue to do, the work of collaborative public service. These motivations are deepened and brought into sharper focus by the pandemic, with an added interest in developing skills in online facilitation. CLfS contributes to building a critical mass for system change, to help to sustain the ambitions of the Christie Commission and the delivery of the National Outcomes for Scotland. There remains further potential to realise wider and deeper impact amongst organisations, communities, and wider systems. The conclusions of this report are likely to have wider resonance beyond interests in the CLfS programmes. This report deepens understanding of some of the challenges of commissioning, convening, and the scope for deeper impact through building reflective and relational leadership practices. It also outlines social and experiential sensemaking and facilitation practices to strengthen the action inquiry approach as a deliberate learning strategy, building cultures that support new forms of collaborative inquiry and systemic action research.

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.

How Does Developing Enforcement Capacity Reduce Wildlife Crime? Increasing program effectiveness by understanding common assumptions - Price, Claire; Buff, Jesse; Peabody, Shawn; Present, Tess; Lauck, Liz (USAID, 2018)
"How Does Developing Enforcement Capacity Reduce Wildlife Crime?" summarizes findings from the literature around four key assumptions about capacity building for enforcement and prosecution. Using the experiences and evidence summarized in this brief, program designers and implementing partners should be able to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their capacity building efforts.

How Does Participatory Action Research Generate Innovation? Findings from a Rapid Realist Review - Snijder, Mieke; Apgar, J. Marina (CLARISSA Emerging Evidence Report, 2021)
This Emerging Evidence Report shares evidence of how, for whom, and under what circumstances, Participatory Action Research (PAR) leads to innovative actions. A rapid realist review was undertaken to develop programme theories that explain how PAR generates innovation. The methodology included peer-reviewed and grey literature and moments of engagement with programme staff, such that their input supported the development and refinement of three resulting initial programme theories (IPTs) that we present in this report. Across all three IPTs, safe relational space, group facilitation, and the abilities of facilitators, are essential context and intervention components through which PAR can generate innovation. Implications from the three IPTs for evaluation design of the CLARISSA programme are identified and discussed. The report finishes with opportunities for the CLARISSA programme to start building an evidence base of how PAR works as an intervention modality, such as evidencing group-level conscientisation, the influence of intersecting inequalities, and influence of diverse perspectives coming together in a PAR process.

How Does the World Bank Build Citizen Engagement Commitments into Project Design? Results from Pilot Assessments in Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Pakistan - Nadelman, Rachel; Le, Ha; Sah, Anjali (Working Paper 525, 2019)
How and to what degree is the World Bank putting its new institutional citizen engagement (CE) commitments into practice? This question guides an independent assessment that the Accountability Research Center (ARC) at American University has undertaken as part of the Institute of Development Studies-led Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) research programme’s investigation into how external actors can best support local processes of and conditions for empowerment and accountability. This report investigates the World Bank’s incorporation of CE into project design, the critical early stage of donor engagement. To accomplish this, ARC reviewed the World Bank’s fiscal year 2015–17 investment project portfolios for four A4EA priority countries, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Pakistan, which covers 57 projects that range from US$19 million to U$600 million. The analysis determines whether projects commit to seeking a strategic approach to CE, which involves combining multiple tactics so that the whole could be greater than the sum of the parts. This assessment of CE commitments is intended to help to inform possible national, civil society organisation strategies to monitor whether and how these commitments are actually implemented in practice.

How ICT4D Research Fails the Poor - Harris, Roger W. (Information Technology for Development, 2016)
Research can improve development policies and practices and funders increasingly require evidence of such socioeconomic impact from their investments. This article questions whether information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) research conforms to the requirements for achieving socioeconomic impact. We report on a literature review of the impact of research in international development and a survey of ICT4D researchers who assessed the extent to which they follow practices for achieving socioeconomic impact. The findings suggest that while ICT4D researchers are interested in influencing both practice and policy, they are less inclined toward the activities that would make this happen, especially engaging with users of their research and communicating their findings to a wider audience. Their institutions do not provide incentives for researchers to adopt these practices. ICT4D researchers and their institutions should engage more closely with the users of their research through more and better communications with the public, especially through the use of information and communication technologies.
Keywords: ICT4D; Policy making; Practice; Research; impact

How INGOs are Doing Development Differently - Algoso, Dave (Care, IRC, Mercy Corps, Oxfam & World Vision, 2017)

How Political Contexts Influence Education Systems: Patterns, Constraints, Entry Points - Levy, Brian (Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE), 2022)
This paper synthesises the findings of a set of country studies commissioned by the RISE Programme to explore the influence of politics and power on education sector policymaking and implementation. The synthesis groups the countries into three political-institutional contexts: - Dominant contexts, where power is centred around a political leader and a hierarchical governance structure. As the Vietnam case details, top-down leadership potentially can provide a robust platform for improving learning outcomes. However, as the case studies of Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Tanzania illustrate, all-too-often dominant leaders’ goals vis-à-vis the education sector can veer in other directions. - In impersonal competitive contexts, a combination of strong formal institutions and effective processes of resolving disagreements can, on occasion, result in a shared commitment among powerful interests to improve learning outcomes—but in none of the case studies is this outcome evident. In Peru, substantial learning gains have been achieved despite messy top-level politics. But the Chilean, Indian, and South African case studies suggest that the all-too-common result of rule-boundedness plus unresolved political contestation over the education sector’s goals is some combination of exaggerated rule compliance and/or performative isomorphic mimicry. - Personalised competitive contexts (Bangladesh, Ghana, and Kenya for example) lack the seeming strengths of either their dominant or their impersonal competitive contexts; there are multiple politically-influential groups and multiple, competing goals—but no credible framework of rules to bring coherence either to political competition or to the education bureaucracy. The case studies show that political and institutional constraints can render ineffective many specialised sectoral interventions intended to improve learning outcomes. But they also point to the possibility that ‘soft governance’ entry points might open up some context-aligned opportunities for improving learning outcomes. In dominant contexts, the focus might usefully be on trying to influence the goals and strategies of top-level leadership. In impersonal competitive contexts, it might be on strengthening alliances between mission-oriented public officials and other developmentally-oriented stakeholders. In personalised competitive contexts, gains are more likely to come from the bottom-up—via a combination of local-level initiatives plus a broader effort to inculcate a shared sense among a country’s citizenry of ‘all for education’.

How should donors manage adaptively? Market Systems Development as a case study. - Itad (Itad, 2018)
Itad has recently completed a strategic evaluation for Sida to help them work through how they can best manage programmes that are adaptive and apply systems approaches - the conclusions from the evaluation about what funders need to do to manage adaptively are of broader relevance.

How to Apply Agile Principles to International Development M&E - ICTworks (ICT Works, 2016)
We all want to be good at our jobs. We want to accomplish the things we set out to do. If we aren’t accomplishing them, we want to figure out why or try new solutions. The trend toward Adaptive M&E is exactly that: a desire to be better at our jobs. Similar trends exist in the software world (agile) and in manufacturing and start-ups (lean). But by any name, this process of seeking to improve is about speeding up decision-making and solution delivery by focusing on incremental, iterative planning and execution. I presented on agile with Monalisa Salib of USAID Learning Lab at MERL Tech 2016. I talked about creating software; she talked about creating evaluation tools for USAID missions, but we were describing the same basic process: Develop, Release, Reflect, and Adapt. You can see our slide deck for more details, but here are the key discussion takeaways that won’t show up there: 1: Eyes on the Prize Any effort should start with a clear definition of what you’re hoping to achieve.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

How to Build Movements with Cyclical Patterns in Mind - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly - Algoso, Dave; Guerzovich, Florencia; Gattoni, Soledad (Nonprofit Quarterly, 2023)
The world changes too much for anyone who is invested in social change work to imagine that this work is linear and predictable. Opportunities come and go, whether caused by a pandemic or political shifts. This much most social movement leaders and activists intuitively understand. But what can be done with this realization? How might movement groups better prepare for moments of opportunity? We want to explore how we can create the changes we want to see by responding to the changes that are outside our control.

How to create an agile organization - survey - Salo, Olli; Ahlbäck, Karin; Fahrbach, Clemens; Murarka, Monica (McKinsey & Co., 2017)
Eighteen practices for organizational agility The survey asked respondents about a series of specific actions that underlie each of the 18 practices (9 of them stable, and 9 dynamic) of organizational agility; all of the practices are summarized in the table below. To rate respondents’ organizations, we asked how frequently their performance units engaged in each action that supports a given practice.

How to design a monitoring and evaluation framework for a policy research project - Pasanen, Tiina; Shaxson, Louise (Methods Lab, 2016)
Policy research projects face a number of challenges: policy processes are complex, involve multiple actors and often feature a significant time-lag between research and what may or may not happen as a result of it. To complicate matters further, the scope and scale of policy research projects are increasingly moving away from single research studies towards multi-component, multi-site and multi-sector endeavours. These factors mean that developing an overarching monitoring and evaluation framework can be challenging. But it is not impossible. The guidance note aims to support the first steps in designing and structuring the M&E framework (that is, what aspects or areas of policy research projects to monitor and evaluate, why, when and how). It builds on an M&E framework for policy research projects developed and tested by the Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) programme of the Overseas Development Institute, and draws on case studies of how it has been used by RAPID and other research teams.

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.

How to develop capacity in the international development sector - Prieto Martín, Pedro (CLARISSA, 2022)
In her acclaimed study of effective cross-organizational teamwork, Harvard Business School Professor Amy C. Edmonson concluded that “trying things that...

How to do Adaptive Management in 15 easy steps – from a top new toolkit – FP2P - Green, Duncan (From Poverty to Power, 2021)

How to do Process Tracing: A Method for Testing “How Change Happened” in Complex and Dynamic Settings - Lynn, Jewlya; Stachowiak, Sarah; Beyers, Jennifer (ORS Impact, 2022)
Process tracing is a causal methodology that can help people understand how a particular large-scale change actually happened within a complex dynamic environment. Much of the existing literature provides important information about the method; we wrote this brief to help more people operationalize the concepts and learn about practical steps for using this method more easily, with quality, and toward a more equitable world. This piece was written based on our experiences implementing process tracing when our experience showed that existing materials on the method had a lot more conceptual than practical information. We’ve approached this as people with some successful (and some unsuccessful) experience with the method itself, alongside deep experience in evaluating initiatives and strategies in complex and dynamic settings. We focus not on the Bayesian side of process tracing but rather on how this can be implemented in a way that’s more participatory and lifts up the experiences and wisdom of those closest to the work and the problems being tackled. We hope this contributes to and helps make more approachable the important work of political scientists and methodologists upon which this work sits.

How to make a multilayer pie chart in Excel - Karina Adcock (2021)
Create a multilevel donut chart in excel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #exceltips #exceltutorials #excelcharts SUBSCRIBE: https://goo.gl/c46YPs Microsoft Office 365, Beta Channel, Version 2104 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IF YOU LIKED THIS VIDEO YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: - Recreating a pie chart from a newspaper in PowerPoint    • How to make a pie...

How to Make ‘Cash Plus’ Work: Linking Cash Transfers to Services and Sectors - Roelen, Keetie; Devereux, Stephen; Abdulai, Abdul-Gafaru; Martorano, Bruno; Palermo, Tia; Ragno, Luigi Peter (UNICEF Office of Research, 2017)
The broad-ranging benefits of cash transfers are now widely recognized. However, the evidence base highlights that they often fall short in achieving longer-term and second-order impacts related to nutrition, learning outcomes and morbidity. In recognition of these limitations, several ‘cash plus’ initiatives have been introduced, whereby cash transfers are combined with one or more types of complementary support. This paper aims to identify key factors for successful implementation of these increasingly popular ‘cash plus’ programmes, based on (i) a review of the emerging evidence base of ‘cash plus’ interventions and (ii) an examination of three case studies, namely, Chile Solidario in Chile, IN-SCT in Ethiopia and LEAP in Ghana. The analysis was guided by a conceptual framework proposing a menu of ‘cash plus’ components. The assessment of three case studies indicated that effective implementation of ‘cash plus’ components has indeed contributed to greater impacts of the respective programmes. Such initiatives have thereby addressed some of the non-financial and structural barriers that poor people face and have reinforced the positive effects of cash transfer programmes. In design of such programmes, further attention should be paid to the constraints faced by the most vulnerable and how such constraints can be overcome. We conclude with recommendations regarding the provision of complementary support and cross-sectoral linkages based on lessons learned from the case studies. More research is still needed on the impact of the many variations of ‘cash plus’ programming, including evidence on the comparative roles of individual ‘plus’ components, as well as the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour pathways which influence these impacts.

How to Make Sense of Weak Signals - Schoemaker, Paul J. H.; Day, George S. (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2009)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

How to make theories of change more useful? - Aston, Thomas (Medium, 2021)
A fair amount has been written recently questioning the value added of theories of change. Have we gone through a hype cycle? Are they…

How to manage complexity: four lessons for DFID’s new Secretary of State - LearnAdapt (Medium, 2019)
Lessons for DFID in addressing complex problems without creating complicated, workload heavy programmes.

How to Monitor and Evaluate an Adaptive Programme: 7 Takeaways - Sikustahili, Gloria; Adkins, Julie; Makongo, Japhet; Milligan, Simon (From Poverty to Power, 2020)
Monitoring and Evaluation needs to be different to support the new generation of 'adaptive programmes' in aid. 4 M&E specialists in Tanzania explain how.

How-To Note: Conduct a Data Quality Assessment - USAID (2017)

How-To Note: Developing a Project Logic Model (and its Associated Theory of Change) - USAID (Program Cycle, 2017)
This How-To Note describes considerations for developing a project logic model, as well as steps for thinking through a more complete theory of change (TOC). A logic model is a graphic or visual depiction that summarizes key elements of a TOC, and it is often used as a facilitation tool during the design process. There are many types of logic models, including but not limited to logical frameworks (logframes), results chains, results frameworks, and local actor-oriented models, among others. The project logic model and its associated TOC are included in the Project Appraisal Document (PAD) that approves a project design (see ADS 201.3.3.13). While this How-To Note focuses on logic models at the project level, logic models are also used at the strategy level (specifically, results frameworks – see Box 1), and often at the activity level. The concepts and steps presented here are generally applicable to the process of developing logic models and TOCs throughout the Program Cycle.

How to set up and manage an adaptive programme - Lessons from the Action on Climate Today (ACT) Programme - Cooke, Katherine (OPM, 2017)

How to Sharpen a Nonviolent Movement - McClennen, Sophia; Popovic, Srdja; Wright, Joseph (Journal of Democracy, 2023)
In the past three decades nonviolent social protest has become the most reliable path to democracy. However, not all nonviolent mobilization campaigns succeed. To examine why some nonviolent campaigns are more successful than others, we analyze the use of a particular type of activist campaign tactic, the "dilemma action." The dilemma action is a nonviolent civil-disobedience tactic that provokes a "response dilemma" for the target. Collecting original data on dilemma actions during nonviolent activist campaigns, we find that roughly one-third of mass nonviolent campaigns in the past century deploy this strategy. We theorize four mechanisms linking dilemma actions to nonviolent activist campaign success: facilitating group formation, delegitimizing opponents, reducing fear, and generating sympathetic media coverage. Finally, we assess whether dilemma actions increase campaign success rates, finding that dilemma actions are associated with an increase of 11–16 percent in activist-campaign success.

How useful are RCTs in evaluating transparency and accountability projects? - Leavy, Jennifer (MAVC Working Paper, 2014)

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

Human-Centered, Systems-Minded Design - Both, Thomas (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2018)
Both human-centered and systems-thinking methods fit within an effective design approach, and can work in conjunction to address social challenges.

Human Learning Systems: A practical guide for the curious - Lowe, Toby; Padmanabhan, Chandrima; McCart, Des; McNeill, Karen; Brogan, Andy; Smith, Mark (Centre for Public Impact, 2022)
Our new guide provides practical advice to help any organisation working in public service apply the Human Learning Systems approach to their work. In doing so, they will be better equipped to explore, learn and respond to the unique strengths and needs of each person, family and community they serve.

Human trafficking in South Asia: Assessing the effectiveness of interventions - Jensen, Charity; Oosterhoff, P.; Pocock, N. (FCDO, 2020)
This Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) examines current evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to combat human trafficking in four South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan). This REA is being carried out as part of a wider assignment for the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with the overall objective of synthesising evidence on the effectiveness of interventions that tackle modern slavery in South Asia. Two REAs were conducted on different types of modern slavery, one on human trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation, and another on child labour (Idris et al., 2020). The research question for this REA is: ‘What has been the effect of interventions to combat and/or reduce sexual and labour exploitation in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Nepal?’ Trafficking in persons is a form of ‘modern slavery’, which is an umbrella term for the variety of situations in which someone is forcibly controlled by an individual or group for the purpose of exploitation. The Global Slavery Index estimated that, on any given day in 2016, 40.3 million people were victims of modern slavery, including 24.9 million people in forced labour and 15.4 million people in forced marriage. Of the estimated almost 25 million people in modern slavery in Asia, 66% were exploited for labour (Global Slavery Index, 2018).

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.

I know what I know (but how do I know what I don’t?) - Smit, Debbie; de Lanerolle, Indra; Braam, Tamara; Byrne, Deborah; Legong, Gontse (MAVC, 2017)
An important support function of Making All Voices Count South Africa is to design, plan and facilitate community of practice gatherings for sustained learning and sharing across Making All Voices Count grantees. This report aims to capture the content of a one-day Making All Voices Count South African Community of Practice (CoP) Meeting held in November 2016. The South African MAVC CoP has been running for three years and has met between two and four times a year. It is a space for MAVC grantees and others working to foster innovation in the fields of transparency and accountability, to share experiences and knowledge, and collaborate in learning and improving work.

ICT4D and Sustainability - Marais, Mario (The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, 2015)

ICT4D Blog » A citizen participation ecosystem - Peña-López, Ismael (ICTlogy, 2019)
Research on the Information Society, the Digital Divide and Information and Communication Technologies for development

Ideas for Development - Chambers, Robert (Routledge, 2005)
Our world seems entangled in systems increasingly dominated by power, greed, ignorance, self-deception and denial, with spiralling inequity and injustice. Against a backdrop of climate change, failing ecosystems, poverty, crushing debt and corporate exploitation, the future of our world looks dire and the solutions almost too monumental to consider. Yet all is not lost. Robert Chambers, one of the ?glass is half full? optimists of international development, suggests that the problems can be solved and everyone has the power at a personal level to take action, develop solutions and remake our world as it can and should be. Chambers peels apart and analyses aspects of development that have been neglected or misunderstood. In each chapter, he presents an earlier writing which he then reviews and reflects upon in a contemporary light before harvesting a wealth of powerful conclusions and practical implications for the future. The book draws on experiences from Africa, Asia and elsewhere, covering topics and concepts as wide and varied as irreversibility, continuity and commitment; administrative capacity as a scarce resource; procedures and principles; participation in the past, present and future; scaling up; behaviour and attitudes; responsible wellbeing; and concepts for development in the 21st century.

Identifying general trends and patterns in complex systems research: An overview of theoretical and practical implications - Preiser, Rika (Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 2019)
Research on complex systems is becoming more prolific, and there is a need to provide some point of orientation to researchers and practitioners that are drawing on the body of literature that informs the field of complexity research. In this paper, I aim to give an overview of the development of the field and offer some overarching trends and patterns that are recognizable in research on complex systems. The paper then draws on the work to provide six organizing principles of complex systems to inform practical implications and methods for studying and understanding complex systems.
Keywords: complex systems; heuristics; trends and patterns

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

Illegal Wildlife Trade - Frameworks - Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade (Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, 2018)
Our frameworks will enable a better understanding of wildlife product consumer preferences and motivations to effectively influence the system.

Illogical Framework: The Importance of Monitoring and Evaluation in International Development Studies - Pomerantz, Jessica R. (Cornell Policy Review, 2011)
In my brief experience with monitoring and evaluation, I have become convinced that it is critically important both as an international development project component and as a field of academic study. Throughout my academic career at Cornell University, I have, at times, argued that monitoring and evaluation has actually impeded development efforts, but here I wish to amend my opinion. Bad monitoring and evaluation can sabotage development projects and our meaningful interpretation of development impacts; failures can appear to be successes and vice-versa. As a student and practitioner of monitoring and evaluation, I have drawn the conclusions listed below and I submit them for your consideration. • Monitoring and evaluation is a key element of the international development industry applicable to many areas of public administration, domestic and international. • International development failures could be discovered and averted or corrected given proper monitoring and evaluation activities. • Anecdotal evidence from development activities in Afghanistan provides one example of the international community’s lack of attention to monitoring and evaluation concerning an ongoing development catastrophe. • Higher education ought to be filling the monitoring and evaluation knowledge gap but to date is failing to do so.