Heather Britt

This session of the Causal Pathways Symposium 2023, by Heather Britt, introduced causal link monitoring, a method for integrating monitoring data and evaluation in order to address causality amid complexity.

Causal Link Monitoring (CLM) integrates design and monitoring to support adaptive management of projects.

This 27-page brief, written by Ricardo Wilson-Grau and Heather Britt, introduces the key concepts and approach used by Outcome Harvesting (published by the Ford Foundation in May 2012; revised in Nov 2013).

This 27-page brief, written by Ricardo Wilson-Grau and Heather Britt, introduces the key concepts and approach used by Outcome Harvesting (published by the Ford Foundation in May 2012; revised in Nov 2013).

This is a straightforward budget example that lists costs associated with four basic expenditure categories: staffing, materials and supplies, equipment and travel.  

Page 17 of this guide from Imagine Canada provides an example of an evaluation budget for a one-year project evaluation.

This document is a USAID guide to developing an evaluation budget based on the resources identified in the evaluation Statement Of Work (SOW). 

Development actors are embracing the concept and practice of adaptive management, using evidence to inform ongoing revisions throughout implementation.

The resources available for evaluation include people’s time and expertise, equipment and funding. 

Reducing costs is something to consider if evaluation costs outweigh the predicted benefits or available resources.

This strategy for securing sufficient resources for conducting evaluation involves allocating a specified amount of staff time (hours or days per week) to work on evaluation.

This strategy requires management leadership and uses the rule of thumb approach to estimate the percentage of project funds to spend on evaluation.

Evaluation expenses are highly situational and there are no magic formulas for calculating costs. 

This strategy requires management leadership and uses the rule of thumb approach to estimate the percentage of project funds to spend on evaluation which could be done more accurately by developing an initial 

You may also consider approaching a foundation or other donor agency for the funds to undertake an evaluation.

As many projects are undertaken by a consortium of organisations working together, sometimes it is worthwhile to consider approaching your implementing partners to pool resources and carry out the evaluation jointly. 

An evaluation budget matrix specifies various items that need to be costed as individual line items. 

Outcome Harvesting collects (“harvests”) evidence of what has changed (“outcomes”) and, working backwards, determines whether and how an intervention has contributed to these changes.

Causal Link Monitoring (CLM) is an evaluation approach that combines implementation design and monitoring to support adaptive management of projects, helping project planners and managers to identify processes needed to achieve desired outcomes.