To support global aid activities, Theories of Change are... changing

Theories of change (TOCs) are now widely recognized as an essential best practice when it comes to guiding the design and delivery of aid activities around the world. They provide a pathway from intervention to impact, and donors and funders routinely require a TOC be included in materials they review.

At the same time, aid work has become more complex, comprising interventions delivered in multiple locations by different types of partners, targeting diverse stakeholder groups, and often involving several layers of government. Evolving politics, unpredictable climate conditions, or a changing security situation can all affect the ability to achieve results, and so activities must deliver interventions that are designed to be flexible and responsive.

It is essential therefore for design teams to begin addressing some of this complexity as they develop a TOC. But how? The aid community has proposed a number of approaches and insights in recent years, including ideas from USAID.

"We hope to further the conversation by offering our own approach to TOC development for complex settings, called the Actor-Based Change (ABC) Framework, that focuses on a crucial element: people."

Read on!