Towards Systemic Approaches to Evaluation and Impact - IDS Special Issue

This special edition of the IDS Bulletin focuses on exploring the potential of systems ideas and complexity concepts to meet development needs. Within this the individual articles focus on ideas such as redefining learning through to identify the most relevant impact evaluation questions.  

Abstract

"This IDS Bulletin is the second of two that follow an Institute of Development Studies event seeking to define an agenda for research and practice of development impact evaluation. It focuses on exploring the potential of systems ideas and complexity concepts to meet the increasingly complex challenges of an increasingly ambitious development agenda. In particular, the contributions seek to: (a) redefine ‘learning’ according to the number of ‘learning loops’ involved; (b) understand how to identify the most relevant impact evaluation questions; (c) simulate systems states in two sectors (leather and health) following the implementation of (combinations of) different policy options and other events; and finally, (d) shake the foundations of the impact evaluation institutional system, recommending that the notions of multiple perspectives and system boundaries are fully embraced, and that the system ultimately transitions from an ‘evaluation industrial complex’ to an ‘evaluation adaptive complex’. While the issue is a step in the right direction, much more work remains to be done."

Contents

• Introduction – Towards Systemic Approaches to Evaluation and Impact. Barbara Befani, Ben Ramalingam and Elliot Stern (pages 1–6)
• Prosaic or Profound? The Adoption of Systems Ideas by Impact Evaluation. Bob Williams (pages 7–16)
• Learning, Systems Concepts and Values in Evaluation: Proposal for an Exploratory Framework to Improve Coherence. Richard Hummelbrunner (pages 17–29)
• Going Beyond Mixed Methods to Mixed Approaches: A Systems Perspective for Asking the Right Questions. Jeneen R. Garcia and Aaron Zazueta (pages 30–43)
• Systems Dynamics Modelling in Industrial Development Evaluation. Sebastian Derwisch and Peter Löwe (pages 44–57)
• Aiming for Utility in ‘Systems-based Evaluation’: A Research-based Framework for Practitioners. John T. Grove (pages 58–70)
• (Breaking) The Iron Triangle of Evaluation. Martin Reynold (pages 71–86)