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

On understanding software agility: A social complexity point of view - Pelrine, Joseph (E:CO, 2011)
Over the last decade, the field of so-called Agile software development has grown to be a major force in the socio-economic arena of delivering quality software on time, on budget, and on spec. The acceleration in changing needs brought on by the rise in popularity of the Internet has helped push Agile practices far beyond their original boundaries, and possibly into domains where their application is not the optimal solution to the problems at hand. The question of where Agile software development practices and techniques make sense, and where are they out of place, is a valid one. It can be addressed by looking at software development as a complex endeavour, and using tools and techniques from the Cynefin method and other models of social complexity.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Doing Development Differently at Scale - Pellini, Arnaldo; Karetji, Petrarca C.; Soekadis, Ade (Knowledge, Politics and Policymaking in Indonesia, 2018)
In recent decades there has been an increasing recognition that politics and political institutions matter for development. There is also a much greater interest in contextually grounded approaches. This has stemmed from an acknowledgement that purely technocratic approaches to development often result in failure because they do not take into account the nature of political institutions. Nor do they take account of the context in a particular developing country and the interests and incentives of powerful national actors. Policy processes are embedded in specific social, political and organisational contexts. Approaches that focus on implementing universal best practices in evidence-informed policymaking are unlikely to be successful. Instead, what is needed is an approach that takes the local context as the starting point for understanding what issues are relevant to policymakers and developing contextually appropriate solutions. The authors of this chapter reflect on the management approaches and systems that may be required to enable and support large-scale development programmes to be flexible and adaptive to the local policy context and circumstances. The chapter argues that such programmes struggle to adopt adaptive management principle and that to do that at scale requires some changes in the way such programmes are managed.
Keywords: Adaptive Management; Doing development differently; Evidence-informed policymaking; Indonesia; Knowledge sector; Thinking and working politically

Working Politically: A story of Change about the contribution of research evidence to the new Village Law in Indonesia - Pellini, Arnaldo; Angelina, Maesy; Purnawati, Endah (Austrialian Community Development and Civil Society Strenghtening Scheme (ACCESS), 2014)
On 18 December 2013, the Indonesian House of Representatives passed the new Village Law, a vote that was the culmination of a journey that had started in 2007. This Story of Change takes the passing of the Village Law as its starting point and describes the relative influence that research-based evidence, produced by the Institute for Research and Empowerment (IRE), has had at critical junctions of the legislative process. This Story of Change concludes that good quality, research-based evidence is necessary but not sufficient to influence policy-making processes. Researchers and research organisations need to think and work politically to achieve their influencing goals and to adapt to changes in local circumstances.

MLE or MEL in adaptive programming? - Pellini, Arnaldo (Knowledge counts, 2018)

Citizen engagement: emerging digital technologies create new risks and value - Peixoto, Tiago; Steinberg, Tom (World Bank, 2019)
The recent rapid evolution of digital technologies has been changing behaviors and expectations in countries around the world. These shifts make it the right time to pose the key question this paper explores: Will digital technologies, both those that are already widespread and those that are still emerging, have substantial impacts on the way citizens engage and the ways through which power is sought, used, or contested? The authors address this question both to mitigate some of the World Bank’s operational risks, and to initiate a conversation with peers about how those risks might require policy shifts. The overall framing question also is being explored in case theapproaches to citizen engagement advocated by the World Bank are changing and may require different advice for client countries. Despite the lower technology penetration levels in developing countries, their more malleable governance contexts may be more influenced by the effects of emerging technologies than older states with greater rigidity. Digitally influencedcitizen engagement is, in short, one of those “leapfrog” areas in which developing nations may exploit technologies before the wealthier parts of the world. But countries can leapfrog to worse futures, not just better ones. This paper explores what technology might mean for engagement, makespredictions, and offers measures for governments to consider.

When Does ICT-Enabled Citizen Voice Lead to Government Responsiveness? - Peixoto, Tiago; Fox, Jonathan (IDS Bulletin, 2016)

Crowdsourcing citizen feedback on district development in Ghana using interactive voice response surveys - Pegus, Ciana-Marie (Making All Voices Count Practice Paper, 2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

When and how to develop an impact-oriented monitoring and evaluation system - Peersman, Greet; Rogers, Patricia; Guijt, Irene; Hearn, Simon; Pasanen, Tiina; Buffardi, Anne (2016)
This guidance note focuses on: • what an impact-oriented monitoring and evaluation system entails • why an organisation may want to establish such a system • when integrating an impact-orientation into an monitoring and evaluation system is most useful • what should be considered in developing the monitoring and evaluation system, or in tweaking an existing system, to become more impact-focused. The primary audience for this guidance note is internal and external monitoring and evaluation advisors involved in designing and implementing, and/or assessing monitoring and evaluation systems to include a focus on impact. It will also be useful for senior management of organisations who need to know how best to plan for a sustainable monitoring and evaluation system that supports impact assessment or to adapt an existing system to incorporate an impact perspective.

Evaluability assessment for Impact Evaluation: Guidance, checklists and decision support - Peersman, Greet; Guijt, Irene; Pasanen, Tiina (ODI, 2015)
This guidance note focuses on the utility of, and guidance for, evaluability assessment before undertaking an impact evaluation. The primary audience for this guidance note is evaluators conducting an evaluability assessment for impact evaluation. The secondary audience is people commissioning or managing an evaluability assessment for impact evaluation, as well as funders of an impact evaluation. Sections one and two provide an overview of evaluability assessment and how it can be used for impact evaluation. Section three provides guidance for planning to undertake an evaluability assessment for impact evaluation. This is informative for all intended users of the guidance note. Section four includes checklists and decision support for evaluability assessments. The checklist is geared to those conducting the evaluability assessment and can be adapted to suit a particular context or purpose. The decision support provides those conducting an evaluability assessment with evidence-based recommendations for impact evaluation funders and commissioners, about whether, when and how to proceed with the evaluation. Sections five and six provide guidance on what to do after the assessment is concluded, and offer lessons learned from evaluability assessments in practice.

Measuring Impact. Making Use of the Portfolio: Organizational Learning at USAID - Peabody, Shawn (Measuring Impact, 2015)
This technical analysis explores previous and ongoing social learning efforts, best practices, challenges, and lessons in USAID as a foundation for improving the implementation and design of the Agency’s forestry and biodiversity programs. This analysis is particularly relevant as the Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and the Environment’s Office of Forestry and Biodiversity (E3/FAB) begins to develop a Cross-Mission Learning Program under the Measuring Impact initiative, a five-year activity to promote the adoption of best practices in the USAID program cycle among Missions using biodiversity funds. The findings reported in this document can help inform the overall design and structure of the Learning Program and provide insight into possible challenges and best practices.

Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use - Patton, Michael Quinn (Guilford Press, 2010)
Developmental evaluation (DE) offers a powerful approach to monitoring and supporting social innovations by working in partnership with program decision makers. In this book, eminent authority Michael Quinn Patton shows how to conduct evaluations within a DE framework. Patton draws on insights about complex dynamic systems, uncertainty, nonlinearity, and emergence. He illustrates how DE can be used for a range of purposes: ongoing program development, adapting effective principles of practice to local contexts, generating innovations and taking them to scale, and facilitating rapid response in crisis situations. Students and practicing evaluators will appreciate the book's extensive case examples and stories, cartoons, clear writing style, "closer look" sidebars, and summary tables. Provided is essential guidance for making evaluations useful, practical, and credible in support of social change.See also Developmental Evaluation Exemplars, edited by Michael Quinn Patton, Kate McKegg, and Nan Wehipeihana, which presents 12 in-depth case studies.
Keywords: Evaluation; Measurement; Organizational effectiveness; Project management

Essentials of Utilization-Focused Evaluation - Patton, Michael Quinn (SAGE Publications, 2011)
Based on Michael Quinn Patton's best-selling Utilization-Focused Evaluation, this briefer book provides an overall framework and essential checklist steps for designing and conducting evaluations that actually get used. The new material and innovative graphics present the utilization-focused evaluation process as a complex adaptive system, incorporating current understandings about systems thinking and complexity concepts. The book integrates theory and practice, is based on both research and professional experience, and offers new case examples and cartoons with Patton's signature humor.
Keywords: Reference / Research; Research

Principles-Focused Evaluation: The GUIDE - Patton, Michael Quinn (Guilford Press, 2017)
How can programs and organizations ensure they are adhering to core principles--and assess whether doing so is yielding desired results? From evaluation pioneer Michael Quinn Patton, this book introduces the principles-focused evaluation (P-FE) approach and demonstrates its relevance and application in a range of settings. Patton explains why principles matter for program development and evaluation and how they can serve as a rudder to navigate the uncertainties, turbulence, and emergent challenges of complex dynamic environments. In-depth exemplars illustrate how the unique GUIDE framework is used to determine whether principles provide meaningful guidance (G) and are useful (U), inspiring (I), developmentally adaptable (D), and evaluable (E). User-friendly features include rubrics, a P-FE checklist, firsthand reflections and examples from experienced P-FE practitioners, sidebars and summary tables, and end-of-chapter application exercises.

Utilization-Focused Evaluation (U-FE) Checklist - Patton, Michael Quinn (Evaluation Checklists Projects, 2013)
Utilization-Focused Evaluation begins with the premise that evaluations should be judged by their utility and actual use; therefore, evaluators should facilitate the evaluation process and design any evaluation with careful consideration of how everything that is done, from beginning to end, will affect use. Use concerns how real people in the real world apply evaluation findings and experience and learn from the evaluation process. The checklist is based on Essentials of Utilization-Focused Evaluation (Patton, 2012, Sage Publications). All references in the checklist to exhibits and menus refer to this book. Step 1 Assess and build program and organizational readiness for utilization-focused evaluation. Step 2 Assess and enhance evaluator readiness and competence to undertake a utilizationfocused evaluation. Step 3 Identify, organize, and engage primary intended users. Step 4 Conduct situation analysis with primary intended users Step 5 Identify primary intended uses by establishing the evaluation’s priority purposes. Step 6 Consider and build in process uses if appropriate. Step 7 Focus priority evaluation questions. Step 8 Check that fundamental areas for evaluation inquiry are being adequately addressed. Step 9 Determine what intervention model or theory of change is being evaluated. Step 10 Negotiate appropriate methods to generate credible findings and support intended use by intended users. Step 11 Make sure intended users understand potential controversies about methods and their implications. Step 12 Simulate use of findings. Step 13 Gather data with ongoing attention to use. Step 14 Organize and present the data for use by primary intended users. Step 15 Prepare an evaluation report to facilitate use and disseminate significant findings to expand influence. Step 16 Follow up with primary intended users to facilitate and enhance use. Step 17 Metaevaluation of use: Be accountable, learn, and improve

Complexity-Aware Monitoring Discussion Note (Screencast) - Patsalides, Melissa; Britt, Heather (USAID, 2014)
This screencast covers information included in the Complexity-Aware Monitoring Discussion Note. The topic is intended for those seeking cutting-edge solutions to monitoring complex aspects of strategies and projects. Most of the principles and promising approaches discussed here have a significant body of theory and practice behind them, but many have not been used to monitor USAID strategies and projects. We have much to learn about whether and how they can be applied successfully in the Agency. USAID's Office of Learning, Evaluation, and Research in the Bureau of Policy, Planning, and Learning has partnered with different groups through monitoring trials to build a body of evidence regarding which complexity-aware M&E approaches are most effective in the contexts of USAID programming.

The Rapid Evaluation, Action, and Learning (REAL) Approach: A toolkit to measure and refine changes and interventions in health campaigns - PATH (PATH, 2019)
Evaluative Tools for Improving Campaign Effectiveness Public health campaigns aim to control disease or deliver essential health services and products through time-limited and periodic channels. Many countries use campaigns to augment or replace routine service delivery, to target certain populations, or to accelerate progress towards coverage targets. The Root Cause Analysis and Rapid Evaluation, Action, and Learning toolkits present a systematic but flexible approach to identifying the root causes of campaign bottlenecks and then designing, testing, and refining solutions to optimize potential impact. These toolkits respond to a growing need for “fit-for-purpose” rapid-testing, adaptive learning approaches to evaluation and the need for a culture shift toward iterative adaptation and improvement that integrates measurement and evidence-informed decision-making into daily practice. The comprehensive package of toolkits, in addition to the individual Root Cause Analysis toolkit and Rapid Evaluation, Action, and Learning toolkit are available below.

The Power of Positive Deviance - Pascale, Richard; Sternin, Jerry; Sternin, Monique (Harvard Business Press, 2010)

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.

Supporting adaptive management. Monitoring and evaluation tools and approaches - Pasanen, Tiina; Barnett, Inka (ODI, 2019)
Key messages • This working paper introduces a set of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools and approaches, discussing their potential usefulness in supporting adaptive management in development and humanitarian programmes. It emphasises adaptive programmes characterised by complex aspects, such as: (1) they are innovative; (2) they have uncertain pathways for change; or (3) they operate in uncertain or unstable environments. • The majority of these tools have been used in international development for many years. However, adaptive management brings additional challenges for monitoring and evaluating programmes, as they require intentional M&E design from the start that is oriented towards both learning and accountability. • All of the tools and approaches introduced in this paper have potential to support learning and adaptation, although in various ways and at different stages of a programme. Some tools can support strategic planning and diagnosing throughout a programme – especially during design and inception – while others can help analyse causal relationships at specific points in a programme. It is important to tailor the approach used for its intended purpose. However, whether learning and adaptation happens depends also on factors other than the choice of M&E methods. • For some of these approaches a considerable body of evidence already exists but, for many, more practical examples and systematic analysis is needed. In addition to building the evidence base concerned with which approaches are suitable for different types of adaptive programmes and why, it is also important to improve understanding of the enabling environmental conditions necessary for the tools and approaches outlined here to facilitate and strengthen evaluative thinking, evidence-informed decision-making and ongoing programme iteration.

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

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.

Monitoring and evaluation: five reality checks for adaptive management - Pasanen, Tiina (ODI Insight, 2017)

Monitoring And Evaluation Tools and Approaches to Support Adaptive Management - Pasanen, Tiina (GLAM, 2019)

The politics of evidence: from evidence-based policy to the good governance of evidence - Parkhurst, Justin O. (Routledge studies in governance and public policy, 2017)
Introduction -- Evidence-based policymaking : an important first step, and the need to take the next -- Bias and the politics of evidence -- The overt politics of evidence : bias and the pursuit of political interests -- The subtle politics of evidence - the cognitive-political origins of bias -- What is "good evidence for policy"? From hierarchies to appropriate evidence -- What is the "good use of evidence" for policy? -- From evidence-based policy to the good governance of evidence

The Politics of Evidence: From Evidence-based Policy to the Good Governance of Evidence - Parkhurst, Justin (Taylor & Francis, 2017)
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. There has been an enormous increase in interest in the use of evidence for public policymaking, but the vast majority of work on the subject has failed to engage with the political nature of decision making and how this influences the ways in which evidence will be used (or misused) within political areas. This book provides new insights into the nature of political bias with regards to evidence and critically considers what an ‘improved’ use of evidence would look like from a policymaking perspective. Part I describes the great potential for evidence to help achieve social goals, as well as the challenges raised by the political nature of policymaking. It explores the concern of evidence advocates that political interests drive the misuse or manipulation of evidence, as well as counter-concerns of critical policy scholars about how appeals to ‘evidence-based policy’ can depoliticise political debates. Both concerns reflect forms of bias – the first representing technical bias, whereby evidence use violates principles of scientific best practice, and the second representing issue bias in how appeals to evidence can shift political debates to particular questions or marginalise policy-relevant social concerns. Part II then draws on the fields of policy studies and cognitive psychology to understand the origins and mechanisms of both forms of bias in relation to political interests and values. It illustrates how such biases are not only common, but can be much more predictable once we recognise their origins and manifestations in policy arenas. Finally, Part III discusses ways to move forward for those seeking to improve the use of evidence in public policymaking. It explores what constitutes ‘good evidence for policy’, as well as the ‘good use of evidence’ within policy processes, and considers how to build evidence-advisory institutions that embed key principles of both scientific good practice and democratic representation. Taken as a whole, the approach promoted is termed the ‘good governance of evidence’ – a concept that represents the use of rigorous, systematic and technically valid pieces of evidence within decision-making processes that are representative of, and accountable to, populations served.
Keywords: Public policy; Social Policy; Social Services & Welfare

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

Organizational Performance Index (OPI) Handbook: A practical guide to the OPI tool for practitioners and development professionals - Pact (Pact, 2015)
This handbook is intended to help development practitioners understand how to use and what can be achieved by Pact’s Organizational Performance Index (OPI) tool. This document will provide practitioners and managers with information on how the Pact OPI works and how best to incorporate it in their country strategy or program.

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.

‘We have the solutions to our own problems’: supporting civil society in Nigeria - Overseas Development Institute (ODI, 2014)
Development assistance programmes that start from careful analysis of what works and what does not in country contexts are still remarkably rare. One reason for this is the lack of well documented examples of ‘politically’ smart aid programming. To this end, this film outlines the experience of the State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI), a DFID-funded programme in Nigeria providing support to civil society, media and governmental organisations.

Outcome Harvesting. Understanding social change results in complex circumstances - outcomeharvesting.net (2018)
This website is a source of applications, events and resources to support the development of a community of practitioners of Outcome Harvesting. BetterEvaluation is one of three sister sites of OutcomeHarvesting.net

Outcome Mapping FAQs - Outcome Mapping Learning Community (Outcome Mapping, 2018)
FAQ resource produced by IDRC's Evaluation Unit, with contributions from Kaia Ambrose, Sarah, Earl, Jan Van Ongevalle and Julius Nyangaga. We've added it here to answer some of your OM related questions.

Knowledge Management strategies and processes in Agile Software Development: a systematic literature review - Ouriques, Raquel Andrade Barros; Wnuk, Krzysztof; Gorschek, Tony; Svensson, Richard Berntsson (CoRR, 2018)
Knowledge-intensive companies that adopt Agile Software Development (ASD) relay on efficient implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) strategies to promotes different Knowledge Processes (KPs) to gain competitive advantage. This study aims to

VOICES - On speaking, mediation, representation and listening - Oswald, Katy (Think Piece, 2014)

Which Voices Are Heard and By Whom? - Oswald, Katy (Making All Voices Count, 2014)

Monitoring and Adaptive Management - Ossi, Damien (District of Columbia Wildlife Action Plan - 2015, 2015)

Planning & Navigating Social Change - Tools for Pacific voyagers - Orr, Douglas Epeli; Cavatore, Maria; Aston, Tom (Oxfam, 2019)
Those working to advance social change in the Pacific must understand, work with and respond to the complex and changing relationships and dynamics of power that exist within such networks, and situate their work in the context of decolonisation and self-determination. But the approaches typically used by NGOs to plan our projects and programs have failed to give due attention to these dynamics. The result is that our projects fall short of achieving their promise, despite being technically sound and logical. In this guide, we aim to provide a process and tools that prioritise and draw out the rich, often implicit, knowledge that Pacific Islanders have about our contexts to plan and manage social change initiatives in a manner that values and responds to this ocean of relationships. Drawing from these relationship-based and voyaging traditions, we emphasise the need to: • frame change in terms of change in people; e.g. change in the situation of groups of people and change in terms of the actions of people; • identify a course towards a particular ‘change destination’; • identify the signs to read that will help you determine where you are on that course; • be constantly attentive to the context as you make the journey, and • be ready to adjust your course in response to changes in your context. To support this way of working, we have selected a number of tools from approaches that we believe fit. In particular, we have drawn from the following approaches: • Thinking and Working Politically and other ‘politically aware’ approaches that recognise that the success of a development initiative will be determined by the interplay of relationships of power within a particular context, not just by having the right technical solution; • Outcome mapping because of its focus on people and relationships, and on identifying and supporting needed changes in the behaviour of specific actors in relation to others. This is key, because it’s individuals who deliver services, individuals who decide whether to allocate budget and resources to address a problem, and individuals who make the choice to believe whether a service is relevant to solving their issues; • Adaptive management because of its recognition that development initiatives take place within complex and changing systems and need to adjust to these and that this requires ongoing learning and adaptation.

‘Learning journeys’ for adaptive management – Where does it take us? - Ørnemark, Charlotte (GPSA Note 12, 2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

What about the results? Lessons from long-term process support to strengthen results-based management (RBM) for Swedish framework NGOs operating in Western Balkans - Ørnemark, Charlotte (NCG, 2012)
The observations and lessons outlined in this report should be seen as a contribution to the on-going learning and reflections in a wider debate on how to assess and monitor results from support to CSOs involved in complex social change processes (as opposed to those involved in more ‘classical’ service delivery and more linear development assistance). These lessons, though directly emerging from the consultancy to provide long-term RBM support to the FOs and their local CSO partners in Western Balkans, also draws on previous experiences and similar lessons from on-going initiatives. In brief, these lessons call for a certain ‘paradigm shift’ in the way we (as development professionals) regard and support RBM for actors involved in less tangible social change processes in highly contested political spaces. Some of these shifts, outlined in more detail in different sections of this report, are summarised below:  From a linear, aggregated cause-and-effect thinking around RBM to one that is linked to human factors and is embedded in systems,  From pushing the burden of reporting down in the system to a clearer division of labour between donors, recipient governments, intermediary agents like framework NGOs (FOs) and implementing CSOs with each actor using its comparative advantage and appropriate role in the RBM process and for its own learning,  From operating in programming and results frameworks where outcomes and impact are largely assumed to be predictable to setting up systems that deal with uncertainty and that capture emerging result patterns through tracking of gradual changes,  From a project/programme perspective to a focus on institutions and systems as actors and arenas for change, where organisations are enabled to act as change agents towards clearly identified processes of social transformation,  From SMART to REAL results frameworks – although SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) principles are always good to keep in mind for the formulation of goals and indicators, the danger of coming up with fictive measuring frameworks calls for a more systematic incorporation of ‘real’ concerns, including making RBM processes rights-based, embedded in local realities (and empowering for those involved), aligned to national reform efforts and national and international human rights commitments, and learning-oriented for all different levels of operations.

“Shared learning” for building urban climate resilience – experiences from Asian cities - Orleans Reed, Sarah; Friend, Richard; Toan, Vu Canh; Thinphanga, Pakamas; Sutarto, Ratri; Singh, Dilip (Environment and Urbanization, 2013)
This paper considers how resilience thinking and, in particular, its emphasis on learning has been applied in 10 cities in Vietnam, India, Thailand and Indonesia. Applying a “shared learning” approach in the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) has helped to create or strengthen networks, build appreciation for complexity and uncertainty among stakeholders, provide a space for deliberating concepts such as vulnerability and resilience, and build knowledge and capacities for stakeholders to engage and represent their own interests. Shared learning approaches face considerable challenges navigating politicized urban environments, in which the nature and value of existing systems − and therefore the value of building resilience − are contested. This article suggests that deliberate, strategic intervention by facilitators may contribute to more transformative change on behalf of equitable, socially just outcomes – and thus cautions against seeing urban climate vulnerability as a technical challenge, or shared learning as a “toolkit” for building resilience.

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

Modern Slavery Prevention and Responses in South Asia: An Evidence Map - Oosterhoff, Pauline; Yunus, Raudah; Jensen, Charity; Somerwell, Francis; Pocock, Nicola (DFID, 2018)
The Asia Pacific region has the highest numbers of both slavery and child labour victims in the world. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 16.5 million and 8.4 million persons were in situations of forced labour and forced marriage respectively in Asia Pacific, among 40.3 million in modern slavery globally (ILO & Walk Free Foundation 2017). Although there is a growing body of research and evaluations on specific sub-sectors and interest in the worst forms of labour exploitation, there has not yet been a systematic scoping or synthesis of studies that would help policymakers understand ‘what works’ to reduce the prevalence of “Modern Slavery”2(MS) in the countries of interest to DFID (India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan). India alone is estimated to have the largest number of people in modern slavery in the world with nearly 8 million persons living in modern slavery, followed by 3.2 million, 592,000 and 171,000 in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal respectively (Walk Free Foundation 2018). While systematic reviews on interventions to reduce prevalence of trafficking, forced or bonded labour or slavery exist, these have not focused on the target countries of interest to DFID. Previous systematic reviews have focussed on particular types of MS, such as cross border sexual exploitation globally (van der Laan et al. 2011), labour exploitation in Europe (Cockbain et al. 2018) or community based interventions for safer migration programming in low and middle income countries (LMICs) (Zimmerman et al. 2016). Several systematic reviews focus specifically on health needs and post-trafficking care or interventions (Ottisova et al. 2016; Muraya & Fry 2016; Hemmings et al. 2016; Dell et al. 2017), and research methods and tools used in trafficking in persons (TIP) and health research (Cannon et al. 2018; Doherty et al. 2016). A recent global review and evidence map of MS interventions found some interventions in the target countries, but the outcomes were not specified (Bryant & Joudo 2018). In this Evidence Map, we address this gap in evidence for India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan specifically, scoping the range of Modern Slavery interventions and outcomes for specific target populations (survivors, employers, landlords, services providers, criminal justice officials) and at different levels (individual, community, state). This map is foremost targeted to DFID and its partners in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan to inform evidence-based policy making. We hope that it is also useful to academics and practitioners working to address modern slavery, or in intervention areas or locations described.

Using Participatory Statistics to Examine the Impact of Interventions to Eradicate Slavery: Lessons from the Field - Oosterhoff, P.; Bharadwaj, S.; Burns, D.; Raj, A. M.; Nanda, R. B.; Narayanan, P. (2016)
This CDI Practice Paper by Pauline Oosterhoff, Sowmyaa Bharadwaj, Danny Burns, Aruna Mohan Raj, Rituu B. Nanda and Pradeep Narayanan reflects on the use of participatory statistics to assess the impact of interventions to eradicate slavery and bonded labour. It deals with: (1) the challenges of estimating changes in the magnitude of various forms of slavery; (2) the potential of combining participatory approaches with statistical principles to generate robust data for assessing impact of slavery eradication; and (3) the practical and ethical questions in relation to working with people living within a context of modern slavery. The paper draws lessons from the realities of using participatory statistics to support the evaluation of a slavery eradication programme in North India.

Systems Practice - Omidyar Group (The Omidyar Group, 2017)

Evaluating the Design of Behavior Change Interventions: A Case Study of Rhino Horn in Vietnam - Olmedo, Alegría; Sharif, Vian; Milner‐Gulland, E. J. (Conservation Letters, 2018)
Behavioral change interventions are increasingly widely used in conservation. Several projects addressing rhino horn consumption were recently launched in Vietnam. We used key informant interviews, document analysis, and marketing theory to explore their strategies for intervention design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. We developed a framework to evaluate whether they followed best practice and identify implementation challenges. Interventions could make greater use of key project design steps, including basing interventions on robust research to understand the behavior in question, identifying the target audience whose behavior interventions aim to change, and developing measures that can provide reliable evidence of success or not. Challenges include the need for law enforcement to complement campaigns; improving cooperation between NGOs; and clearly defining aims of demand-reduction initiatives. Using best practice from other fields and considering demand reduction within the wider context of wildlife, trade policy will help address these challenges.
Keywords: Awareness; Ilegal wildlife trade; Project design; demand reduction; social marketing

The limits of agile - can we apply it to policy making? - Ollerhead, Lisa (2015)
Bringing new policy tools and techniques to the UK Government

Open Governance Research Exchange - OGRX (Your hub for quantitative and qualitative research on innovations in governance, 2017)
Your hub for quantitative and qualitative research on innovations in governance.

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

Minister of International Development and La Francophonie Mandate Letter (November 12, 2015) - Office of the Prime Minister (2015)
Dear Minister:I am honoured that you have agreed to serve Canadians as Minister of International Development and La Francophonie. You will be part of a strong team of ministers led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Quality standards for development evaluation - OECD; Development Assistance Committee (OECD, 2010)
Based on a broad international consultative process, the DAC Quality Standards for Development Evaluation are a reference guide to good practice in development evaluation. With a view to improving the quality of evaluation processes and products, and facilitating collaboration, this reference guide lays out standards for each phase of a typical evaluation process: from defining purpose, to planning, designing, implementing, reporting, and learning from and using evaluation results.

Case studies of results-based management by providers: Canada - OECD (OECD, 2017)

Case studies of results-based management by providers: New Zealand - OECD (OECD, 2017)

Case studies of results-based management by providers: Sweden - OECD (OECD, 2017)

Case studies of results-based management by providers: Switzerland - OECD (OECD, 2017)

Case studies of results-based management by providers: The Netherlands - OECD (OECD, 2017)

Case studies of results-based management by providers: United Kingdom - OECD (OECD, 2017)

Case studies of results-based management by providers: World Bank Group - OECD (OECD, 2017)

DAC - Mid-term Peer Review of Switzaerland - 2016 - OECD (OECD, 2016)

DAC Peer Review of Switzerland - 2013 - OECD (OECD, 2013)

DAC Peer Review of Switzerland - 2019 - OECD (OECD, 2019)

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

OECD Development Assistance Committee Peer Review of Canada - OECD (OECD, 2018)

Systems Approaches to Public Sector Challenges: Working with Change - OECD (OECD, 2017)

Doing Development Differently: Who we are, What we’re doing, What we’re learning - ODI (ODI, 2016)
In November 2014, the doing development differently community got together in Harvard to discuss what successful development interventions look like. Two years on, our community is broader than aid. It's broader than donors. It's about all organisations delivering change, producing real solutions to real problems that have real impact. It's about building trust, empowering people and promoting sustainability. Over the past two years, the community has been putting these ideas into practice across the world – being honest about what we are learning, including where we are not getting things right. This document aims to be an entry point for anyone interested in doing development differently. It explores the things that could be stopping you including: You are constrained by a disabling environment. You have strict reporting requirements. People aren't sold on the idea. It's easier to do things the way you've always done it. It's difficult to do in practice. If you are facing one, several, or all of these constraints, this document gives you a place to start. Using 43 case studies from practitoners within donors, governments, implementing organisations and NGOs across the globe, we aim to draw out some key lessons learnt, and give some advice for people considering this approach. These case studies are split across five categories: Swimming against the tide. Working in and with government. Feedback loops and data. Organisational change. Diffusion. Finally, if you want to know more, the document concludes with a suggested list of blogs and reports which explain these concepts in more detail.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

The Methods Lab evaluation toolkit - ODI (2016)
The Methods Lab develops and tests flexible approaches to impact evaluation for interventions that are harder to evaluate because of their complexity. This toolkit brings together analysis, guidance and templates for anyone: planning an impact evaluation designing a monitoring and evaluation system working in a consortium or managing a portfolio of projects

Evaluating Humanitarian Innovation - Obrecht, Alice; Warner, Alexandra; Dillon, Neil (HIF-ALNAP working paper, 2017)

More than just luck: Innovation in humanitarian action - Obrecht, Alice; Warner, Alexandra T. (Humanitarian Innovation Fund, 2016)
In South Sudan, a new water treatment system that provides a community with more clean water at a lower cost. In Sierra Leone, a poster explaining how to prevent the...

Making humanitarian response more flexible: Challenges and questions - Obrecht, Alice; Bourne, S. (ALNAP/ODI, 2018)

Dynamic gridlock: Adaptive Humanitarian Action in the Democratic Republic of Congo - Obrecht, Alice (ALNAP Country Study, 2018)

Doing legal empowerment differently: Learning from pro-poor litigation in Bangladesh - O'Neil, Tam; Valters, Craig; Farid, Cynthia (ODI, 2015)
Marginalised groups and their allies can, and do, use the law and justice systems, including public interest litigation, to improve their access to rights, goods and services.  Yet there is no automatic link between legal action and improved outcomes for poor people.  Where some minimum conditions are met – a progressive legal framework, a sympathetic judiciary and legal advocacy organisation – pro-poor litigation is a potential tool in disputes over rights and resources.  But concrete benefits for poor people also requires state action to enforce progressive rulings.  Much depends on whether claimants, legal activists and state reformers cooperate around shared interests, and whether activists can negotiate power and interest structures to motivate government action to implement rulings.  Effective strategies are those that link litigation with grassroots legal action and other forms of political and social activism and advocacy.  Donors need to fund legal advocacy organisations in ways that enable them to select social issues that are locally relevant and political feasible – and allows activists and reformers to work in politically smart and adaptive ways.

Using adaptive development to support feminist action - O’Neil, Tam (ODI, 2016)
This paper looks at how adaptive development is being applied by gender programmes and argues that gender and adaptive development communities have much to offer each other.

Mapping Context for Social Accountability: A resource paper - O'Meally, Sion C. (The World Bank, 2013)

Is It Time for a New Paradigm for "Citizen Engagement"? The Role of Context and What the Evidence Tells Us - O'Meally, Simon (People, Spaces, Deliberation, 2013)
The meteoric rise of "citizen engagement" Almost all development agencies promote some form of citizen engagement and accountability, often framed as 'voice', 'demand-side governance', 'demand for good governance' or 'social accountability'. The current World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, recently put it that, "citizen voice can be pivotal in providing the demand-side pressure on government, service providers, and organizations such as the World Bank that is needed to encourage full and swift response to citizen needs". There has, in turn, been a mushrooming of useful operational guidance on different "tools" for social accountability - i.e. steps, inputs and methodologies - that guide discrete interventions, ranging from citizen score cards to participatory expenditure tracking. One might, however, be forgiven for thinking that some of the debates on citizen engagement need an injection of realism; especially as contextual factors can make or break a "tool's" implementation. A review of experience to date would be one good place to start.

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

Using adaptive monitoring, evaluation and learning in programme design - Nzegwu, Femi (INASP, 2018)

Working the System: What We’ve Learned About Strengthening Accountability - Nugent, Sarah (Chemonics International, 2018)
When designing a new project, how often do we set out to strengthen a particular actor’s or institution’s ability to “hold government to account?” What does that mean exactly? Maybe the better question to ask is: what is the most effective way to strengthen accountability in our development work? And then, what does it look …

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

The Design of Everyday Things, revised and expanded edition - Norman, Donald A. (MIT Press, 2013)
Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we try to figure out the shower control in a hotel or attempt to navigate an unfamiliar television set or stove. When The Design of Everyday Things was published in 1988, cognitive scientist Don Norman provocatively proposed that the fault lies not in ourselves, but in design that ignores the needs and psychology of people. Fully revised to keep the timeless principles of psychology up to date with ever-changing new technologies, The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful appeal for good design, and a reminder of how -- and why -- some products satisfy while others only disappoint.

Theory of change in ten steps - Noble, James (NPC, 2019)

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.

Supporting accountability in fragile settings: A review for the Somalia Implementation and Analysis in Action of Accountability Programme - Nixon, Hamish; Buffardi, Anne; Wales, Joseph; Pasanen, Tiina (ODI, 2017)

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

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

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

Life and death in the App Store - Newton, Casey (The Verge, 2016)
As last year began, the app developer Pixite held its company retreat at a converted Old West movie set outside of Palm Springs. They spent a few days dreaming about the future while eating...

Designing for Public Services - Nesta (Nesta/IDEO, 2016)

DIY - Development Impact and You: Practical Tools to Trigger and Support Social Innovation - Nesta (NESTA, 2014)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Skills, atitudes and behaviours that fuel public innovation - a guide to getting the most from Nesta's Competency Framework for Experimenting and Public Problem Solving - Nesta (Nesta, 2018)

States of Change - Learning programme - Nesta (Nesta, 2018)

The Clash of the Counter-bureaucracy and Development - Natsios, Andrew (The Center for Global Development, 2010)
In this essay, Andrew Natsios gives a first-hand account of what he finds most hinders USAID—layers of bureaucracy that misguide and derail development work.

Participation and Power in Climate Change Adaptation Policies: Vulnerability in Food Security Programs in Nepal - Nagoda, Sigrid; Nightingale, Andrea J. (World Development, 2017)
The article explores the moments wherein participatory approaches in climate change adaptation (CCA) policies contribute to reinforcing, rather than transforming, the underlying causes of vulnerability. Using the case of food insecure households in the district of Humla in northwestern Nepal, the study demonstrates that the same social and power relations that are driving local vulnerability dynamics, such as caste, gender, and access to social and political networks, also play important roles in shaping the impact of CCA policies. By tracing Nepal’s CCA programs, starting with the local level, through district to international-national level dynamics, the study adds insights into the barriers to exclusion that embed power relations all the way through the chain of policy development. The purpose is to better understand how CCA can perpetuate rather than alleviate the conditions that create differential vulnerability patterns at village level. It raises questions about how whether CCA programs are an adequate response to increasing vulnerability for some of the world’s most marginalized people.

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.

TICTeC 2018 - The Making All Voices Count programme: new lessons about donor-funded civic tech - mySociety (2018)
Keywords: Accountability; Civic Tech; IDS; TICTeC; transparency

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

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

The open book of social innovation - Murray, Robin; Caulier-Grice, Julie; Mulgan, Geoff (Young Foundation & NESTA, 2010)

The Promise of Lean Experimentation - Murray, Peter; Ma, Steve (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2015)
By adopting a model from business, nonprofit organizations can launch, test, and implement new programs and services more efficiently. Includes magazine extras.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Six things that help grant-makers learn and adapt - Murray, Aoife (Itad, 2017)
There’s an emerging body of literature identifying key strategies that can both improve learning and enable adaptive management amongst grant-makers. We recently reviewed a host of publications from eight grant-making organisations. Those organisations have diverse aims and approaches but we’ve identified six common themes that stand out: Strong leadership and facilitation enables successful learning and …

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

Systems Innovation - Discussion Paper - Mulgan, Geoff; Leadbeater, Charlie (NESTA, 2013)
Introduction Over the past few years there has been growing interest in systemic innovation. We are defining this as an interconnected set of innovations, where each influences the other, with innovation both in the parts of the system and in the ways in which they interconnect. Yet rather than simply theorising, we want to make this practical. We want to explore the potential of systemic innovation to help tackle some of the key challenges the UK currently faces, from supporting an ageing population to tackling unemployment. We would also like to open up the discussion, to engage with the wide and diverse range of experts already working this space to help sharpen up thinking about systemic innovation and influence practical work to advance it. About this paper The two essays contained within this paper are intended to contribute to this debate. The first paper by Geoff Mulgan addresses a number of questions about systemic – or ‘joined–up’ – innovation, asking what it means to truly transform a system, encompassing the means, methods, and actions needed to realise its potential. The second paper from Charlie Leadbeater argues that companies, governments, cities, and entire societies need to move from seeing innovation in products and services as a source of competitive advantage, to focussing on innovation with entire systems. Our next steps: helping make systemic innovation useful and useable This report is just the start. We want to work with academics, practitioners, policymakers, and others in the field, to help realise the great potential of connecting and joining up innovative products, services and processes so that the whole is more than the parts. Over the coming months we will be building upon the rich and diverse literature available (we have start collating this as an annex to this paper), as well as practitioner experience, to ensure we understand systems more rigorously, as well as the skills, capabilities, methods and means needed to help them change for the better.

Collective intelligence and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals - Mulgan, Geoff (nesta, 2018)
Collective intelligence and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Supporting the policy environment for economic development (SPEED+) - Strategic Review Report - MSI (USAID, 2019)
Donor-funded policy reform has a long history in Mozambique, with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) efforts dating to the mid-1990s. Many laws and regulations adopted during the past quarter century are the consequence of these efforts. And yet, even with several years of robust economic growth, Mozambique has not experienced the broad economic transformation that policy reforms can trigger: per capita income in 2017 was $519 and more than 80 percent of the country lived on less than two dollars per day. The country ranks 180 out of 189 on the Human Development Index and 135 out of 180 on the World Bank’s Doing Business Index. Supporting the Policy Environment for Economic Development (SPEED+), a $37 million, four-year, USAID-funded program, represents the latest iteration of USAID’s policy reform efforts. SPEED+ began in August 2016 and is scheduled to run through August 2020. As the program passed the midway point, USAID commissioned Management Systems International (MSI) to conduct a strategic review (SR) of the SPEED+ program, with the objectives of advising on: • how to maximize the impact of SPEED+ during its final 18 months; • what type of follow-on program USAID should consider; and • what broader lessons can be drawn from SPEED+’s experience in Mozambique.

Learning how to go local: Lessons from six learning journeys for the Open Government Partnership - Moses, Michael; Soal, Sue (2017)
This brief reviews the evidence from Learning to Make All Voices Count (L-MAVC), a programme funded by Making All Voices Count, and implemented in collaboration with Global Integrity. L-MAVC intended to support six Making All Voices Count grantees, working in five countries, in co-creating and applying a participatory, learning-centred, and adaptive approach to strengthening citizen engagement in governance processes in their contexts, including with respect to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The evidence from L-MAVC suggests that supporting citizen engagement with, and use of, OGP, and improving the extent to which OGP commitments are shaped by and matter to citizens in subnational districts, is not straightforward. Findings suggest that efforts to broaden and deepen citizen engagement with OGP, including at subnational levels, may be more effective when combined with support that helps local OGP champions iteratively learn and adapt, and discover and apply localisation models that fit best in their contexts. OGP and its partners may strengthen the impact of the initiative, and indeed, the impact of those working to leverage OGP at and below country level, by making structured learning support more available to local reformers. Targeted advocacy, focused on institutionalising collaborative OGP processes, and on linking subnational action with National Action Plans (NAPs), may also be useful.

Learning to Make All Voices Count: Lessons for OGP, donors, and practitioners - Moses, Michael; Soal, Sue (2017)
The Open Government Partnership (OGP), donors and multilaterals, and social accountability practitioners across the world are among various constituencies attempting to harness and actualise emerging insights about the nature of successful governance reform. But each of these groups faces challenges as they do so. This brief reviews the evidence from Learning to Make All Voices Count (L-MAVC), a programme funded by Making All Voices Count, and implemented in collaboration with Global Integrity. L-MAVC intended to support six Making All Voices Count grantees, working in five countries, in co-creating and applying a participatory, learning-centred, and adaptive approach to strengthening citizen engagement in governance processes in their contexts, including with respect to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Two sets of lessons emerge from the experience of L-MAVC. First, supporting citizen engagement and government accountability in subnational contexts, and localising OGP in ways that matter to citizens, is not straightforward. Doing so successfully entails engaging with, navigating and shaping political and power dynamics in those contexts, and iteratively adapting to emerging lessons and challenges. Second, the effectiveness of adaptive ways of working depends in part on the extent to which they offer opportunities for cross-context peer learning, support the regular collection and use of data, and are themselves adaptive. These lessons have implications for the broader community of actors working to support governance reform, including OGP and its partners, donors and multilateral institutions, and practitioners and policy-makers. If these actors are to contribute more effectively to reforms that affect citizens’ lives, substantial changes – with respect to the nature of support provided to domestic stakeholders, grant-making practices, and practitioner approaches – may be warranted.

Supporting local learning and adaptation: understanding the effectiveness of adaptive processes - Moses, Michael; Soal, Sue (2017)
This brief reviews the evidence from Learning to Make All Voices Count (L-MAVC), a programme funded by Making All Voices Count, and implemented in collaboration with Global Integrity. L-MAVC intended to support six Making All Voices Count grantees, working in five countries, in co-creating and applying a participatory, learning-centred, and adaptive approach to strengthening citizen engagement in governance processes in their contexts, including with respect to the Open Government Partnership (OGP).

Learning to make all voices count: Lessons and reflection on localising the Open Government Partnership - Moses, Michael (2017)
This report reviews the evidence from Learning to Make All Voices Count (L-MAVC), a programme funded by Making All Voices Count and implemented in collaboration with Global Integrity. L-MAVC intended to support six Making All Voices Count grantees, working in five countries, in co-creating and applying a participatory, learning-centred, and adaptive approach to strengthening citizen engagement in governance processes in their contexts, including with respect to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Two overarching sets of lessons emerge from the experiences of L-MAVC grantees. First, supporting citizen engagement and government accountability in subnational contexts, and localising the OGP in ways that matter to citizens, is not straightforward. Doing so successfully entails engaging with, navigating and shaping political and power dynamics in those contexts, and iteratively adapting to emerging lessons and challenges. Second, the effectiveness of adaptive ways of working depends in part on the extent to which they offer opportunities for cross-context peer learning, support the regular collection and use of data, and are themselves adaptive. These lessons have implications for the broader community of actors working to support governance reform, including the OGP and its partners, donors and multilateral institutions, and practitioners and policy-makers. The evidence from L-MAVC suggests that if these actors are to contribute more effectively to reforms that affect citizens’ lives, substantial changes – with respect to the nature of support provided to domestic stakeholders and to grant-making practices – may be warranted

Rapid experiments with a purpose - Moses, Michael (BEAM Exchange, 2017)
New insights, opinions and perspectives on market systems development, from experts and practitioners.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

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

Conclusion: Agency in the face of complexity and the future of assumption-aware evaluation practice - Morrow, Nathan; Nkwake, Apollo M. (Evaluation and Program Planning, 2016)
This final chapter in the volume pulls together common themes from the diverse set of articles by a group of eight authors in this issue, and presents some reflections on the next steps for improving the ways in which evaluators work with assumptions. Collectively, the authors provide a broad overview of existing and emerging approaches to the articulation and use of assumptions in evaluation theory and practice. The authors reiterate the rationale and key terminology as a common basis for working with assumption in program design and evaluation. They highlight some useful concepts and categorizations to promote more rigorous treatment of assumptions in evaluation. A three-tier framework for fostering agency for assumption-aware evaluation practice is proposed-agency for themselves (evaluators); agency for others (stakeholders); and agency for standards and principles.
Keywords: Agency; Complexity

Six Simple Rules: How to Manage Complexity without Getting Complicated - Morieux, Yves; Tollman, Peter (Harvard Business Review Press, 2014)
New tools for managing complexityDoes your organization manage complexity by making things more complicated? If so, you are not alone.According to The Boston Consulting Group’s fascinating Complexity Index, business complexity has increased sixfold during the past sixty years. And, all the while, organizational complicatedness—that is, the number of structures, processes, committees, decision-making forums, and systems—has increased by a whopping factor of thirty-five. In their attempt to respond to the increasingly complex performance requirements they face, company leaders have created an organizational labyrinth that makes it more and more difficult to improve productivity and to pursue innovation. It also disengages and demotivates the workforce.Clearly it’s time for leaders to stop trying to manage complexity with their traditional tools and instead better leverage employees' intelligence. This book shows you how and explains the implications for designing and leading organizations.The way to manage complexity, the authors argue, is neither with the hard solutions of another era nor with the soft solutions—such as team building and feel-good “people initiatives”—that often follow in their wake. Based on social sciences (notably economics, game theory, and organizational sociology) and The Boston Consulting Group’s work with more than five hundred companies in more than forty countries and in various industries, authors Yves Morieux and Peter Tollman recommend six simple rules to manage complexity without getting complicated.Showing why the rules work and how to put them into practice, Morieux and Tollman give managers a much-needed tool to reinvigorate people in the face of seemingly endless complexity. Included are detailed examples from companies that have achieved a multiplicative effect on performance by using them.It’s time to manage complexity better. Employ these six simple rules to foster autonomy and cooperation and to effectively handle business complexity. As a result, you will improve productivity, innovate more, reengage your workforce, and seize opportunities to create competitive advantage.
Keywords: Complexity; Design Thinking

Embracing the Chaotic: Cynefin and Humanitarian Response - Morealtitude (WanderLust, 2010)
Note: Many thanks to Dave Snowden for his willingness to comment on this article prior to release Because I’m always a little behind the eight-ball, a friend of mine* recently introduced me to the …

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

Lifestyle politics and the concept of political participation - Moor, Joost de (Acta Politica, 2017)
Van Deth’s comprehensive ‘conceptual map of political participation’ has reinstated a lively debate about the concept of political participation, and provides some compelling solutions to it. However, an important question that has been raised is whether van Deth’s map actually achieves its main goal of unambiguously identifying and classifying emerging, complex types of participation, like online political activism – or lifestyle politics. To contribute to this debate, this article aims to evaluate the usefulness of van Deth’s approach for the analysis of lifestyle politics. Such an evaluation requires a clear classification of lifestyle politics. This, however, is still missing from the literature. The second aim of this article, therefore, is to identify and classify different types of lifestyle politics. On the basis of a literature review, this article argues that lifestyle politics are often enacted throughout different private, public and institutional arenas, and that they are often targeted at various social, economic and political actors at once. Applying van Deth’s conceptual map to these empirical realities, then, suggests that it cannot always account for their complexity sufficiently. Therefore, this article proposes a modification of van Deth’s framework that increases its usefulness for analyzing emerging, complex political participation repertoires.

EPE Week: Lee-Anne Molony on Collaborative Outcomes Reporting - Molony, L A (AEA365 a Tip-a-day by and for Evaluators, 2013)
This AEA365 blog, written by Lee-Anne Molony a Principal Consultant at Clear Horizon, provides a brief overview on Collaborative Outcomes Reporting (COR).

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

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

Quality Flaws: Issues and Challenges in Software Development - Mohan, P.; Shankar, A. Udaya; JayaSriDevi, K. (Computer Engineering and Intelligent Systems, 2012)
A statement “Prevention is better than cure” for illnesses in medical sciences also applies to the software development life cycle in terms of software defects. A defect is a deviation from actual functionality of the application in terms of the correctness and completeness of the specification of the customer requirements. Defective software fails to meet its customer requirements leading to the development of applications with poor quality. Quality is a top priority in every enterprise these days. Organizations struggle in a treadmill race to deliver quality software to stay ahead with new technology, deal with accumulated development backlogs, handle customer issues as software teams work as hard as they can make their organizations stay alive and competitive in the market place. Software companies face an immense pressure to virtually release a bug-free product or a software package. The culture of an organization is a critical success factor in the efforts of process improvement. The paper aims at assessing quality as a function for monitoring and measuring the strength of development processes and any successful application development enterprise requires an unambiguous understanding of customer expectation and maximizing participation of customers in the development activities thereby ensuring that people involved in development activities do the right thing and do the thing right for delivering high quality software . Keywords: Software development, process improvement, software defect, bug-free product, software package

Using elements of DCED Standards for CLA - Mitra, Bilash; Jalil, Mohammad Muaz (2018)
Introduction used in the DCED-BEAM seminar in Nairobi

(Mis)communicating climate change? Why online adaptation databases may fail to catalyze adaptation action - Mitchell, Carrie L.; Burch, Sarah L.; Driscoll, Patrick A. (Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2016)
Over the last decade a plethora of action-oriented research projects has been conducted in developing countries, exploring how to effectively adapt to the anticipated impacts of climate change. Many intergovernmental agencies and development organizations have chosen to disseminate their research results via online databases. It is unclear, however, whether these databases are useful in terms of actual adaptation planning and implementation. A systematic review of online databases has found at least 64 databases and tools online related to climate change adaptation. Despite the abundance of databases, this analysis reveals that the existing body of online databases generally lack the structure and mechanics to identify, extract, and synthesize both effective and ineffective climate change adaptation practices, projects, programs, and policies. Even relatively basic information, such as identification of projects’ projected versus actual costs is absent, which are crucial decision-making criteria particularly in developing country contexts where resource constraints are significant. In this paper we evaluate these online tools with a focus on identifying features that potentially could contribute to knowledge sharing and successful exchange of climate change adaptation projects and practices within a developing country context. We conclude the paper with recommendations for how to improve efforts to communicate climate change research, such as more nuanced needs assessments of potential users of databases. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:600–613. doi: 10.1002/wcc.401 This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Institutions for Adaptation Climate and Development > Knowledge and Action in Development Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Knowledge and Practice

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.

‘You Have to Raise a Fist!’: Seeing and Speaking to the State in South Africa - Mills, Elizabeth (IDS Bulletin, 2016)

Buzzing Communities: How to build bigger, better, and more active online communities - Millington, Richard (Feverbee, 2012)
How to Build Bigger, Better, and More Active Online CommunitiesBuzzing Communities cuts through the fluff to offer a clear process for creating thriving online communities. This book combines a century of proven science, dozens of real-life examples, practical tips, and trusted community-building methods. This step-by-step guide includes a lifecycle for tracking your progress and a framework for managing your organization's community efforts. This Book Will Help You to Understand what the members of your community really want. Dramatically increase the number of newcomers that become regulars. Avoid the mistakes most organizations make when they try to build online communities. Develop a fantastic, user-friendly website for your members. Grow your online community to critical mass and beyond Keep members engaged and active in your community. Measure the community's return on investment and explain the benefits to your organization.

The Indispensable Community: Why Some Brand Communities Thrive When Others Perish - Millington, Richard (Feverbee, 2018)
How to Build Bigger, Better, and More Active Online CommunitiesBuzzing Communities cuts through the fluff to offer a clear process for creating thriving online communities. This book combines a century of proven science, dozens of real-life examples, practical tips, and trusted community-building methods. This step-by-step guide includes a lifecycle for tracking your progress and a framework for managing your organization's community efforts. This Book Will Help You to Understand what the members of your community really want. Dramatically increase the number of newcomers that become regulars. Avoid the mistakes most organizations make when they try to build online communities. Develop a fantastic, user-friendly website for your members. Grow your online community to critical mass and beyond Keep members engaged and active in your community. Measure the community's return on investment and explain the benefits to your organization.

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

The behaviour change wheel: A new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions - Michie, Susan; van Stralen, Maartje M; West, Robert (Implementation Science : IS, 2011)
Background Improving the design and implementation of evidence-based practice depends on successful behaviour change interventions. This requires an appropriate method for characterising interventions and linking them to an analysis of the targeted behaviour. There exists a plethora of frameworks of behaviour change interventions, but it is not clear how well they serve this purpose. This paper evaluates these frameworks, and develops and evaluates a new framework aimed at overcoming their limitations. Methods A systematic search of electronic databases and consultation with behaviour change experts were used to identify frameworks of behaviour change interventions. These were evaluated according to three criteria: comprehensiveness, coherence, and a clear link to an overarching model of behaviour. A new framework was developed to meet these criteria. The reliability with which it could be applied was examined in two domains of behaviour change: tobacco control and obesity. Results Nineteen frameworks were identified covering nine intervention functions and seven policy categories that could enable those interventions. None of the frameworks reviewed covered the full range of intervention functions or policies, and only a minority met the criteria of coherence or linkage to a model of behaviour. At the centre of a proposed new framework is a 'behaviour system' involving three essential conditions: capability, opportunity, and motivation (what we term the 'COM-B system'). This forms the hub of a 'behaviour change wheel' (BCW) around which are positioned the nine intervention functions aimed at addressing deficits in one or more of these conditions; around this are placed seven categories of policy that could enable those interventions to occur. The BCW was used reliably to characterise interventions within the English Department of Health's 2010 tobacco control strategy and the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence's guidance on reducing obesity. Conclusions Interventions and policies to change behaviour can be usefully characterised by means of a BCW comprising: a 'behaviour system' at the hub, encircled by intervention functions and then by policy categories. Research is needed to establish how far the BCW can lead to more efficient design of effective interventions.

Design for Sustainability: Countering the Drivers of Unsustainability in Development Projects - Meyer, Isabel; Marais, Mario Alphonso (The Journal of Community Informatics, 2015)
Development projects aim to make a difference in communities. Funders often require that the intervention needs to last, or that it needs to effect change that will last, over an extended period of time. In short, a sustainable difference needs to be made and this is an important measure of success.  However, there are inherent drivers in the combined system of donors and beneficiaries that counter sustainability. This article explores these drivers, and identifies project design elements that need to be in place in order to promote sustainability by countering the drivers. This approach is applied to an education project, and implications for ICT4D projects are developed.
Keywords: Development; Project design; Systems Approaches; sustainability

Sustainability and Value through Improved Decision-making - Meyer, Isabel; Marais, Mario (Designing and implementing an Information and Communication Technology for Rural Education Development (ICT4RED) initiative in a resource-constrained environment: Nciba school district, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 2014)

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.

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.

Report template on integrating impact into an existing monitoring and evaluation system - Methods Lab (2015)
Many development programme staff will commission an impact evaluation towards the end of a project or programme, only to find that the monitoring system did not provide adequate data about implementation, context, baselines or interim results. This tool provides a template outline for a report making recommendations on how to integrate a focus on impact into a programme’s existing monitoring and evaluation system, as the programme moves into a new phase. This template was developed by Anne Buffardi and Tiina Pasanen for use in Methods Lab projects.

Report templates for evaluability assessment - Methods Lab (2015)
An evaluability assessment aims to assess the extent to which, and how best, a project can be evaluated in a reliable and credible fashion. These templates are intended to help anyone conducting an evaluability assessment to structure the final report. This tool was developed by Anne Buffardi and Bronwen McDonald for use in Methods Lab projects. It accompanies The Methods Lab publication ‘Evaluability assessment for impact evaluation: guidance, checklists and decision support’.

Sample agendas for an evaluability assessment stakeholder workshop - Methods Lab (2015)
An evaluability assessment aims to assess the extent to which, and how best, an intervention can be evaluated in a reliable and credible fashion. These sample agendas are intended for people convening key stakeholders (such as project implementation staff and managers, donors and government officials) to discuss the purpose and scope of an impact evaluation and to identify key evaluation questions. This tool was developed by Bronwen McDonald, Anne Buffardi and Irene Guijt for use in Methods Lab projects. It accompanies the Methods Lab publication ‘Evaluability assessment for impact evaluation: guidance, checklists and decision support’.

Sample criteria to select case studies for evaluation - Methods Lab (2018)
Time and budget constraints often mean that organisations are unable to evaluate all of their programmes, and large programmes, operating in multiple locations, are unable to evaluate all project sites. This tool introduces two sets of criteria to support evaluators and programme managers to select case studies or programmes for evaluation: i) information about how relevant or feasible evaluation is for individual programmes, and ii) across the overall portfolio, strategic thinking around what types of cases are most important to understand. This tool was developed by Anne Buffardi, Irene Guijt, Simon Hearn and Tiina Pasanen for use in The Methods Lab projects.

Sample interview questions for evaluability assessment - Methods Lab (2015)

Template concept note for an impact evaluation - Methods Lab (2015)

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

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

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

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

Managing Complexity: Adaptive Management at Mercy Corps - Mercy Corps (2015)
Managing Complexity: Adaptive management at Mercy Corps

Webinar: Operationalizing Adaptive Management: What it takes. Why it matters. - Mercy Corps (Mercy Corps, 2015)
Development actors increasingly agree that managing programs adaptively – especially complex interventions – can improve their effectiveness. A growing body of evidence supports this claim. But what does adaptive management look like in practice? What does it require of managers and donors to make happen? How can we reconfigure incentives and success metrics to support adaptation, while remaining compliant?

The Alignment, Interest and Influence Matrix (AIIM) guidance note - Mendizabal, Enrique (ODI/RAPID, 2010)
In 2007, on the eve of a workshop to introduce a new version of the RAPID approach to DFID policy teams, Enrique Mendizabal and Ben Ramalingam created the Alignment, Interest and Influence Matrix (AIIM), a stakeholder analysis tool that not only helps to identify key stakeholders, but also suggests a possible course of action towards them.

The effect of government responsiveness on future political participation - Mellon, Andrew Jonathan; Sjoberg, Fredrik Matias; Peixoto, Tiago Carneiro (The World Bank, 2015)
What effect does government responsiveness have on political participation? Since the 1940s political scientists have used attitudinal measures of perceived efficacy to explain participation. More recent work has focused on underlying genetic factors that condition citizen engagement. The authors develop a ‘calculus of participation’ that incorporates objective efficacy, the extent to which an individual’s participation actually has an impact, and test the model against behavioral data from FixMyStreet.com (n=399,364). The authors find that a successful first experience using FixMyStreet.com (e.g., reporting a pothole and having it fixed) is associated with a 54 percent increase in the probability of an individual submitting a second report. The authors also show that the experience of government responsiveness to the first report submitted has predictive power over all future report submissions. The findings highlight the importance of government responsiveness for fostering an active citizenry, while demonstrating the value of incidentally collected data to examine participatory behavior at the individual level.

Demanding Good Governance: Lessons from Social Accountability Initiatives in Africa - McNeil, Mary; Malena, Carmen (World Bank Publications, 2010)
Accountability is the cornerstone of good governance. Unless public officials can be held to account, then critical benefits associated with good governance, such as social justice, poverty reduction and development remain elusive. The impacts of non-responsive and unaccountable governance are perhaps most harshly felt by the citizens of Africa, where corruption and governance failures are broadly acknowledged as a principal obstacle to the achievement Over the past decade, a range of social accountability practices―such as participatory budgeting, independent budget analysis, participatory monitoring of public expenditure and citizen evaluation of public services have been experimented with in many Africa countries. Their outcomes and lessons have, thus far, received little attend and documentation. This volume aims to make a contribution towards filling this gap by describing and analyzing a selection of social accountability initiatives from seven Sub-Saharan countries.

Political economy analysis: Topic Guide - Mcloughlin, Claire (GSDRC, University of Birmingham, 2014)
Political economy analysis (PEA) aims to situate development interventions within an understanding of the prevailing political and economic processes in society – specifically, the incentives, relationships, and distribution and contestation of power between different groups and individuals. Such an analysis can support more politically feasible and therefore more effective development strategies by setting realistic expectations …

Scaling Impact: Innovation for the Public Good - McLean, Robert; Gargani, John (Routledge, 2019)
Scaling Impact introduces a new and practical approach to scaling the positive impacts of research and innovation. Inspired by leading scientific and entrepreneurial innovators from across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, this book presents a synthesis of unrivalled diversity and grounded ingenuity. The result is a different perspective on how to achieve impact that matters, and an important challenge to the predominant more-is-better paradigm of scaling. For organisations and individuals working to change the world for the better, scaling impact is a common goal and a well-founded aim. The world is changing rapidly, and seemingly intractable problems like environmental degradation or accelerating inequality press us to do better for each other and our environment as a global community. Challenges like these appear to demand a significant scale of action, and here the authors argue that a more creative and critical approach to scaling is both possible and essential. To encourage uptake and co-development, the authors present actionable principles that can help organisations and innovators design, manage, and evaluate scaling strategies. Scaling Impact is essential reading for development and innovation practitioners and professionals, but also for researchers, students, evaluators, and policymakers with a desire to spark meaningful change.
Keywords: Developing & Emerging Countries

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

Evaluation Building Blocks: A Guide - McKegg, K.; Oakden, J.; Wehipeihana, N.; King, Julian (Kinnect Group, 2018)
This guide presents the Kinnect Group’s approach to evaluation. Developed through ten years of collaborative work, it has been well tested. While there are many other guides to evaluation and different ways to do it, our approach emphasises the place of evaluative reasoning in evaluation. The guide draws on the work of many evaluation theorists, as well as our practice-based body of knowledge. We hope that using the building blocks as explained in the guide will help you in your endeavour to do credible and useful evaluation. We find this approach works for us. Our clients tell us it gives them meaningful and insightful findings that they can use to take action. Our view to intellectual property is simple. What you read is yours to use. We just ask that you cite the guide when you draw from it. For those of you who engage with this guide and use it in your practice, we look forward to hearing from you. We are particularly interested in feedback where you find aspects of the guide work well for you. In that way we can all continue to build and evolve our practice.

Lessons from a trial of the Success Case Method - McGuinness, Liz (Better Evaluation, 2017)
The Success Case Method approach is useful for documenting stories of impact and for understanding the factors that help or hinder impact. It is particularly useful for uncovering the contextual forces that influence impact. Originally designed for evaluating corporate training programs, the Success Case Method is now being applied to other programs including international development interventions. Last year, I provided technical assistance to a pilot of the Success Case Method as part of the USAID-funded Complexity-Aware M&E Trials.

Shifting Power? Assessing the Impact of Transparency and Accountability Initiatives - McGee, Rosie; Gaventa, John (IDS Working Papers, 383, 2011)
This paper arises from a review of the impact and effectiveness of transparency and accountability initiatives which gathered and analysed existing evidence, discussed how it could be improved, and ev...

Introduction: Opening Governance – Change, Continuity and Conceptual Ambiguity - McGee, Rosie; Edwards, Duncan (IDS Bulletin, 2016)

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.

Outcome Measurement in Local Governance Programmes: a Power Dimension - McGee, Rosemary; Pettit, Jethro (WIP Paper, 2013)

Power, Empowerment and Social Change - McGee, Rosemary; Pettit, Jethro (2019)
This book uncovers how power operates around the world, and how it can be resisted or transformed through empowered collective action and social leadership. The stakes have never been higher. Recent years have seen a rapid escalation of inequalities, the rise of new global powers and corporate interests, increasing impunity of human rights violations, suppression of civil society, and a re-shaping of democratic processes by post-truth, populist and nationalist politics. Rather than looking at power through the lenses of agency or structure alone, this book views power and empowerment as complex and multidimensional societal processes, defined by pervasive social norms, conditions, constraints and opportunities. Bridging theory and practice, the book explores real-world applications using a selection of frameworks, tools, case studies, examples, resources and reflections from experience to support actors to analyse their positioning and align themselves with progressive social forces. Compiled with social change practitioners, students and scholars in mind, Power, Empowerment and Social Change is the perfect volume for anyone involved in politics, international development, sociology, human rights and environmental justice who is looking for fresh insights for transforming power in favour of relatively less powerful people.

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

Learning study on 'the users' in Technology for Transparency and Accountability initiatives: Assumptions and realities - McGee, Rosemary; Carlitz, Ruth (IDS, 2013)

COUNT - Understanding the challenge of government responsiveness - McGee, Rosemary (Think Piece, 2014)

Power, Violence, Citizenship and Agency - McGee, Rosemary (IDS Bulletin, 2014)

Something’s Stopping All Voices From Counting… - McGee, Rosemary (Making All Voices Count, 2014)
An outline of Making All Voices Count's Research & Evidence component led by the Institute of Development Studies.

Thinking and Working Politically: Learning from practice. Overview to Special Issue - McCulloch, Neil; Piron, Laure-Hélène (Development Policy Review, 2019)
Over the last 15 years, a set of ideas now referred to as “thinking and working politically” (TWP) has coalesced into a “second orthodoxy” about how to take context into account when implementing development interventions. This approach stresses the importance of obtaining a better understanding of the local context (“thinking politically”) in order to support local actors to bring about sustainable developmental change (“working politically”). However, the evidence base to justify this new approach remains thin, despite a growing number of programmes which purport to be implementing it. Officials in development agencies struggle with putting it into practice and it is unclear how TWP differs—or not—from similar approaches, such as Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) and Doing Development Differently (DDD). This Special Issue sheds light on what TWP means in practice by examining a set of initiatives undertaken by both development partners and government departments in Nigeria, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, China and India. This overview article outlines, in brief, each of the Special Issue's four papers and then draws out five lessons—for funders and for practitioners—from across all the papers. Our five lessons are: (1) the fundamental importance of undertaking political economy analysis (PEA) to adapt programmes to their contexts; (2) the importance of having a realistic level of ambition for interventions; (3) the need to support local ownership—not just “agreement ownership” (between a donor agency and government) or local “management ownership” of the programme, but critically “driver ownership” by generating trust with the key local actors driving change; (4) the need for a more effective set of tools for measuring results in complex programmes that attempt to achieve improvements in long-run governance; and, (5) that although the political economy of donors is often seen as a barrier to applying TWP, the articles show how much can be done with a TWP approach if the analysis takes into account the political economy of donors as well as that of the local context. We conclude with a set of operational recommendations for donors and implementors, as well as suggestions of avenues for further research.
Keywords: Adaptation; Development programmes; Political economy analysis; Reform space; thinking and working politically

Engineering Complex Scaled Up Innovations in the Humanitarian and Development Sector - McClure, Dan; Gray, Ian (ThoughtWorks, 2015)

Managing the Journey to Scale Up Innovation in the Humanitarian and Development Sector - McClure, Dan; Gray, Ian (ThoughtWorks, 2015)

Scaling Assessment Map: An Evolving Tool Supporting Innovation Scale Up - McClure, Dan; Gray, Ian (ThoughtWorks, 2016)
Nearly three years ago we wrote about the “Missing Middle” in the innovation lifecycle[i], a gap that kept successful pilot programs from reaching the goal of replication and optimization in multiple contexts. Since then, scaling humanitarian innovation has received a great deal of attention from the sector, with a number of new initiatives specifically focused on the scaling challenge.

Scaling: Innovations Missing Middle - McClure, Dan; Gray, Ian (ThoughtWorks, 2015)

Why Lean Enterprise Transformation is Hard - McClure, Dan (ThoughtWorks, 2015)

Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World - McChrystal, General Stanley; Silverman, David; Collins, Tantum; Fussell, Chris (Portfolio Penguin, 2015)
As commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), General Stanley McChrystal discarded a century of management wisdom and pivoted from a pursuit of mechanical efficiency to organic adaptability. In this book, he shows how any organization can make the same transition to act like a team of teams - where small groups combine the freedom to experiment with a relentless drive to share their experience.Drawing on a wealth of evidence from his military career and sources as diverse as hospital emergency rooms and NASA's space program, McChrystal frames the existential challenge facing today's organizations, and presents a compelling, effective solution.

Collaborative geomatics and the Mushkegowuk Cree First Nations: Fostering adaptive capacity for community-based sub-arctic natural resource management - McCarthy, Daniel D. P.; Whitelaw, Graham S.; Anderson, Scott; Cowan, Donald; McGarry, Fred; Robins, Anthony; Gardner, Holly L.; Barbeau, Christine D.; Charania, Nadia A.; General, Zachariah; Liedtke, Jeff; Sutherland, Celine; et al. (Geoforum, 2012)
The remote First Nation (FN) communities of the Mushkegowuk Territory on the west coast of James Bay, Ontario, Canada are currently facing increased development pressures and the imposition of a government land use planning process. The land use planning process is mandated in the Far North Act (received Royal Assent on September 23, 2010). There is a need for capacity enhancement for community-based natural resource planning and management in the Territory. A number of frameworks are emerging for addressing change brought on by resource development and building resilience to such change at the community level. Among these include the concept of adaptive capacity. In collaboration with FN community leaders, we explored the use of “collaborative geomatics” tools to foster adaptive capacity. Our action research suggests that collaborative geomatics technologies should enhance the Mushkegowuk First Nations’ adaptive capacity to address environmental and policy change by allowing them to collect and manage data collaboratively (e.g., traditional environmental knowledge, western science) to create opportunities for innovative community development, including natural resource development and management.
Keywords: Adaptive capacity; Collaborative geomatics; Community development; Cree communities; Land use plans

Using evidence to influence policy: Oxfam’s experience - Mayne, Ruth; Green, Duncan; Guijt, Irene; Walsh, Martin; English, Richard; Cairney, Paul (Palgrave Communications, 2018)
Policymaking is rarely ‘evidence-based’. Rather, policy can only be strongly evidence-informed if its advocates act effectively. Policy theories suggest that they can do so by learning the rules of political systems, and by forming relationships and networks with key actors to build up enough knowledge of their environment and trust from their audience. This knowledge allows them to craft effective inﬂuencing strategies, such as to tell a persuasive and timely story about an urgent policy problem and its most feasible solution. Empirical case studies help explain when, how, and why such strategies work in context. If analysed carefully, they can provide transferable lessons for researchers and advocates that are seeking to inform or inﬂuence policymaking. Oxfam Great Britain has become an experienced and effective advocate of evidence-informed policy change, offering lessons for building effective action. In this article, we combine insights from policy studies with speciﬁc case studies of Oxfam campaigns to describe four ways to promote the uptake of research evidence in policy: (1) learn how policymaking works, (2) design evidence to maximise its inﬂuence on speciﬁc audiences, (3) design and use additional inﬂuencing strategies such as insider persuasion or outsider pressure, and adapt the presentation of evidence and inﬂuencing strategies to the changing context, and (4) embrace trial and error. The supply of evidence is one important but insufﬁcient part of this story.

Developing and Using Useful ToCs - Mayne, John (Evergreen Briefing Note, 2018)
Developing useful theories of change (ToCs) for anintervention, especially complex interventions, is not straightforward nor something done in a couple of hourswith limited effort. Agreement is needed on a number of basic concepts and terms, key challenges need to be addressed, and there are numerous issues that need to be considered.Butthe effort is worth the investment of resources and time.Theory-based evaluation approaches need good ToCs.Some of the ideas here are discussed in the context of agricultural research for nutrition and health interventions by Mayne and Johnson (2015) (10) Developing and Using Useful ToCs. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323868372_Developing_and_Using_Useful_ToCs [accessed Jun 13 2018].

Mayne18-Developing Useful ToCs REV3 - Mayne, John (2019)
An update on the previous September 2018 uploaded article

The COM-B Theory of Change Mode - v.5 - Mayne, John (Palladium, 2019)
ResearchGate is a network dedicated to science and research. Connect, collaborate and discover scientific publications, jobs and conferences. All for free.

Theory of Change Analysis: Building Robust Theories of Change - Mayne, John (Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 2017)
Models for theories of change vary widely as do how they are used. What constitutes a good or robust theory of change has not been discussed much. This article sets out and discusses criteria for robust theories of change. As well, it discusses how these criteria can be used to undertake a vigorous assessment of a theory of change. A solid analysis of a theory of change can be extremely useful, both for designing or assessing the designs of an intervention as well as for the design of monitoring regimes and evaluations. The article concludes with a discussion about carrying out a theory of change analysis and an example.

Useful Theory of Change Models - Mayne, John (Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 2015)
Although theories of change are frequently discussed in the evaluation literature and there is general agreement on what a theory of change is conceptually, there is actually little agreement beyond the big picture of just what a theory of change comprises, what it shows, how it can be represented, and how it can be used. This article outlines models for theories of change and their development that have proven quite useful for both straightforward and more complex interventions. The models are intuitive, flexible, and well-defined in terms of their components, and they link directly to rigorous models of causality. The models provide a structured framework for developing useful theories of change and analyzing the intervention they represent.

Useful Theory of Change Models - Mayne, John (Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 2015)
Although theories of change are frequently discussed in the evaluation literature and there is general agreement on what a theory of change is conceptually, there is actually little agreement beyond the big picture of just what a theory of change comprises, what it shows, how it can be represented, and how it can be used. This article outlines models for theories of change and their development that have proven quite useful for both straightforward and more complex interventions. The models are intuitive, flexible, and well-defined in terms of their components, and they link directly to rigorous models of causality. The models provide a structured framework for developing useful theories of change and analyzing the intervention they represent.

Learning, Adaptation & Change: the future of Making All Voices Count - MAVC (Making All Voices Count, 2014)
Learning, Adaptation & Change: what Making All Voices Count has learned since September 2013 and how the programme will adapt and change in the future.

Supporting users with the OutNav approash - Matter of Focus (2019)
This report has been generated in OutNav, using the theory-based approach to evaluation pioneered by Matter of Focus. Example of a report from the tool, explaining OutNav approach

Local Empowerment Through Rapid Results - Matta, Nadim; Morgan, Peter (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2011)
Why local ownership and commitment are the exception in most development efforts—and what development professionals can do about this problem.

Innovating for pro-poor services: why politics matter - Mason, Nathaniel; Doczi, Julian; Cummings, Clare (2016)
This report addresses how politics matter for innovations. How politically smart approaches can help deliver access to services.

The origins, development, and application of Qualitative Comparative Analysis: the first 25 years - Marx, Axel; Rihoux, Benoît; Ragin, Charles (European Political Science Review, 2014)
A quarter century ago, in 1987, Charles C. Ragin published The Comparative Method, introducing a new method to the social sciences called Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). QCA is a comparative case-oriented research approach and collection of techniques based on set theory and Boolean algebra, which aims to combine some of the strengths of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Since its launch in 1987, QCA has been applied extensively in the social sciences. This review essay first sketches the origins of the ideas behind QCA. Next, the main features of the method, as presented in The Comparative Method, are introduced. A third part focuses on the early applications. A fourth part presents early criticisms and subsequent innovations. A fifth part then focuses on an era of further expansion in political science and presents some of the main applications in the discipline. In doing so, this paper seeks to provide insights and references into the origin and development of QCA, a non-technical introduction to its main features, the path travelled so far, and the diversification of applications.

Q&A: Complexity-Aware Planning for Stabilization Programming - Martins, Christy (DAI - Checkpoint, 2018)

Small-scale farmers in a 1.5°C future: The importance of local social dynamics as an enabling factor for implementation and scaling of climate-smart agriculture - Martinez-Baron, Deissy; Orjuela, Guillermo; Renzoni, Giampiero; Loboguerrero Rodríguez, Ana María; Prager, Steven D (Sustainability governance and transformation 2018, 2018)
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has the potential to help farmers implement both adaptation and mitigation practices. The mitigation aspect of CSA is often not considered by farmers due to a high discount rate and, as such, adaptation is usually the priority concern. This review article offers perspective on this issue and highlights two key gaps in the literature: (i) understanding of factors related to the uptake of adaptation practices with co-benefits for mitigation and, (ii) the role of social networks to better enable rapid, widespread implementation of CSA, the latter being critical to bringing CSA to scale. The systematic review treated literature on synergies between adaptation, mitigation and social networks in the rural sector, as well as case studies illustrating the importance of social networks in climate change interventions when addressing synergies in adaptation and mitigation. We find that additional research is required that explicitly focuses on how social networks and social capital may be harnessed to hasten the adoption and uptake of highly synergistic CSA practices. This will facilitate both adaptation in the near term and contribute to mitigation at scale, allowing small-scale farmers to both benefit from and contribute to a 1.5°C future.

What we’re missing by not getting our TWP alphabet straight - Marquette, Heather (From Poverty to Power, 2019)
Heather Marquette grapples with aid's alphabet soup, and explains why DDD, TWP, PDIA etc are different and why that matters

Who is ICT innovation for? Challenges to existing theories of innovation, a Kenyan Case Study - Marchant, Eleanor (CGCS Occasional Paper Series, 2015)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Analysis of the factors affecting the sustainability of ICT4D initiatives - Marais, Mario (ICT for development: people, policy and practice, 2011)

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

Case study: Embedding reform and exiting: LASER’s application of the hourglass approach to achieve sustainable results - Manuel, Clare (DFID-LASER Programme, 2016)
This case study describes how LASER has gone about enabling systemic change and sustainable uptake of reforms that address complex institutional problems in Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somaliland and Uganda. In each of these countries LASER has designed-in a sustainable approach from the start based on: (i) local ownership and leadership of reforms based on developing country (rather than donor) priorities; (ii) use of country (rather than donor programme) systems; and (iii) an understanding that the role of the donor / development practitioner is to support (rather than buy) reform. The case study uses LASER’s hour glass methodology, illustrated with examples from LASER interventions, to show how these principles guide LASER operations every step of the way.
Keywords: IMPORTANT; Practice

Delivering institutional reform at scale: Problem-driven approaches supported by adaptive programming - Manuel, Clare (Synthesis Paper, 2, 2016)
LASER synthesis papers aim to help donors and other stakeholders better understand why and how to approach investment climate reform programming differently. The papers reflect emerging best practice and lessons learnt on what works and what does not work in doing development differently. The papers have been peer-reviewed by experts in the field including senior advisers at DFID, World Bank, IFC and the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (amongst others). Second synthesis paper - Delivering institutional reform at scale: problem-driven approaches supported by adaptive programming February 2016 Drawing on our experience on the ground, this peer-reviewed paper suggests how problem driven approaches, supported by adaptive programme management can be implemented at scale in relation to donor programming aimed at institutional reform and improving state capability.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

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

Investment Climate Reform: Doing it Differently - Manuel, Clare (Synthesis Paper, 1, 2015)
LASER synthesis papers aim to help donors and other stakeholders better understand why and how to approach investment climate reform programming differently. The papers reflect emerging best practice and lessons learnt on what works and what does not work in doing development differently. The papers have been peer-reviewed by experts in the field including senior advisers at DFID, World Bank, IFC and the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (amongst others). First synthesis paper - Investment climate reform: doing it differently June 2015 Drawing on our experience in taking a problem-focused approach to investment climate reform, we discuss in this peer-reviewed paper emerging lessons and reflections on what works, both in recent literature and in practical experience.

Localizing Development : Does Participation Work? - Mansuri, Ghazala; Rao, Vijayendra (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013)
The Policy Research Report Localizing Development: Does Participation Work? brings analytical rigor to a field that has been the subject of intense debate and advocacy, and billions of dollars in development aid. It briefly reviews the history of participatory development and argues that its two modalities, community-based development and local decentralization, should be treated under the broader unifying umbrella of local development. It suggests that a distinction between organic participation (endogenous efforts by civic activists to bring about change) and induced participation (large-scale efforts to engineer participation at the local level via projects) is key, and focuses on the challenges of inducing participation. The report provides a conceptual framework for thinking about participatory development and then uses this framework to conduct a comprehensive review of the literature. The framework develops the concept of “civil society failure” and explains its interaction with government and market failures. It argues that participatory development, which is often viewed as a mechanism for bypassing market and government failures by ”harnessing” civic capacity, ought to be seen instead as a mechanism that, if done right, could help to repair important civil society failures. It distills literature from anthropology, economics, sociology, and political science to outline the challenges for effective policy in this area, looking at issues such as the uncertainty of trajectories of change, the importance of context, the role of elite capture and control, the challenge of collective action, and the role of the state. The review of the evidence looks at a variety of issues: the impact of participatory projects on inclusion, civic capacity, and social cohesion; on key development outcomes, such as income, poverty, and inequality; on public service delivery; and on the quality of local public goods. It draws on the evidence to suggest several recommendations for policy, emphasizing the key role of learning-by-doing. It then reviews participatory projects funded by the World Bank and finds the majority lacking in several arenas – particularly in paying attention to context and in creating effective monitoring and evaluation systems that allow for learning.

Improving the Measurement of Civic Space - Malena, Carmen (Transparency & Accountability Initiative, 2015)
‘Civic space’ – i.e. the freedom and means to speak, access information, associate, organise, and participate in public decision-making – is essential to the healthy functioning and development of any society and a precondition for accountable governance and social justice. When civic space is restricted, human and civil rights are denied, government accountability is jeopardised, …

Wheeling in the Trojan Mice - Mahendra, Jackie (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2016)
One way to make risk-taking more palatable for social change organizations is to run small, light, nimble experiments––tests not built to win wars, but rather to quickly infiltrate new territory, attack new problems, and inform future tactics.

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

The good and the ‘not so good’ of our experiences with SenseMaker - Mager, Franziska (Oxfam Views & Voices, 2019)
When we purchased a license for the SenseMaker research method in early 2017 (a proprietary data collection and analysis software), the excitement in our more “geeky” teams was palpable. SenseMaker ... Read More

Implementation of the first adaptive management plan for a European migratory waterbird population: The case of the Svalbard pink-footed goose Anser brachyrhynchus - Madsen, Jesper; Williams, James Henty; Johnson, Fred A.; Tombre, Ingunn M.; Dereliev, Sergey; Kuijken, Eckhart (Ambio, 2017)
An International Species Management Plan for the Svalbard population of the pink-footed goose was adopted under the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds in 2012, the first case of adaptive management of a migratory waterbird population in Europe. An international working group (including statutory agencies, NGO representatives and experts) agreed on objectives and actions to maintain the population in favourable conservation status, while accounting for biodiversity, economic and recreational interests. Agreements include setting a population target to reduce agricultural conflicts and avoid tundra degradation, and using hunting in some range states to maintain stable population size. As part of the adaptive management procedures, adjustment to harvest is made annually subject to population status. This has required streamlining of monitoring and assessment activities. Three years after implementation, indicators suggest the attainment of management results. Dialogue, consensus-building and engagement among stakeholders represent the major process achievements.
Keywords: Adaptive harvest management; Human–wildlife conflict; Population target; Stakeholder involvement; Structured decision-making; Tundra degradation

The Appearance of Accountability: Communication Technologies and Power Asymmetries in Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Recovery - Madianou, Mirca; Ong, Jonathan Corpus; Longboan, Liezel; Cornelio, Jayeel S. (Journal of Communication, 2016)
New communication technologies are celebrated for their potential to improve the accountability of humanitarian agencies. The response to Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 represents the most systematic implementation of “accountability to affected people” initiatives. Drawing on a year-long ethnography of the Haiyan recovery and 139 interviews with humanitarian workers and affected people, the article reveals a narrow interpretation of accountability as feedback that is increasingly captured through mobile phones. We observe that the digitized collection of feedback is not fed back to disaster-affected communities, but is directed to donors as evidence of “impact.” Rather than improving accountability to affected people, digitized feedback mechanisms sustained humanitarianism's power asymmetries.
Keywords: Accountability; Audit; Communication for Development; Disasters; Ethnography; ICT4D; Mobile phones; Participatory Communication; SMS; Texting; humanitarianism

Management not models: adaptability, responsiveness, and a few lessons from football - Maclay, Christopher (Development in Practice, 2015)
Despite a swathe of critiques of logframes and other blueprint approaches to development over the last 30 years, most aid infrastructure continues to concentrate on the design and subsequent implementation of closed models. This article does not propose an alternative to blueprints, but challenges the inflexibility of their implementation, which is inadequate given the complex nature of social change. It proposes a supplementary management and learning approach which enables implementers to be dynamic, adaptive, and responsive to problems and opportunities. Emphasising the role of donors, the paper presents a case study of one donor-led programme in Bangladesh doing just this.

Adaptive Management in Practice: a case study on the Prospects program - Maclay, Chris (Prospects practice paper, 1, 2016)
Recognising that aid and development programming takes place in complex contexts, Mercy Corps is increasingly seeking to understand how best to manage programs which iterate, adapt and respond to the consistently evolving settings in which we work. This brief Practice Paper provides some examples of what adaptive management looks like in practice on the Prospects youth employment program in Liberia. It does not seek to function as a manual or set of guidelines, but simply provides some practical examples and insights into how a youth employment program governed by principles of adaptive management operates.

Impact evaluation for portfolio programmes on policy influence: Reflections on the Indonesian Poverty Reduction Support Facility - Mackenzie, Jessica; Hearn, Simon (Methods Lab, 2016)
• Donors are increasingly using portfolio-based programmes that embrace ‘good failure’ and adaptive, political programming. • However, measuring the impact of these programmes is challenging, especially for those working on policy influence and building country systems; not only do you need to measure the positive and negative impact of the overall portfolio, but also the different pathways tested. • Programmes, therefore, need a light-touch monitoring and evaluation system that allows it to remain flexible. • Good practice examples of portfolio-based programmes present six strategies to evaluate impact: 1. Develop appropriate logic models 2. Collect observational data throughout implementation 3. Develop stories of change or case studies 4. Understand causal relationships without a counterfactual 5. Purposefully select which activities to study 6. Be explicit about how impact will be valued across the portfolio. • These strategies are only useful if monitoring and evaluation is placed at the centre of programme decision-making.

What is a Theory of Change? Really. - Mack, Katelyn (FSG, 2015)
Recently thousands of evaluators came together in Chicago to celebrate the growing field, share exemplary practices, and to push our collective thinking on how evaluation responds to the complexity of social change efforts.