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

Thinking and Working Politically in Economic Development Programmes – Some Sprints and Stumbles from a DFID Programme in Kyrgyzstan - Koleros, Andrew; Rinnert, David (From Poverty to Power, 2019)
A DFID programme in Kyrgyzstan offers useful insights into how the Thinking and Working Politically approach can escape from its governance ghetto
Keywords: Case Study

Managing Upward and Downward Accountability in an International Development Project - A Case Study of a World Bank Telecommunications Infrastructure Project in Benin - Kolker, Eva; Kulldorff, Catharina (Master's Thesis, Stockholm School of Economics, 2013)
Keywords: Downward accountability; Upward accountability

Community Organization and Rural Development: A Learning Process Approach - Korten, David C. (Public Administration Review, 1980)

Monitoring and Evaluation in the Development Sector - KPMG (KPMG International, 2014)

Systems Change in a Polarized Country - Kramer, Mark R. (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2017)
A growing number of US foundations are adopting practices based on systems change to achieve their goals in the current political environment.

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

Theory amidst complexity – using process tracing in ex-post evaluations - Krueger, Kate; Wright, Molly (New Directions for Evaluation, 2022)
Evaluators who take a complexity-aware approach must consider tradeoffs related to theoretical parsimony, falsifiability, and measurement validity. These tradeoffs may be particularly pronounced with ex-post evaluation designs in which program theory development and monitoring frameworks are often completed before the evaluator is engaged. In this chapter, we argue that theory-based evaluation (TBE) approaches can address unique ex-post evaluation challenges that complexity-aware evaluation (CAE) alone cannot, and that these two sets of approaches are complimentary. We will outline strategies that evaluators may use to conduct rigorous ex-post evaluations of democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) interventions that merge CAE's inductive approaches with a theory-testing structure. It will illustrate these strategies with two case studies of ex-post evaluation using process tracing (PT).
_eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ev.20524

The adoption of innovation in international development organisations: lessons for development co-operation - Kumpf, Benjamin; Jhunjhunwala, Parnika (OECD Publishing, 2023)
Addressing 21st century development challenges requires investments in innovation, including the use of new approaches and technologies. Currently, many development organisations prioritise investments in isolated innovation pilots that leverage a specific approach or technology rather than pursuing a strategic approach to expand the organisation’s toolbox with innovations that have proven their comparative advantage over what is currently used. This Working Paper addresses this challenge of adopting innovations. How can development organisations institutionalise a new way of working, bringing what was once novel to the core of how business is done? Analysing successful adoption efforts across five DAC agencies, the paper lays out a proposed process for the adoption of innovations. The paper features five case-studies and concludes with a set of lessons and recommendations for policy makers on innovation management generally, and adoption of innovation in particular.

What is technopolitics? A conceptual schema for understanding politics in the digital age Doctoral Student on the Programme on Political Science New School for Social Research - Kurban, Can; Peña-Lopez, Ismael; Haberer, Maria (Revista de Internet, Derecho y Política, 2017)
In this article we seek to revisit what the term ‘technopolitical’ means for democratic politics in our age. We begin by tracing how the term was used and then transformed through various and conflicting adaptations of ICTs (Information and

The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world - Kurtz, C.F.; Snowden, Dave (IBM Systems Journal, 2003)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Definitions of Agile Software Development and Agility - Laanti, Maarit; Similä, Jouni; Abrahamsson, Pekka (Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement, 2013)
The Agile Manifesto and Agile Principles are typically referred to as the definitions of "agile" and "agility". However, many other definitions exist in the literature. Thus the different definitions provide interesting source for research. For each definition we examine where their emphasis is and compare that to the emphases found in the Agile Principles.

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

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

Introduction to Project Management - The Case of GIZ Projects - Lacroix, Eric J. (Khulna University, 2015)
In this course, we will try to understand the complexity and the structure of the management of a development project implemented by the GIZ for the German Development cooperation. We will first define the frame of management and project to enter in the map of two logics. Then, we will overfly the 5 success factors of Capacity WORKS, with concrete examples in annexe. It will bring us to the monitoring, the standard processes in GIZ cooperation projects, the basic tools for project implementation and the evaluation. The team building will allow us to enter in a specific aspect of project management.

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

Strategy Testing: An innovative approach to monitoring highly flexible aid programs - Ladner, Debra (The Asia Foundation, 2015)
The international development community has increasingly embraced the idea that finding durable solutions to complex development problems requires new ways of working that move beyond industry norms. This paper makes an important contribution to the current debate by outlining an innovative monitoring system called Strategy Testing (ST). This is the third paper in the Working Politically in Practice paper series, launched together with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Measuring and Monitoring Adaptive Learning: A Landscape Review - LaFond, Anne; Adrian, Haley (USAID MOMENTUM Knowledge Accelerator, 2022)
This landscape review on measuring and monitoring adaptive learning highlights the learning from five adaptive programming guidelines and toolkits and one implementation science framework to inform the monitoring and evaluation of adaptive learning. The introduction of adaptive learning processes and skillsets in global health programming is part of an emerging strategy to advance a learning culture within projects and teams to improve health program performance. The monitoring and evaluation of adaptive learning is an emergent field aiming to monitor how adaptive learning processes have been introduced, how they are used, and whether they are having the intended results. Although there is a growing body of literature on adaptive programming more generally, there is a limited knowledge base on the monitoring and evaluation of adaptive learning interventions and their impacts. Unlike other implementation strategies or program management approaches, there are no standard metrics or a monitoring and evaluation framework to track the integration, implementation, and effectiveness of adaptive learning in health programming.

Scaling the impact of sustainability initiatives: a typology of amplification processes - Lam, David P. M.; Martín-López, Berta; Wiek, Arnim; Bennett, Elena M.; Frantzeskaki, Niki; Horcea-Milcu, Andra I.; Lang, Daniel J. (Urban Transformations, 2020)
Amplifying the impact of sustainability initiatives to foster transformations in urban and rural contexts, has received increasing attention in resilience, social innovation, and sustainability transitions research. We review the literature on amplification frameworks and propose an integrative typology of eight processes, which aim to increase the impact of such initiatives. The eight amplification processes are: stabilizing, speeding up, growing, replicating, transferring, spreading, scaling up, and scaling deep. We aggregated these processes into three categories: amplifying within, amplifying out, and amplifying beyond. This integrative typology aims to stimulate the debate on impact amplification from urban and rural sustainability initiatives across research areas to support sustainability transformations. We propose going beyond an understanding of amplification, which focuses only on the increase of numbers of sustainability initiatives, by considering how these initiatives create transformative change.
Keywords: City; Rural; Scaling; Transformation; Transition; Transition initiative; Urban

Community-based monitoring of Indigenous food security in a changing climate: Global trends and future directions - Lam, Steven; Dodd, Warren; Skinner, Kelly; Papadopoulos, Andrew; Zivot, Chloe; Ford, James; Garcia, Patricia J.; Team, IHACC Research; Harper, Sherilee L. (Environmental Research Letters, 2019)
Climate change is expected to exacerbate existing food security challenges, especially in Indigenous communities worldwide. Community-based monitoring is considered a promising strategy to improve monitoring of, and local adaptation to climatic and environmental change. Yet, it is unclear how this approach can be applied in food security or Indigenous contexts. The objectives of this paper are to: 1) review and synthesize the published literature on community-based monitoring of Indigenous food security; and, 2) identify gaps and trends in these monitoring efforts in the context of climate change. Using a systematic search and screening process, we identified 86 published articles. To be included, articles had to be published in a journal, describe a community-based monitoring system, describe any aspect of food security, and explicitly mention an Indigenous community. Relevant articles were thematically analyzed to characterize elements of community-based monitoring in the context of climate change. Results show that the number of articles published over time was steady and increased more than two-fold within the last five years. The reviewed articles reported on monitoring mainly in North America (37%) and South America (28%). In general, monitoring was either collaborative with local communities (51%) or externally-driven (37%), and focused primarily on tracking wildlife (29%), followed by natural resources (16%), environmental change (15%), fisheries (13%), climate change (9%), or some combination of these topics (18%). This review provides an evidence-base on the uses, characteristics, and opportunities of community-based monitoring, to guide future food security monitoring efforts in the context of climate change.

Citizens Against Corruption: Report from the Front Line - Landell-Mills, Pierre (Matador, 2013)
Citizens Against Corruption: Report From The Front Line tells the story of how groups of courageous and dedicated citizens across the globe are taking direct action to root out corruption. It shows how people are no longer prepared to accept the predatory activities of dishonest officials and are challenging their scams. It draws on over 200 unique case studies that describe initiatives undertaken by 130 civil society organisations (CSOs) which engage directly with public agencies to stop the bribery and extortion that damages peoples' lives and obstructs social and economic progress. This book challenges the notion that, at best, civil society can only have a marginal impact on reducing corruption and argues that aid donors need to radically rethink their assistance for governance reform. Part 1 analyses the role citizens can play in fighting corruption and promoting good governance and briefly tells the story of the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF). Part 2 presents studies of India, Mongolia, Philippines, and Uganda - each with its unique history and distinctive circumstances - to illustrate activities undertaken by CSOs to root out corruption, including the tools and approaches that are being used to build pressure on corrupt public agencies to become transparent and accountable. Part 3 addresses key themes - strengthening the rule of law, putting in place effective national anti-corruption strategies and institutions, making public buying and selling honest, promoting grassroots monitoring of public expenditures and the provision of public services, mounting media campaigns to expose and defeat corruption, and empowering ordinary citizens to keep watch on what actually happens at the point of delivery of public services. Part 4 is a summary of lessons learnt and explores the potential, as well as the risks and limitations, of civic activism in a world where greed and dishonesty is the norm. Finally, the book explores the opportunities and dangers faced by aid donors in supporting local CSOs and charts a way forward. Citizens Against Corruption: Report From The Front Line will be of interest to staff working in CSOs and aid agencies, policy analysts and researchers concerned about corruption and poor governance.

The Science of Using Science: Researching the Use of Research Evidence in Decision-Making - Langer, Laurenz; Tripney, Janice; Gough, David (EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, 2016)

Paradoxes and partnerships: a study of knowledge exploration and exploitation in international development programmes - Lannon, John; Walsh, John N. (Journal of Knowledge Management, 2019)
Purpose – This paper aims to look at how organisational partnerships balance knowledge exploration and exploitation in contexts that are rife with paradoxes. It draws on paradox theory to examine the partnership’s response to the explore-exploit relationship.

Iterative and incremental developments: A brief history - Larman, Craig; Basili, Victor R. (Computer, 2003)
Although many view iterative and incremental development as a modern practice, its application dates as far back as the mid-1950s. Prominent software-engineering thought leaders from each succeeding decade supported IID practices, and many large projects used them successfully. These practices may have differed in their details, but all had a common theme-to avoid a single-pass sequential, document-driven, gated-step approach.
Keywords: Agile methods; Application software; Feedback; Government; History; Iterative and incremental developments; Iterative methods; Personnel; Programming; Radio access networks; Terminology; Testing; iterative enhancement; software engineering; software system

You Cannot Go it Alone: Learning from Cooperative Relationships in Civil Society Budget Campaigns - Larsen, Jillian (IBP, 2016)
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Monday morning in Kigali: what do you do when you get off the plane? Practical guidance for PDIA practitioners - LASER (DFID-LASER Programme, 2016)
In order to help enhance the effectiveness of donors and development practitioners on the ground, LASER has produced a range of practical guidance and tools. These are primarily intended for the international development community engaged in designing and implementing investment climate programmes, though can also be used more widely by other stakeholders across sectors. General guidance and tools: Monday morning in Kigali January 2016 - what do you do when you get off the plane? Practical guidance for PDIA practitioners
Keywords: IMPORTANT; Practice

Politically smart approaches to donor investment climate programming. A Guidance Note - LASER (DFID-LASER Programme, 2016)
In order to help enhance the effectiveness of donors and development practitioners on the ground, LASER has produced a range of practical guidance and tools. These are primarily intended for the international development community engaged in designing and implementing investment climate programmes, though can also be used more widely by other stakeholders across sectors. General guidance and tools: Politically smart approaches to donor investment climate programming (and annexes) Revised February 2016 - sets out practical advice on how to adopt a politically smart (which requires being both ‘politically informed’ and ‘politically astute’) approach to programming. The annexes include a traffic light matrix for initial high level analysis; a problem diary template with examples; and an example of a flexible theory of change for adaptive, large scale programming
Keywords: Practice

In the goldfish bowl: science and technology policy dialogues in a digital world - Latta, Susie; Mulcare, Charlotte; Zacharzewski, Anthony (Sciencewise, 2013)

Measuring Impact: A Learning Approach to Strengthening USAID Biodiversity Programs - Lauck, Liz (2014)

Laudes Rubrics - Measurement and Learning Approach - Laudes Foundation (Laudes Foundation, 2023)
How can we measure and learn when promoting systems change? It’s a challenge that has inspired Laudes Foundation to develop a rubrics-based methodology to help us, our partners and the wider field of philanthropy, understand our contribution to change, while learning and adapting to new and unforeseen circumstances. Change cannot be captured by numbers alone because metrics put the focus on what can be counted, not always what’s most important. Rubrics are a framework that set a standard for what ‘good’ looks like – and create a shared language for describing and assessing it using both quantitative and qualitative evidence. At Laudes Foundation, the rubrics are integrated into our grantmaking processes – from the design phase through to measurement, evaluation and learning. The four Laudes Foundation rubrics categories Laudes Foundation has developed 21 rubrics that work across different levels, from processes to long-term impact. When measuring a specific initiative, a smaller set of relevant rubrics are chosen and assessed on a rating scale from ‘harmful’ to ‘thrivable’. The 21 rubrics are categorised into four groups, with some natural overlap between categories B, C and D. Category A focuses on the process-related aspects of initiatives, including design, implementation, monitoring, communication and learning, and organisation and network effectiveness. Category B focuses on the early and later changes that need to happen to create the right conditions to achieve the 2025 outcomes. Category C captures the 2025 outcomes, focusing on how policymakers, financiers, business leaders, and workers and producers behave. Category D captures the 2030 impacts, describing the new reality created as a result of sustained efforts.

Developmental evaluation: Bridging the gaps between proposal, program, and practice , Developmental evaluation: Bridging the gaps between proposal, program, and practice - Lawrence, Rachael B.; Rallis, Sharon F.; Davis, Laura C.; Harrington, Karen (Evaluation, 2018)
Developmental evaluation supports grant-funded initiatives seeking innovation and change. Programs born from aspirational grant language and plans often need guidance as they work toward creating workable models for social innovation. This article describes the challenge of designing and implementing complex programs and presents a case that illustrates how a program moves from proposal to practice. The Massachusetts Charter Public School Association Capacity Building Network is a complex intervention, funded by the US federal government, aimed at raising school capacity to serve students with disabilities and English language learners. Developmental evaluation served to bridge the gaps between an aspirational proposal, an ambitious and ambiguous program plan, and emerging practices to serve this population of students. Jointly reviewing our experience in this developmental evaluation, the evaluation team and a program director share important thematic lessons learned about the developmental evaluation approach., Developmental evaluation supports grant-funded initiatives seeking innovation and change. Programs born from aspirational grant language and plans often need guidance as they work toward creating workable models for social innovation. This article describes the challenge of designing and implementing complex programs and presents a case that illustrates how a program moves from proposal to practice. The Massachusetts Charter Public School Association Capacity Building Network is a complex intervention, funded by the US federal government, aimed at raising school capacity to serve students with disabilities and English language learners. Developmental evaluation served to bridge the gaps between an aspirational proposal, an ambitious and ambiguous program plan, and emerging practices to serve this population of students. Jointly reviewing our experience in this developmental evaluation, the evaluation team and a program director share important thematic lessons learned about the developmental evaluation approach.

Mainsreaming gender in an adaptive, politically smart governance programme - Lessons from Institutions for Inclusive Development in Tanzania - Laws, Ed (ODI, 2020)
• This paper looks at the experience of gender mainstreaming in the Institutions for Inclusive Development (I4ID) programme – an adaptive, politically smart governance programme in Tanzania. • When development programmes try to engage with political stakeholders and align with the priorities of wider coalitions there is a danger that gender equality is de-prioritised. • It is important that formal political economy analysis, as well as other data collection, analysis and consultation exercises, are gender-sensitive. Teams should also look for ways to make gendered political and power analysis part of the everyday routine practice of staff. • Working politically and adaptively to advance gender objectives calls for staff with a specific skillset, as well as links to appropriate networks and political stakeholders. It also implies establishing checks and incentives to hold staff and partners accountable for gender objectives, and strong and consistent messaging from team leaders.

Rethinking value for money for adaptive, politically smart programmes - Lessons from Institutions for Inclusive Development in Tanzania - Laws, Ed (ODI, 2020)
- This short paper draws out lessons for working effectively with and through partners, based on the experience of the Institutions for Inclusive Development (I4ID) programme – an adaptive, politically smart governance programme in Tanzania. • Cultivating effective partnerships can be a key part of delivering locally legitimate projects that have the potential to create sustainable change. Adaptive and politically informed ways of working create specific opportunities and challenges for doing this well. • Flexible and adaptive programmes are deliberately designed to experiment and to make small investments in different areas, to see what will work. While this is often important for making headway on complex challenges, it can also leave partners exposed and can undermine trust. • It can also be challenging to balance the need to meet accountability commitments to donors while allowing local partners to take the lead in pursuing their own objectives. • Co-creating plans, priorities and activities with partners has the potential to resolve some of these tensions. But the time and patience required to do this successfully should not be underestimated, and can be difficult to maintain in the face of pressure from donors to see results within a confined timeframe.

Thinking and working politically in Somalia: A case study on the Somalia Stability Fund - Laws, Ed (TWP Coommunity of Practice and ODI, 2018)

Working effectively through partnerships - Lessons from Institutions for Inclusive Development in Tanzania - Laws, Ed (ODI, 2020)
• This paper looks critically at the approach to value for money (VfM) in the Institutions for Inclusive Development (I4ID) programme – an adaptive, politically smart governance programme in Tanzania. • Adaptive, politically smart programmes like I4ID aim to deliver VfM by learning about what will work in complex environments, and quickly incorporating those lessons into delivery. When functioning properly, they can rapidly wind down activities as new information emerges and divert funding to more effective alternatives. • This means that adaptive programmes will achieve their potential to deliver strong VfM when their processes are good – when appraisal of experimental efforts is timely, consistent, knowledgeable and politically astute. As these programmes mature in their implementation phase, VfM evaluation should be focused on checking for a culture of adaptation and learning supported by strong adaptive processes. • While economy is important for adaptive programmes, it is also important that keeping costs low does not deprive teams of the resources, staff, and management and administration time they need to gather information, experiment, learn and adapt.

Thinking and working politically: An introduction to key ideas, examples and further reading - Laws, Ed; Marquette, Heather (2018)

Thinking and working politically: Reviewing the evidence on the integration of politics into development practice over the past decade - Laws, Ed; Marquette, Heather (TWP Community of Practice, 2018)

LearnAdapt: a synthesis of our work on adaptive programming with DFID/FCDO (2017–2020) - Laws, Ed; Pett, Jamie; Proud, Emma; Rocha Menocal, Alina (ODI, 2021)
Key takeaways. • Development is not linear or straightforward, but rather complex, uncertain and context-specific. This calls for international development actors to work differently, in ways that are based on deliberate experimentation, learning and adaptation, to inform decisions and drive effective development. • Although it might go by different names, adaptive programming has been used in a variety of areas and fields in both the public and private sectors. Development practitioners have much to learn from and contribute to these different approaches and experiences. • Trust and relationship-building across all relevant stakeholders are among the most critical enabling factors for adaptive management. They are essential to give partners the space, autonomy and authority needed to try, test, reflect, iterate and feed back at the frontline of implementation, and to give donors the confidence that decisions are being made on the basis of evidence and learning to improve effectiveness. • There is an urgent need to rethink how accountability requirements, results frameworks, value for money considerations, performance markers, procurement and contracting mechanisms and other processes are understood and applied so that they are better aligned with and can support adaptive management more effectively. • The role of senior managers leading adaptive programmes from the donor side should be to create a space for experimentation and learning. Funders should hold their partners accountable for learning and how it feeds into effective programming, rather than for delivering on predetermined targets. • While formal guidance is important, leadership, champions, institutional incentives, a supportive management culture and appropriate mindsets are essential to encourage adaptive ways of working. • Adaptive management is resource-intensive. It requires skill, commitment, time for building trust and investments in learning. It is a journey, not an immediate destination – so it calls for patience, open-mindedness and a more nuanced approach to risk.

Value for money and adaptive programming - Approaches, measures and management - Laws, Ed; Valters, Craig (ODI, 2021)
- The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)’s standard economy, efficiency, effectiveness/cost-effectiveness and equity (4E) framework is still relevant for approaching, measuring and managing value for money (VfM) for adaptive programmes. • However, this framework needs to be reframed to capture and incentivise flexibility, learning and adaptation. • VfM appraisal and reporting should be done in a way that draws on beneficiary feedback and informs good decision-making, rather than just being a compliance exercise. • If VfM appraisal and reporting cannot be done appropriately for adaptive programmes, it should be avoided or minimised. There is a risk of diverting time and resources from more suitable tools and methods.

Is the problem driven iterative adaptation approach (PDIA) a panacea for public financial management reform? Evidence from six African countries - Lawson, Andrew; Harris, Jamelia (World Development Perspectives, 2023)
This article assesses the application of the problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA) approach to public financial management reform in six African countries. It draws on primary data collected using a mix of interviews, overt participation observations and a short survey. PDIA responds to shortcomings in orthodox approaches to reform and technical assistance in developing countries. It stresses local solutions to local problems, achieved through experimentation and adaptation. The principles of PDIA are appealing, but its empirical assessment is in its infancy. This study aims to fill part of this gap. Findings show that PDIA delivers results in the short-term, particularly in cases where there is an influential authorising agent and dedicated team. Progress was less forthcoming for reforms that required high level political buy-in from senior officials. The approach does exceptionally well to develop staff capability, transferable skills, and local empowerment to solve local problems, thus potentially benefitting future reforms.

Being Spherical: Reshaping Our Lives and Our World for the 21st Century - Lawson, Phil; Lindstrom, Robert L. (Sphericity Press, 2004)
In this concise, illustrated work exploring the dynamics of living in the 21st century, Phil Lawson and Robert L. Lindstrom show us how we individually and collectively shape the future - a future no longer dominated by traditional hierarchies and concentrated power centers. The authors explain why, in this dawning era of interconnection and interdependency, we require a dramatic transformation in the way we see, think and act. Using mythological imagery in the form of The Sphere and an innovative and adaptive vocabulary, they introduce us to concepts and processes for reshaping our lives, our organizations and our world for the better. In addition, they introduce the Spherical Modeling Tool (SMT), a practical hands-on awareness application. BEING SPHERICAL GUIDES US AS WE LEARN TO: * Prepare for a future we cannot even vaguely predict. * Raise our children well in a climate of moral uncertainty. * Create viable organizations in an era of extreme complexity. * Come to the aid of an abused and ailing planet. AS WE LEARN TO SEE THE SPHERE WE: * Understand why we do what we do and what to do differently. * Discover creative solutions to longstanding problems. * Connect and reconnect within ourselves and with others. * Ready ourselves of quantum leaps in inspiration and awareness. THE GREATER OUR SPHERICAL INTEGRITY THE BETTER WE: * Flex with internal and external pressures. * Adapt to disorienting and accelerating change. * Respond to unpredictable and uncontrollable conditions. * Roll through hard times and bounce forward from adversity. Excerpted from Being Spherical: Reshaping Our Lives and Our World for the 21st Century by Phil Lawson, Robert L. Lindstrom. Copyright 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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

Scrum For Dummies - Layton, Mark C. (John Wiley & Sons, 2015)
Practice an agile form of management to stop wasting time and money Scrum For Dummies is an easy to use guide to managing the tricky transition from a traditional project management methodology to the new and most popular agile framework. As the most efficient, successful methodology for team project management, Scrum relies on transparency, flexibility, and fluidity to deliver a final product that fulfills the needs of all stakeholders. Written in easy–to–read Dummies style, this book walks you through the core principles of Scrum and provides a roadmap for tangible implementation. The vast majority of projects go over budget, and billions of dollars are wasted every year on overruns. Put a stop to this wasteful leakage by switching to a management style that keeps all participants informed, up–to–date, and accountable. Authored by a Certified Scrum Trainer, Mark Layton, Scrum For Dummies covers the key ideas and processes behind Scrum methodologies, and presents the inner workings of the plan in an engaging and accessible format. Topics include: The Scrum values, roles, artifacts, and activities that make up the principle of this methodology When and how best to use Scrum The differences between Scrum and other agile methodologies Using Scrum for IT, finance, construction, health care, and more The book also delves into the everyday use of Scrum, and how it can help you achieve your own personal goals outside of work. There′s a reason why scrum is quickly becoming the standard approach to project management it works! If you want to stop wasting time and start producing more effectively, Scrum For Dummies is the guide that will get you there.

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

System Innovation on Purpose - Leadbeater, Charles; Winhall, Jennie (The Rockwool Foundation, 2021)
In Building Better Systems, we introduced four keys to unlock system innovation: purpose and power, relationships and resource flows. These four keys make up a set. Systems are often hard to change because power, relationships, and resource flows are locked together in a reinforcing pattern to serve the system’s current purpose. Systems start to change fundamentally when this pattern is disrupted and opened up. Then a new configuration can emerge, serving a new purpose. In this essay series we delve deeper into these four keys and provide practical advice on how they can be put to use. This essay is about the role that purpose plays in orchestrating complex systems and how system innovators can create a new system around a new sense of purpose.

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

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

Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA). Framework and Maturity Matrix Overview - Learning Lab (USAID, 2016)

Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting. Framework & Key Concepts - Learning Lab (USAID, 2016)

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

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

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

Landscape Analysis of Learing Agendas: USAID/Washington and beyond - Learning Lab (USAID, 2017)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY U.S. government agencies and development organizations around the world are increasingly recognizing and supporting learning activities— often informed by a learning agenda—as important tools for improving organizational effectiveness and efficiency. A learning agenda comprises a set of broad questions directly related to the work that an agency conducts; when answered, they enable the agency to work more effectively and efficiently, particularly pertaining to evaluation, evidence, and decisionmaking. This report surveys the landscape of learning agendas at USAID and beyond to inform the learning agenda initiative planned by the Office of Learning, Evaluation, and Research (LER) in the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL). Reporting on research conducted over a 6-month period (September 2016 to February 2017), this landscape analysis focuses on six documented, office-, bureau-, or initiative-wide learning agendas being used at USAID/Washington. It also considers 11 new or noteworthy learning initiatives at USAID and five learning efforts at other federal agencies. The research team interviewed 60 staff from 20 USAID offices and bureaus, as well as staff from five other federal agencies. (See Annexes 1 through IV for more information.) The team also convened two focus groups: one with staff in USAID/Washington who had recently returned from serving in Missions, and one with PPL staff who discussed that bureau’s learning activities. The report details the interviewees’ remarks on six topics:  Motivations behind their decisions to pursue a learning agenda, such as expectations of accountability, especially in response to leadership demands  The key benefits emerging from their learning agenda efforts, which have included identifying gaps in knowledge and evidence, and supporting other cultural and organizational change processes  The participatory and consultative strategies they used to engage with stakeholders, including engagement with Mission staff and inclusion of academics and outside experts  The learning activities and products related to their initiatives  Challenges and strategies on resources, dissemination, and utilization, including ways to update their learning agenda to ensure that it remains a “living document”  Recommendations they had for PPL and others considering embarking on a learning agenda initiative

LEARN End of Contract Report - Learning Lab (USAID, 2020)
In September of 2014, USAID’s Office of Learning, Evaluation & Research (LER) awarded the Learning and Knowledge Management (LEARN) contract to Dexis Consulting Group and subcontractor RTI International.1 This document—the End of Contract Report—captures five and half years of results and reflections for our stakeholders. Our intention is to share the good and the bad, and while this report would not be considered a “tell all,” we think we have a story worth sharing, particularly to USAID CORs and AORs, activity managers, and other implementers of institutional support contracts.2 LEARN’s primary purpose was to support organizational change at USAID. More specifically, the contract was focused on helping USAID staff integrate collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) approaches into the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of programs (what is known at USAID as the Program Cycle). It was clear that most USAID staff, whether they realized it or not, were already integrating CLA into their work to some extent. The focus of our efforts, therefore, was to make those practices more systematic, intentional, resourced, and ultimately more widespread throughout the Agency, which would have a ripple effect on implementing partners and even other stakeholders, such as host country governments. This was based on the theory—later borne out by evidence—that by becoming a better learning organization, USAID could be a more effective development organization. And that theory brought the USAID CLA team within USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning & Learning (PPL) and LEARN contractors together, driven by a shared purpose of improving how USAID does business. LEARN was designed based on this belief and, as you might expect from a learning-oriented contract, began with more questions than answers. Primary among those questions was: could an institutional support contract do more than carry out requested services—could it actually accelerate positive organizational change at USAID? And if so, how and under what conditions?

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

Learning Lab - Collaborate, Learn and Adapt for better development outcomes - Learning Lab (USAID, 2013)
CLA is: a component of several missions' CDCSes. a conceptual framework for some principles and operational processes that can enable USAID to become a more effective learning organization and thereby a more effective development organization. an approach to facilitating local participation and capacity and promoting country-led development. For more information on CLA visit:

Two Tunes, One Dance: Keeping Programming Agile - Learning Lab (USAID Learning Lab, 2017)

What difference does CLA make to development? Key findings from a recent literature review (2020 update) - Learning Lab (USAID, 2020)
USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning and its LEARN support contract are working to integrate systematic, intentional and resourced collaborating, learning and adapting (CLA) throughout program planning and implementation to achieve more effective development programs. As part of this effort, USAID is exploring several approaches to understand whether and how strategic collaboration, continuous learning and adaptive management make a difference to organizational effectiveness and development outcomes. To begin this work, we have undertaken a foundational literature review of academic and gray literature to answer our key learning questions: • Does an intentional, systematic and resourced approach to collaborating, learning and adapting contribute to organizational effectiveness? To development outcomes? • If so, how? And under what circumstances? • How do we measure the contribution? The 13 key findings, mapped to the CLA Framework below, are described in greater detail in the following pages.

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

The role of social learning in adaptiveness: insights from water management - Lebel, Louis; Grothmann, Torsten; Siebenhüner, Bernd (International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 2010)
The article introduces the notion of adaptiveness and discusses the role of social learning in it. Adaptiveness refers to the capacity of a social actor or social–ecological system to adapt in response to, or in anticipation of, changes in the environment. We explore arguments both from a theoretical perspective and through illustrations from case studies of water management in the Alps of Europe and Mekong in southeast Asia. We propose and illustrate that social learning processes are important for building adaptiveness in several ways and at different scales. Social learning can help cope with informational uncertainty; reduce normative uncertainty; build consensus on criteria for monitoring and evaluation; empower stakeholders to take adaptive actions; reduce conflicts and identify synergies between adaptations; and improve fairness of decisions and actions. Findings in the case studies provide some support for these generalizations but often with caveats related to diversity of stakeholder interests, levels of shared understanding versus contested knowledge and scale of coordination. For this reason, we suggest that future work pays greater attention to issues of agency, knowledge and scale: What strategies have individuals and organizations pursued in successful examples of social learning? How are the boundaries and interactions between science, policy and practice managed? How does social learning occur across spatial and temporal scales?
Keywords: Adaptation; European Alps; Fairness; Mekong River; Social learning; Uncertainty; Water management

Crisis relief for adults & families everywhere - Featuring the mighty micro-VCoL - Lectica (Lectica Live, 2020)
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis, we're open-sourcing our most effective stress- and crisis-management learning tools. We call these tools micro-VCoLs™. All of the micro-VCoLs shared here can be practiced effectively just by following the instructions.

Virtuous cycles of learning (VCoL) and the +7 skills - Lectica (Lectica Live, 2020)
VCoL is a cycle of goal setting, information seeking, application, and reflection. Its +7 skills include reflectivity, awareness, seeking and evaluating information, making connections, applying knowledge, seeking and working with feedback, and recognizing and overcoming built-in biases. VCoLing engages the whole learner. By this, we mean that it engages learners emotionally, physically, and intellectually, leveraging both conscious and unconscious mental processes. VCoLing ensures that new knowledge is integrated into existing knowledge in a way that makes it useful and "sticky." When people work with our assessments, they're not only building knowledge, they're also nurturing the dispositions and skills required for a lifetime of learning and development.

Regional Healthcare Ecosystem Analyst for Healthcare Associated Infections - Lee, Bruce Y. (Grantome, 2018)
Understanding and preventing the spread of both endemic and emerging healthcare-associated infectious diseases throughout hospitals and nursing homes is a national priority. Our work has shown that the many disparate inpatient healthcare facilities in a region can form a complex healthcare ecosystem connected by both direct and indirect patient sharing allowing pathogens in one health care facility to readily spread to other facilities. Our goal is to further develop RHEA (Regional Healthcare Ecosystem Analyst) into a user-friendly software tool that decision makers (e.g., policy makers, funders, product developers and manufacturers, healthcare administrators, infection prevention specialists, researchers, and educators) can readily use to help healthcare ecosystems prevent and control the spread of an endemic pathogen, methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and an emerging pathogen, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). This next generation of RHEA will bring multiple innovations by: 1) further elucidating the interconnectedness of the ecosystem and showcasing the value of cooperation among facilities versus the current individual facility approach to infectious disease control, 2) incorporating new healthcare ecosystem responses for endemic MRSA and emerging CRE, 3) continuing our work integrating economic and operational models into a framework of infectious disease epidemiological models, 4) imbuing virtual patients with characteristics linked to MRSA and CRE transmission and outcome risk, 5) building a comprehensive """"""""virtual laboratory"""""""" to help address many existing and future healthcare ecosystem infectious disease questions, and 6) building a user-friendly modeling tool that decision makers can use. The project will continue our team's longstanding modeling work and developing computational tools for decision makers via three specific aims. First, completing Specific Aim 1 will expand RHEA by adding the following capabilities: i) integrated clinical outcome and economic models, ii) more extensive and detailed patient characteristics linked to changes in infection risk and costs, iii) expanded HAI control measures, and iv) stochastic and adaptive disease parameters to represent emerging and evolving diseases. Next, Specific Aim 2 will use our newly expanded RHEA framework to model a sample endemic pathogen, MRSA, and a sample emerging pathogen, CRE to identify optimal control strategies even when pathogen characteristics are evolving. Finally, Specific Aim 3 will involve developing a user-friendly interface for RHEA and deploying it as a healthcare ecosystem computational modeling tool that various stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, healthcare administrators, infection control specialists, funders, and product manufacturers) can readily use to make decisions regarding the control of healthcare-associated infections. Public Health Relevance Understanding and preventing the spread of healthcare-associated infectious diseases throughout hospitals and nursing homes is a national priority. Simulation models can serve as virtual laboratories to help identify best practice solutions for containing common [such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)] and emerging [e.g., carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)] causes of healthcare associated infections (HAIs). Our goal is to develop our software RHEA (Regional Healthcare Ecosystem Analyst) into a computational modeling tool that can be used directly by decision makers to identify, develop, and evaluate strategies and interventions to reduce HAIs across a large geographic region.

Appraising Adaptive Management - Lee, Kai (Conservation Ecology, 1999)
Lee, K. N. 1999. Appraising adaptive management. Conservation Ecology 3(2): 3. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00131-030203

Compass and Gyroscope: Integrating Science and Politics in the Environment - Lee, Kai N. (Island Press, 1993)
In this original and far-reaching synthesis, Kai N. Lee explains that together science and politics can lead the waytoward the sustainable management of the world’s resources. Rigorous science can act as our compass, pointingus toward greater and more useful knowledge (adaptive management), and practical politics can serve as our gyroscope, keeping usbalanced between competing interest groups. Unlike some approaches to sustainable development, Compass and Gyroscope is refreshingly grounded in the realworld. Lee explains that sustainability cannot occur overnight, we have neither an adequate base of knowledgenor a reliable means of properly implementing and executing management plans. "Sustainable development is not a goal, not a condition likely to be attained on earth as we know it. Rather it is more like freedom or justice,a direction in which we strive..." Using the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest as a case study, Lee examines the successes andfailures of past and present management. He describes what has been learned, and explains how that experiencecan be applied to environmental management generally. Throughout, the author delves deeply into the theoretical framework behind the real-world experience, exploring how theories of science, politics, and cognitive psychology can be integrated into environmental management.

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

Moving from Real-Time Data to Real-Time Programs - Lee, Panthea (Reboot, 2016)
How can we avoid drowning in data to actually make better decisions?
Keywords: IMPORTANT

Bringing politics back in: Towards a model of the developmental state - Leftwich, Adrian (The Journal of Development Studies, 1995)
The few cases of rapid economic growth in the Third World in the last 30 years have occurred in democratic, quasi‐democratic and non‐democratic polities. They are thus clearly not a function of common regime type. I suggest that they are best explained by the special character of their states, understood ‘as developmental states’. This article outlines some common characteristics of these states. However the forms and features of these states are not simply a function of their administrative structures or principles of governance, but of their politics. The article thus also underlines the importance of political analysis in both development theory and policy, from where it has been extruded for too long.

Thinking and Working Politically: What does it mean, Why is it important and How do you do it? - Leftwich, Adrian (Politics, Leadership and Coalitions in Development: Policy Implications of the DLP Research Evidence, Research and Policy Workshop, 2011)
This paper suggests that working politically in a developmental context means directing attention and support to the agents of reform and development (leaders and organisations). This allows investment in the local processes that will resolve problems – such as problems of collective action – through the work of alliances and coalitions. Hence, it will drive the formation and consolidation of the locally appropriate, feasible and legitimate institutions that are most likely to advance development outcomes. The Developmental Leadership Program defines politics as the pervasive, unavoidable and necessary activities of conflict, negotiation and compromise involved in group decision-making about how resources are to be used, produced and distributed. Thinking politically means understanding that both political and technical dimensions are central to developmental outcomes. It also means: Understanding that ‘agency’ matters. That is, that people have the potential to change things, but always withhin the context of given institutional arrangements, which contain both constraints and opportunities. Leaders, organisations and followers think, strategise and attempt to resolve problems in different ways in the same contexts. Understanding leadership as a political process that mobilises people and resources in support of a goal: leaders seldom work on their own. Realising that overcoming collective action problems is a major challenge of development. Collective action problems occur when people with diverse (often competing) interests struggle to agree on an organisational arrangement from which they would all benefit. Understanding that coalitions (formal or informal) are a crucial political mechanism for the resolution of collective action problems. Paying attention to the detailed inner politics of regimes, sectors or issues (‘micro-politics’). This includes understanding who the players are, where they come from, their organisational affiliations, ideologies and interests and the political dynamics involved. (Many political analysis tools are inadequate for this level of detail.) Recognising that processes are as important as projects in development, and vary from context to context. Working politically in development means supporting, brokering, facilitating and aiding the emergence and practices of (public or private) developmental or reform leaderships, organisations, networks and coalitions at any level, and across all sectors. It means helping them to respond to, and work with, initiatives and requests from local individuals and groups. Working politically can also involve: Investing in the effectiveness of developmental coalitions by enhancing the political capacity of organisations in negotiation, advocacy, communication and the generation of constructive policy options. Rethinking higher educational support programmes so that they supplement a skills focus with strategies that help to build networks, and encourage the understanding of collective action problems and of the importance of providing public goods. Acquiring a deep and detailed knowledge of, and long-term exposure to, the country or issue concerned. Respectful and sensitive understanding of local political dynamics and cultural norms. Employing more social scientists and a well-trained, politically savvy workforce, both local and international, with the capacity to ‘read’ the politics. In particular, coalitions can help drive the endogenous politics of developmental reforms by: 1) achieving a specific policy goal; 2) opening up debate on a previously taboo issue; 3) deepening and strengthening the coalition’s internal organisation and relationships for future purposes; and 4) increasing the capacity of constituent organisations. It is also important to understand that: Developmental leaderships and coalitions often emerge in response to a critical juncture – a threat, challenge or danger – or a new opportunity. What matters is whether leaders have the knowledge, education, vision, prior experience and networks to seize such opportunities. The character and conditionality of funding by donors or supporters can make or break a coalition. Are tight conditions applied? Are funding arrangements transparent?

Scenario-based strategizing: Advancing the applicability in strategists' teams - Lehr, Thomas; Lorenz, Ullrich; Willert, Markus; Rohrbeck, René (Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2017)
For over 40years, scenarios have been promoted as a key technique for forming strategies in uncertain environments. However, many challenges remain. In this article, we discuss a novel approach designed to increase the applicability of scenario-based strategizing in top management teams. Drawing on behavioural strategy as a theoretical lens, we design a yardstick to study the impact of scenario-based strategizing. We then describe our approach, which includes developing scenarios and alternative strategies separately and supporting the strategy selection through an integrated assessment of the goal-based efficacy and robustness. To facilitate the collaborative strategizing in teams, we propose a matrix with robustness and efficacy as the two axes, which we call the Parmenides Matrix. We assess the impact of the novel approach by applying it in two cases, at a governmental agency (German Environmental Ministry) and a firm affected by disruptive change (Bosch, leading global supplier of technology and solutions).
Keywords: Behavioural strategy; Scenario-based strategizing; Scenarios; Strategic foresight; Uncertainty

Evaluating megaprojects: From the ‘iron triangle’ to network mapping - Lehtonen, Markku (Evaluation, 2014)
Evaluation literature has paid relatively little attention to the specific needs of evaluating large, complex industrial and infrastructure projects, often called ‘megaprojects’. The abundant megaproject governance literature, in turn, has largely focused on the so-called ‘megaproject pathologies’, i.e. the chronic budget overruns, and failure of such projects to keep to timetables and deliver the expected social and economic benefits. This article draws on these two strands of literature, identifies shortcomings, and suggests potential pathways towards an improved evaluation of megaprojects. To counterbalance the current overemphasis on relatively narrowly defined accountability as the main function of megaproject evaluation, and the narrow definition of project success in megaproject evaluation, the article argues that conceptualizing megaprojects as dynamic and evolving networks would provide a useful basis for the design of an evaluation approach better able to promote learning and to address the socio-economic aspects of megaprojects. A modified version of ‘network mapping’ is suggested as a possible framework for megaproject evaluation, with the exploration of the multiple accountability relationships as a central evaluation task, designed to reconcile learning and accountability as the central evaluation functions. The article highlights the role of evaluation as an ‘emergent’ property of spontaneous megaproject ‘governing’, and explores the challenges that this poses to the role of the evaluator.

Transforming governance: how can technology help reshape democracy? - Leighninger, Matt (Institute of Development Studies, 2016)
Around the world, people are asking how we can make democracy work in new and better ways. We are frustrated by political systems in which voting is the only legitimate political act, concerned that many republics don’t have the strength or appeal to withstand authoritarian figures, and disillusioned by the inability of many countries to address the fundamental challenges of health, education and economic development. If we want to create democracies in which citizens have meaningful roles in shaping public decisions and solving public problems, we should be asking a number of questions about civic tech, including: • How can online tools best support new forms of democracy? • What are the examples of how this has happened? • What are some variables to consider in comparing these examples? • How can we learn from each other as we move forward? This background note has been developed to help democratic innovators explore these questions and examine how their work can provide answers.

Transformative Communication for Empowerment: Silence and Participatory Development in a Marginalized Community in Nueva Ecija, Philippines - Lejarde, Valerie Anne M. (University of the Philippines - Open University, 2023)
This study explored how the Outreach Philippines, Inc. (OPI) implements the participatory human development (PHD) approach using transformative communication, in a community-based organization (CBO), Lawag ti Caridad Norte Association (LCNA), in Caridad Norte, Llanera, Nueva Ecija. A phenomenological lens examined the lived experiences of six participants interviewed on December 10 and 13, 2022, and through my own reflections as a community development worker of OPI. Specifically, I analyzed the CBO leaders’ perception of silence, transformative communication engagements in the PHD process, and changes among the stakeholders. The PHD process itself is transformative communication that allows the mutual development of both the CBO leaders and the PHD facilitator. The PHD process involves and establishes consistent dialogic communication and collaborative actions between the facilitator and the community members, hence transforming both into more empowered agencies. But transformative communication must consider different constructs of cultural silence in engaging the community, especially in facilitating participatory development.

What Is This Thing Called a Mechanism? Findings From a Review of Realist Evaluations - Lemire, Sebastian; Kwako, Alexander; Nielsen, Steffen B.; Christie, Christina A.; Donaldson, Stewart I.; Leeuw, Frans L. (New Directions for Evaluation, 2020)
Realist evaluation has, over the past two decades, become a widely used approach in evaluation. The cornerstone of realist evaluation is to answer the question: What works, for whom, under what circumstances, and why. This is accomplished by explicating the causal mechanisms that, within a particular context, generate the outcomes of interest. Despite the central role of mechanisms in realist evaluation, systematic knowledge about how the term mechanism is conceptualized and operationalized is limited. The aim of the present chapter is to examine how mechanisms are defined and applied in realist evaluations. Informed by the findings of the review, further conceptual and practical developments for future applications of mechanisms in realist evaluation are considered.

Narrowing the climate information usability gap - Lemos, Maria Carmen; Kirchhoff, Christine J.; Ramprasad, Vijay (Nature Climate Change, 2012)
Climate-change-related risks pose serious threats to the management of a wide range of social, economic and ecological systems. Managing these risks requires knowledge-intensive adaptive management and policy-making actively informed by scientific knowledge, especially climate science1. However, potentially useful climate information often goes unused1,2. This suggests a gap between what scientists understand as useful information and what users recognize as usable in their decision-making. We propose a dynamic conceptual model to address this gap and highlight strategies to move information from useful to usable to reduce climate-related risks.

The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning - Lent, Jeremy (Prometheus Books, 2017)
This fresh perspective on crucial questions of history identifies the root metaphors that cultures have used to construct meaning in their world. It offers a glimpse into the minds of a vast range of different peoples: early hunter-gatherers and farmers, ancient Egyptians, traditional Chinese sages, the founders of Christianity, trail-blazers of the Scientific Revolution, and those who constructed our modern consumer society. Taking the reader on an archaeological exploration of the mind, the author, an entrepreneur and sustainability leader, uses recent findings in cognitive science and systems theory to reveal the hidden layers of values that form today's cultural norms. Uprooting the tired cliches of the science-religion debate, he shows how medieval Christian rationalism acted as an incubator for scientific thought, which in turn shaped our modern vision of the conquest of nature. The author probes our current crisis of unsustainability and argues that it is not an inevitable result of human nature, but is culturally driven: a product of particular mental patterns that could conceivably be reshaped. By shining a light on our possible futures, the book foresees a coming struggle between two contrasting views of humanity: one driving to a technological endgame of artificially enhanced humans, the other enabling a sustainable future arising from our intrinsic connectedness with each other and the natural world. This struggle, it concludes, is one in which each of us will play a role through the meaning we choose to forge from the lives we lead.

Smart Risks: How small grants are helping to solve some of the world's biggest problems - Lentfer, Jennifer; Cothran, Tanya (Practical Action Publishing, 2017)
As never before, international aid is in the hands of ordinary people. Concerned citizens in wealthy countries are starting philanthropy groups, joining giving circles, and travelling internationally to lend support. Yet, they are torn between the feelings that 'something' must be done about global poverty and that foreign assistance is creating dependency and fueling corruption overseas.A growing community of international small grant-makers know how to find and fund effective grassroots initiatives. Compared to donor-controlled, large-scale, project-based international aid funding, small grant-makers use the concept of 'smart risks' to build upon existing human and social capital and to make a lasting changes in people's lives. Smart Risks brings together the wisdom of experts with wide-ranging experience within the development sector. Their contributions focus on five guiding question, such as 'who is a smart risk?' and 'what is your role in smart risks?' They include case studies, personal stories of lessons learned over time, provocative insights on power and privilege, and practical frameworks for choosing, investing in, and measuring the impact of grassroots organizations and movements. This book is essential reading for all those who wonder how their donations and work can make a difference in developing countries - from aid agency staff and policy makers, to globally engaged individuals.

Steering E-Government Projects from Failure to Success: Using Design-Reality Gap Analysis as a Mid-Implementation Assessment Tool - Lessa, Lemma; Negash, Solomon; Belachew, Mesfin (Emerging Issues and Prospects in African E-Government:, 2014)
There are many e-government failures in developing countries. Most studies look at these after the event (post hoc), but this chapter takes an original approach to look mid-implementation (durante hoc) in order to provide recommendations for improvement. The authors chose a partial failure/partial success land management information system being implemented in one Ethiopian city. The project has made retrieval of land information quicker and simpler but is only partly implemented, and is still—on occasion—circumvented by public servants for personal gain. They used design-reality gap framework to understand why the project had partly failed. The authors used the design-reality gap analysis to propose an action plan that would help institutionalise the system, steering it from partial failure to success. They demonstrate the value of this framework as a tool for mid-implementation analysis of e-government projects. The authors recommend its usage on other ongoing e-government projects in developing countries.

The landscape of innovation approaches - Leurs, Bas (States of Change, 2018)
An overview of innovation methods and approaches we’ve come across in government innovation practice.

Playbook for innovation learning. 35 diagrams to support talking and thinking about learning for innovation - Leurs, Bas; Roberts, Isobel (Nesta, 2018)

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

Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers - Lewin, Kurt (Harper & Brothers, 1951)

Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos - Lewin, Roger (University of Chicago Press, 1994)
"Put together one of the world's best science writers with one of the universe's most fascinating subjects and you are bound to produce a wonderful book. . . . The subject of complexity is vital and controversial. This book is important and beautifully done."—Stephen Jay Gould"[Complexity] is that curious mix of complication and organization that we find throughout the natural and human worlds: the workings of a cell, the structure of the brain, the behavior of the stock market, the shifts of political power. . . . It is time science . . . thinks about meaning as well as counting information. . . . This is the core of the complexity manifesto. Read it, think about it . . . but don't ignore it."—Ian Stewart, NatureThis second edition has been brought up to date with an essay entitled "On the Edge in the Business World" and an interview with John Holland, author of Emergence: From Chaos to Order.

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer - Liker, Jeffrey K. (McGraw-Hill, 2004)
How to speed up business processes, improve quality, and cut costs in any industryIn factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.Complete with profiles of organizations that have successfully adopted Toyota's principles, this book shows managers in every industry how to improve business processes by:Eliminating wasted time and resources Building quality into workplace systems Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology Producing in small quantities Turning every employee into a quality control inspector

Reflections on the Utilization-Focused Evaluation (UFE) Process - Lim, Yvonne; Mizumoto, Ann (Strengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA) Programme, 2010)
This presentation from the Strengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA) provides an overview of how UFE was used in their SIRCA programme. It was presented at the Evaluation Conclave 2010, New Delhi, India The key objectives of the program are to: Enhance research capacity in Asia through rigorous academic research Create a space for dialogue on ICT4D social science research issues in Asia Create linkages through a mentorship program Disseminate findings in publications and conferences Contents SIRCA Programme SIRCA Key Objectives SIRCA Evaluation UFE Learnings UFE Challenges Evaluation is over…but there’s a lasting outcome...

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

The Science of "Muddling Through" - Lindblom, Charles E. (Public Administration Review, 1959)
Short courses, books, and articles exhort administrators to make decisions more methodically, but there has been little analysis of the decision-making process now used by public administrators. The usual process is investigated here-and generally defended against proposals for more "scientific" methods. Decisions of individual administrators, of course, must be integrated with decisions of others to form the mosaic of public policy. This integration of individual decisions has become the major concern of organization theory, and the way individuals make decisions necessarily affects the way those decisions are best meshed with others'. In addition, decision-making method relates to allocation of decision-making responsibility-who should make what decision. More "scientific" decision-making also is discussed in this issue: "Tools for Decision-Making in Resources Planning."

Adaptive monitoring: a new paradigm for long-term research and monitoring - Lindenmayer, David B.; Likens, Gene E. (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2009)
Long-term research and monitoring can provide important ecological insights and are crucial for the improved management of ecosystems and natural resources. However, many long-term research and monitoring programs are either ineffective or fail completely owing to poor planning and/or lack of focus. Here we propose the paradigm of adaptive monitoring, which aims to resolve many of the problems that have undermined previous attempts to establish long-term research and monitoring. This paradigm is driven by tractable questions, rigorous statistical design at the outset, a conceptual model of the ecosystem or other entity being examined and a human need to know about ecosystem change. An adaptive monitoring framework enables monitoring programs to evolve iteratively as new information emerges and research questions change.

You might not be as agile as you think you are - Lindpaintner, Julia; Rivera, Stephanie (18F, 2019)
The mandate to be agile is everywhere. But agile isn’t an on-off switch. It’s a skill and a mindset that is developed over time, through dedicated work, open teams, and lots (and lots) of practice

Livelihoods in the Za'atari Camp: Impact evaluation of Oxfam’s Cash for Work activities in the Za’atari camp (Jordan) - Lombardini, Simone; Mager, Franziska (http://hdl.handle.net/10546/620883, 2019)

Applying Adaptive Management in a Fragile Context – Case Study - Lonsdale, Jane; Green, Duncan; Robertson, Kelly (DT Global, 2023)
DT Global is proud to introduce our new Guidance Note: Practical Introduction to Adaptive Management There is a growing consensus around adaptive management as an effective (even necessary) approach when programs are tackling complex development problems. While there is no standard definition of adaptive management, there is general agreement that such programs need to routinely engage with and respond to program context; constantly test what works in that context; and adjust approaches, plans, and activities based on continuous learning. However, there remains a more limited body of evidence about what this looks like in practice—the enabling conditions, systems, resourcing, skills, and attitudes to effectively operationalise adaptive management. There is also limited guidance around when adaptive management is required, and to what extent—both critical and often overlooked considerations when planning for successful adaptive management. This Guidance Note draws together lessons and good practice in adaptive management from across DT Global’s diverse portfolio of donor-funded programs. It outlines our conceptual framework for adaptive management, with practical guidance on how it can be applied by our program teams. It is also designed to help our teams distinguish adaptive management from good (non adaptive) project management, consider when adaptive management is most useful on a program, and how adaptive a program (or part of a program) should be.

Thinking and Working Politically: Lessons from FOSTER in Nigeria - Lopez Lucia, Elisa; Buckley, Joanna; Marquette, Heather; McCulloch, Neil (DLP Program, 2017)
The Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform (FOSTER) was a £14 million programme that has helped Nigeria to transform its governance of the oil and gas industry. FOSTER ran from 2011 to mid-2016, and used an explicit ‘thinking and working politically’ (TWP) approach. It was funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and managed by Oxford Policy Management (OPM). This paper seeks to identify the factors that drove – or constrained – FOSTER’s achievements, and asks what this can tell us about TWP, particularly in challenging political and sectoral contexts. FOSTER sought to help strengthen oversight and accountability in Nigeria’s oil sector. It aimed to support reformers within government institutions that ‘supply’ accountability (those governing how oil and gas revenues are collected and managed), and to support civil society organisations, parliament, the media and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative to ‘demand’ reform. In addition, FOSTER commissioned a series of studies and provided media training to help broaden understanding of the sector and highlight the need for reform. This paper examines the outcomes from five ‘clusters’ of FOSTER interventions. The FOSTER team viewed the first three of these in the list below as successful, whereas the latter two did not deliver on expectations but offer important opportunities for learning: • Support to the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative • Support to demand-side actors to promote transparency and accountability in the oil sector • Support for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill • An oil spill-mapping social media project • Support to the Department of Petroleum Resources The analysis drew on 44 semi-structured interviews conducted during a month of fieldwork in Abuja and Lagos; on reviews of the programme’s monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks; and on newspaper articles and grey literature on Nigeria’s oil sector.2

Reciprocity in International Volunteer Cooperation - Lough, Benjamin J. (Fredskorpset Norway, 2016)

When Does the State Listen? - Loureiro, Miguel; Cassim, Aalia; Darko, Terence; Katera, Lucas; Salome, Nyambura (IDS Bulletin, 2016)

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

Adaptive Management for International Development Programs - Loveridge, Donna (2007)
Capacity development, that is “the process whereby people, organisations and society as a whole unleash, strengthen, create, adapt and maintain capacity over time” (OECD 2005) has been a key aim of international aid programs. However, capacity development efforts have not met with resounding success despite approximately 25%, or USD15 billion a year, being spent by donors in recent years on technical assistance1 which has predominantly been aimed at developing capacity. A 1998 review by the World Bank (World Bank 1998) found that the success rate for capacity development efforts was between 30 – 40%. The Commission for Africa (2005) noted in 2005 that achievements were below expectations. The OECD (2007) sees capacity development as being one of the areas which are least responsive to development assistance and therefore one of the greatest challenges. This paper proposes that development practitioners and donors could benefit from taking an evaluative inquiry-type of approach to the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of capacity development programs. An alternative approach, “adaptive management”, is proposed. Adaptive management moves away from a rational linear A + B = C approach to capacity development towards constructing and testing theories of change2 for knowledge generation, adaptation and program improvement.

Market systems change rubric - Loveridge, Donna (Oxford Policy Management, 2022)
This systems change rubric describes different performance levels according to various systems elements, such as policy (formal rules), practices and relationships and connections. Programmes can use the rubric to assess the performance of systems to help decide where and how to intervene, or during and post-implementation to conduct progress assessments, and assess the effectiveness of interventions and type, breadth and depth of systems change. Each performance level description highlights the type of data and information that needs to be collected. One analysis is completed, users can compare this to the performance descriptions to see which level best matches the analysis. This helps programmes draw conclusions about systems changes. The rubric was developed in 2020 and tested in 2021 and builds on systems change thinking and frameworks from two previous FSG publications. It can be used as: pre-intervention to conduct an assessment during an intervention to conduct progress assessments and reflect on the effectiveness of interventions to change systems and inform decision making post intervention to make judgements about whether interventions were valuable given the resources, time and effort spent Useful for: Implementation managers to determine the effectiveness of interventions, as well as by Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) teams to track progress against expected outcomes.

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

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

Redefining rigour: using stories to evaluate systems change? - Lowther, Keira (Centre For Public Impact (CPI), 2022)
What might a different way of understanding rigour for work in complex adaptive systems look like?

Real Time Monitoring and the New Information Technologies - Lucas, Henry; Batchelor, Simon; Berdou, Evangelia (IDS Bulletin, 2013)
Debates as to the potential role of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in monitoring the wellbeing of vulnerable groups is often bedevilled by the failure of two principal actors – social researchers and technical experts – to address the other’s concerns or even to use language that is comprehensible to the other side. The aim here is to unpick some of the technical language relevant in this context and provide a brief introductory guide to some aspects of the current, rapidly changing and highly diverse ICT environment.

A Review and Critique of Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation Theory as it Applies to Organizations - Lundblad, Jennifer P. (Organization Development Journal, 2003)
Num Pages: 50-64 Place: Chesterland, United States Publisher: International Society for Organization Development, Inc.

Rethinking Rigor - Increasing Credibility and Use - Lynn, Jewlya; Preskill, Hallie (Spark Policy Institute & FSG, 2016)
Evaluations of complex systems change strategies or adaptive, innovative programs cannot use the traditional “rigor” yardstick to measure quality. This paper proposes a new definition of rigor, one that applies in any setting, but particularly in complex, adaptive ones. Top Takeaways: 4 criteria for the new definition of rigor: - Quality of thinking - Credible and legitimate claims - Cultural context and responsiveness - Quality and value of the learning process Regardless of its other positive attributes, an evaluation of a complex, adaptive program that fails to take into account systems thinking will not be responsive to the needs of that program.

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

Lost Causal: Debunking Myths About Causal Analysis in Philanthropy - Lynn, Jewlya; Stachowiak, Sarah; Coffman, Julia (The Foundation Review, 2021)

111 Evaluation Cartoons for Presentations and Blog Posts - Lysy, Chris (2020)

Towards transformative social learning on the path to 1.5 degrees - Macintyre, Thomas; Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; Wals, Arjen; Vogel, Coleen; Tassone, Valentina (Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2018)

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.

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.

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

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.
Publisher: Routledge _eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2015.983460

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

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 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

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

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.

From Political Won't to Political Will: Building Support for Participatory Governance - Malena, Carmen (Kumarian Press, 2009)
* Geographically diverse examples of participatory governance in action* Practical case studies show how citizens can participate more fully in the political process Despite a recent wave of democratization around the world, traditional systems of representative democracy seem to be in crisis. Citizens in both the North and the South lack opportunities, rights and access to information and have expressed growing disillusionment with their governments. Ordinary citizens (especially women, poor people and other marginalized groups) are largely excluded from the political processes that directly affect their lives. There is now growing consensus that good governance is participatory governance (PG), but public officials are often reluctant to adopt such an approach. From Political Won’t to Political Will addresses the particular challenge of encouraging these officials to involve citizens in the political process. The book presents contributions by participants from CIVICUS’ 2008 conference on building political will for PG. Representing the perspectives of both civil society and government actors, they propose a number of strategies and lessons such as demonstrating the benefits of PG to governments, complementing formal democratic institutions, building trust, supporting PG champions and using strategic political timing. Their practical and highly original findings will interest anyone eager to see the empowerment of people around the world.
Google-Books-ID: xILlSXw3D5oC

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, …

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

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.

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

Investment Climate Reform: Doing it Differently - Manuel, Clare (DFID-LASER Programme, 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.

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

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

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

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

The power of positive deviance - Marsh, David R; Schroeder, Dirk G; Dearden, Kirk A; Sternin, Jerry; Sternin, Monique (BMJ : British Medical Journal, 2004)
Identifying individuals with better outcome than their peers (positive deviance) and enabling communities to adopt the behaviours that explain the improved outcome are powerful methods of producing change

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Evaluating complex interventions in international development - Masset, Edoardo; Shrestha, S.; Juden, M. (CEDIL, 2021)
This paper reviews promising methods for the evaluation of complex interventions that are new or have been used in a limited way. It offers a taxonomy of complex interventions in international development and draws on literature to discuss several methods that can be used to evaluate these interventions. Complex interventions are those that are characterised by multiple components, multiple stakeholders, or multiple target populations. They may also be interventions that incorporate multiple processes of behavioural change. While such interventions are very common and receive a large proportion of development aid budgets, they are rarely subject to rigorous evaluations. The CEDIL Methods Working Paper, ‘Evaluating Complex Interventions in International Development’, reviews promising methods for the evaluation of complex interventions that are new or have been used in a limited way. It offers a taxonomy of complex interventions in international development and draws on literature to discuss several methods that can be used to evaluate these interventions. The paper focuses its attention on methods that address causality and allow us to state conclusively whether an intervention works or not. It shows that several rigorous methods developed in different disciplines can be adapted and used to evaluate complex interventions in international development.
Section: Publications

Evaluating complex interventions: What are appropriate methods? - Masset, Eduardo (CEDIL, 2022)
In the CEDIL Methods brief, ‘Evaluating complex interventions: What are appropriate methods?’ we identify four types of complex development interventions: long causal chain interventions, multicomponent interventions, portfolio interventions, and system-level interventions. These interventions are characterised by multiple activities, multiple outcomes, multiple components, a high level of interconnectedness, and non-linear outcomes.
Section: Publications

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.

OutNav - Evaluate outcomes and impact - Matter of Focus (Matter of Focus, 2021)
Make better use of your data and information to learn, improve and tell an evidenced story of the difference your organisation is making.

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

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.

Contribution Analysis: An approach to exploring cause and effect - Mayne, J. (ILAC, 2008)
Questions of cause and effect are critical to assessing the performance of programmes and projects. When it is not practical to design an experiment to assess performance, contribution analysis can provide credible assessments of cause and effect. Verifying the theory of change that the programme is based on, and paying attention to other factors that may influence the outcomes, provides reasonable evidence about the contribution being made by the programme.

Addressing attribution through contribution analysis: Using performance measures sensibly - Mayne, John (The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 2001)
The changing culture of public administration involves accountability for results and outcomes. This article suggests that performance measurement can address such attribution questions. Contribution analysis has a major role to play in helping managers, researchers, and policymakers to arrive at conclusions about the contribution their program has made to particular outcomes. The article describes the steps necessary to produce a credible contribution story. Contents Accountability for Outcomes The Problem of Attribution The Case of Performance Measurement Recognizing the Limits of Measurement Two Uses of Performance Measurement: Understanding and Reporting Approaches to Attribution: Contribution Analysis Techniques for Strengthening Your Performance Story

Developing and Using Useful ToCs - Mayne, John (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.

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.

The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies - Mazzucato, Mariana; Collington, Rosie (Allen Lane, 2023)
There is an entrenched relationship between the consulting industry and the way business and government are managed today which must change.Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington show that our economies' reliance on companies such as McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY stunts innovation, obfuscates corporate and political accountability and impedes our collective mission of halting climate breakdown.The 'Big Con' describes the confidence trick the consulting industry performs in contracts with hollowed-out and risk-averse governments and shareholder value-maximizing firms. It grew from the 1980s and 1990s in the wake of reforms by both the neoliberal right and Third Way progressives, and it thrives on the ills of modern capitalism, from financialization and privatization to the climate crisis. It is possible because of the unique power that big consultancies wield through extensive contracts and networks - as advisors, legitimators and outsourcers - and the illusion that they are objective sources of expertise and capacity. To make matters worse, our best and brightest graduates are often redirected away from public service into consulting. In all these ways, the Big Con weakens our businesses, infantilizes our governments and warps our economies.Mazzucato and Collington expertly debunk the myth that consultancies always add value to the economy. With a wealth of original research, they argue brilliantly for investment and collective intelligence within all organizations and communities, and for a new system in which public and private sectors work innovatively for the common good. We must recalibrate the role of consultants and rebuild economies and governments that are fit for purpose.

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

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.

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

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

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)

Energy Governance in Developing Countries — A New Approach - Mcculloch, Neil (The Policy Practice & Chemonics, 2021)
In 2015, leaders from around the world agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. The seventh goal (SDG7) is: “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” In the same year, the world’s leaders concluded the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, which will require a global transition in the energy sector away from the use of fossil fuels. Yet, despite growing investments in clean energy in many developing countries, the transition is happening much more slowly than needed. The central reason for this is poor energy governance. This technical brief shows how poor energy governance damages energy access and efforts to improve the quality and reliability of power. It explains the political reasons why energy governance is so bad in many countries and contrasts this with the current system of procuring technical assistance, which largely ignores the energy governance challenge. It shows that a new approach to tackling energy governance is emerging that is better matched to the nature of the problems faced and provides recommendations on how to implement it.

Why Tackling Energy Governance in Developing Countries Needs a Different Approach - McCulloch, Neil (The Policy Practice & Chemonics, 2021)
Global efforts to improve energy access and quality and to tackle climate change need a different approach to addressing poor energy governance. In 2015, leaders from around the world agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030.1 The seventh goal (SDG7) is “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” In the same year, the world’s leaders concluded the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, which will require a global transition of the energy sector away from the use of fossil fuels. Yet, in many developing countries, despite growing investments in clean energy, the transition is happening much more slowly than needed to achieve SDG7 and avert damaging climate change. The central reason for this is poor energy governance. This paper outlines the size and nature of the energy challenge, with a focus on electricity. It describes the investments that are currently being made to improve the quality of power and access to electricity — and the growing evidence that investments often fail due to poor energy governance. The paper then delves more deeply into how bad governance influences the quality of and access to electricity, with specific country examples. It shows the importance of understanding how electricity fits into the political settlement of a country and how this affects the incentives of key actors in the sector. Unfortunately, donor projects designed to widen electricity access or to support reform of the power sector in developing countries often pay too little attention to the problem’s political nature; the same is true of measures to improve energy efficiency or to promote renewables. The paper outlines a new way of thinking about energy governance and shows how interventions can be better matched to the different governance challenges that they face. It concludes with recommendations for donors on how energy programs can be better designed and procured — as well as recommendations for implementors on how to improve the chances of successful implementation by adapting to the political realities of the contexts in which they operate.

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

COUNT - Understanding the challenge of government responsiveness - McGee, Rosemary (MAVC and IDS, 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.

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

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.

Outcome Measurement in Local Governance Programmes: a Power Dimension - McGee, Rosemary; Pettit, Jethro (IDS, 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.

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.

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

Shifting Power? Assessing the Impact of Transparency and Accountability Initiatives - McGee, Rosie; Gaventa, John (IDS, 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...

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.

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.

Building a culture of learning at scale: learning networks for systems change. - McKenzie, Fiona (Orange Compass & Paul Ramsay Foundation, 2021)
This scoping paper explores the question ‘what would it take to build a culture of learning at scale?’. It focuses on systems-wide learning that can help to inform systems change efforts in complex contexts. To answer this question, literature was reviewed from across diverse disciplines and the realms of education, innovation systems, systems thinking and knowledge management. This inquiry was also supported by in-depth interviews with numerous specialists from the for-purpose sector and the examination of several case studies of learning across systems. The goal was to derive common patterns to inform a ‘learning for systems change’ framework. Learning for systems change is critical when working with complexity. The dynamic nature of complex adaptive systems requires an ability to continually sense and learn from the system and adapt accordingly. This is because the nature of the challenge and ‘what works’ to meet the challenge is continually shifting (Lowe and Plimmer, 2019). This requires an ongoing process of iterative inquiry that draws upon wisdom and insights from across the system. Such learning challenges traditional siloes of expertise and organisational boundaries (Clarke et al., 2019). Learning is not simply a nice to have. It is critical for greater impact and improved outcomes, particularly in mission-driven organisations and initiatives (Price et al., 2019). In this paper, a ‘learning networks’ approach is proposed, one that draws upon individual, group and systems-wide learning to build capacity and resilience for systems change in uncertain environments. This fills a gap in the literature where the focus is largely on learning within organisations. Instead, the focus here is on what is required to support learning to occur across scales and boundaries - from the individual to system-wide. A simple meta-framework for developing learning networks is proposed that includes high level guidance on the enabling conditions - the mindsets, relationships, processes and structures- that would enable learning networks to flourish.

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

Adaptive management: Promises and pitfalls - McLain, Rebecca J.; Lee, Robert G. (Environmental Management, 1996)
Proponents of the scientific adaptive management approach argue that it increases knowledge acquisition rates, enhances information flow among policy actors, and provides opportunities for creating shared understandings. However, evidence from efforts to implement the approach in New Brunswick, British Columbia, Canada, and the Columbia River Basin indicates that these promises have not been met. The data show that scientific adaptive management relies excessively on the use of linear systems models, discounts nonscientific forms of knowledge, and pays inadequate attention to policy processes that promote the development of shared understandings among diverse stakeholders. To be effective, new adaptive management efforts will need to incorporate knowledge from multiple sources, make use of multiple systems models, and support new forms of cooperation among stakeholders.

Adaptive Management: Learning and Action Approaches to Implementing Norms-shifting Interventions - McLarnon, Courtney; Gayles, Jennifer; Deepan, Prabu (USAID / Passages, 2021)
What Passages has Learned about Adaptive Management: • Be reflective about information that is collected and create a culture of learning. • Be systematic about establishing monitoring and learning systems. • Be strategic about data sources and analysis, prioritizing areas for learning and addressing issues raised. • Be inclusive about information collection: who is collecting what, how, and how is it being used.

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.
Google-Books-ID: 9X6YDwAAQBAJ
Keywords: Developing & Emerging 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 …

Complexity, Organizations and Change - McMillan, Elizabeth (Routledge, 2004)
Complexity science has seriously challenged long-held views in the scientific community about how the world works. These ideas, particularly about the living world, also have radical and profound implications for organizations and society as a whole. Available in paperback for the first time, this insightful book describes and considers ideas from complexity science and examines their use in organizations, especially in bringing about major organizational change. Author McMillan explores how organizations, their design, the way they operate and, importantly, the people who co-create them, are thought of.Explaining the history and development of complexity science in an accessible way for the non-scientific reader, this outstanding book describes key concepts and their use in theory and practice. Illustrated with real-life examples from organizations in the UK, Europe and the USA, the book includes an in-depth case study of an organization which used complexity principles as part of a strategic change intervention. From this, useful models for introducing a complexity-based change process are derived.Complexity, Organizations and Change will appeal to academics, researchers and advanced students who are interested in complexity science and what it means for strategy, organization and management theory and organizational change.

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.

Thinking in Systems: A Primer - Meadows, Donella H. (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008)
In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet— Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001.Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking.While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner.In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

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.

The Haves and the Have Nots: Civic Technologies and the Pathways to Government Responsiveness - Mellon, Jonathan; Peixoto, Tiago C; Sjoberg, Fredrik M (World Bank, 2022)
“Civic tech” broadly refers to the use of digital technologies to support a range of citizen engagement processes. From allowing individuals to report problems to local government to enabling the crowdsourcing of national legislation, civic tech aims to promote better policies and services – while contributing to more inclusive democratic institutions. But could civic tech affect public issues in a way that benefits some and excludes others? Over the decades, the question of who participates in and who is excluded from participation mediated by technology has been the focus of both civic tech critics and proponents. The latter tend to argue that, by enabling citizens to participate without constraints of time and distance, civic tech facilitates the participation of those who usually abstain from engaging with public issues, leading to more inclusive processes. Critics argue that, given the existing digital divide, unequal access to technology will tend to empower the already empowered, further deepening societal differences. Yet both critics and proponents do tend to share an intuitive assumption: the socio-economic profile of who participates is the primary determinant of who benefits from digitally mediated civic participation. For instance, if more men participate, outcomes will favor male preferences, and if more young people participate, outcomes will be more aligned with the concerns of the youth. In a new paper, we show that the link between the demographics of those participating through digital channels, and the beneficiaries of the participation process, is not necessarily as straightforward as commonly assumed. We review four civic tech cases where data allow us to trace the full participatory chain through: the initial digital divide the participant’s demographics the demands made through the process the policy outcomes We examine online voting in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul’s participatory budgeting process, the local problem reporting platform Fix My Street (FMS) in the United Kingdom, Iceland’s online crowdsourced constitution process, and the global petitioning platform Change.org. Counterintuitive findings Change.org has been used by nearly half a billion people around the globe. Using a dataset of 3.9 million signers of online petitions in 132 countries, we examine the number of successful petitions and assess whether petitions created by women have more success than those submitted by men. Our analysis shows that, even if women create fewer online petitions than men, their petitions are more likely to be successful. All else equal, when online petitions have an impact on government policy, the agenda being implemented is much closer to the issues women choose to focus on. In Rio Grande do Sul’s digital participatory budgeting (PB), we show that despite important demographic differences between online and offline voters, these inequalities do not affect which types of projects are selected for funding – a consequence of PB’s unique institutional design, which favors redistributive effects. In fact, of all the cases analyzed, none reflect the standard assumption that inequalities in who participates translate directly into inequalities in who benefits from the policy outcomes. Our results suggest that the socio-economic profile of participants predicts only in part who benefits from civic tech. Just as important to policy outcomes is how the platform translates civic participation into policy demands, and how the government responds to those demands. While civic tech practitioners pay a lot of attention to design from a technological perspective, our findings highlight the importance of considering how civic tech platforms function as political institutions that encourage certain types of behavior while discouraging others. Civic tech, it seems, is not inherently good nor bad for democratic institutions. Instead, its effect is a combination of who participates on digital platforms and the choices of platform designers and governments.

Building effective research policy networks: linking function and form - Mendizabal, Enrique (ODI, 2006)
This paper looks at the factors that affect the key structural characteristics of research policy networks in an attempt to develop a methodology for studying and understanding what networks do and how. It builds on previous work on the roles and functions that networks carry out and focuses on their structural characteristics. The literature on networks is explored to identify the main and most common factors affecting their structure, and then the paper considers the possible effects of these structural factors on a network's ability to perform one or more of these functions based on some of the lessons learned from a study of seven research policy networks in Peru. The paper provides a menu of factors and characteristics worth considering when intending to build effective networks.
OCLC: 183914885

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.

Understanding Networks: The functions of research policy networks - Mendizabal, Enrique (ODI, 2006)
We are constantly talking about networks. Banks use their networks to offer global services to customers; airlines fly passengers all over the world via their networks of partners; news agencies use media networks to keep us informed every minute of the day; and terrorist networks threaten citizens around the world. The importance of networks extends to the development sector: they organise civil society to advocate for and implement change; they link the local with the global, the private with the public; and they provide spaces for the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. In a way, networks seem to make anything and everything happen. But we have yet to understand what they are and what they can and cannot do. In the development literature, a huge variety of policy and social network concepts and applications exists. This paper attempts to set out a framework to help clarify what research policy networks do.

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.

AdaptScan - Improving your Team's Adaptive Management - Mercy Corps (Mercy Corps, 2020)

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?

Agile: A New Way of Governing - Mergel, Ines; Ganapati, Sukumar; Whitford, Andrew B. (Public Administration Review, 2021)
The evolving concept of “agile” has fundamentally changed core aspects of software design, project management, and business operations. The agile approach could also reshape government, public management, and governance in general. In this Viewpoint essay, the authors introduce the modern agile movement, reflect on how it can benefit public administrators, and describe several challenges that managers will face when they are expected to make their organizations more flexible and responsive.
_eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/puar.13202

Agile Software Development: Adaptive Systems Principles and Best Practices - Meso, Peter; Jain, Radhika (Information Systems Management, 2006)
Today's environments of increasing business change require software development methodologies that are more adaptable. This article examines how complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory can be used to increase our understanding of how agile software development practices can be used to develop this capability. A mapping of agile practices to CAS principles and three dimensions (product, process, and people) results in several recommendations for “best practices” in systems development.
Keywords: IMPORTANT

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’.