Articles

Authors: Pleger, L. & Sager, F.

Publication date: in press

The paper suggests that while evaluators are often confronted with influence by different stakeholders, that influence is not per se negative. A heuristic model of influence on evaluations is proposed, which allows to distinguish different types of influence.

Author:  Howard White
Organization: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)
Publication date: June 2009

Calls for rigorous impact evaluation has been accompanied by the quest for what works and why. Howard White identifies six principles for the successful application of the approach -- mapping out the causal chain (programme theory), understanding the context, anticipating heterogeneity, rigorous evaluation of impact using a credible counterfactual, rigorous factual analysis and using mixed methods.

Authors: Bours, D., McGinn, C. & Pringle, P. (for SEA Change CoP, UKCIP)
Publication date: 2014

This Guidance Note describes the Theory of Change approach and explains why it is a good fit for climate change adaptation programming. It highlights its differences with the more familiar logic model / logical framework (‘logframe’) approaches – and also shows how they can be used together.

Author: Patricia Rogers
Date: September 2014

Recognizing the importance of impact evaluation to UNICEF's work, the Office of Research - Innocenti has collaborated with  RMIT University, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), and BetterEvaluation to produce a series of methodological briefs and videos on the topic. The series covers the building blocks of impact evaluation, strategies for causal attribution, and different data collection and analysis methods. The focus of Impact Evaluation Brief No. 2 is on the Theory of Change (ToC).

Author: Organizational Research Services (ORS)
Publication Date: 2004 

This publication addresses the need of every community for a roadmap for change. One recommended approach is to develop an outcome map, a visual diagram that depicts relationships between initiative strategies and intended results. This map would illustrate destinations of progress and the routes to travel on the way to achieving progress.

Author: Doug Reeler
Year of publication: 2007

A theory of social change is proposed through this paper as one small contribution to a larger body of theorising.  This paper can be seen as an observational map to help practitioners, whether field practitioners or donors, including the people they are attempting to assist, to read and thus navigate processes of social change.  

Author: Davies, Rick 
Publication Date: 2005 (Evaluation)

Because of the global scale and diversity of their work, international aid agencies face major problems when attempting to represent their plans and evaluate their achievements. In this second of two articles looking at types of change processes, the focus is on complex processes of change that include mutual influence, parallel processes and feedback loops.

Author: Davies, Rick 
Publication Date: 2004 (Evaluation) 

International aid agencies face major problems when attempting to evaluate their achievements. Activities, intended beneficiaries, partner institutions and social contexts are diverse because of their global scale. How can agencies' 'theories of change' be adequately represented in summary forms that respect the complexity and diversity?

Author: Anne Mackinnon, Natasha Amott (Part of the GrantCraft series)
Publication Date: 2006 

Author: IPAL - Keystone
Publication date: 2009

This guide helps social purpose organizations to plan, monitor, evaluate and communicate their work in a way that makes practical sense of the complexity of social change processes and their measurement.