Making causal claims

This brief, authored by John Mayne for the Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative argues the need for a different perspective on causality.

That one can still speak of the intervention making a difference in the sense that the intervention was a necessary element of a package of causal factors that together were sufficient to bring about the results.

The brief further argues that theories of change are models showing how an intervention operates as a contributory cause. Using theories of change, approaches such as contribution analysis can be used to demonstrate that the intervention made a difference – that it was a contributory cause – and to explain how and why.

Content

• Concepts of causality
• Fish farming as an example of a causal package
• Demonstrating contributory causes
• Theories of change incorporate causal packages
• Approaches to demonstrating causality
• Theory of change approaches to showing a contributory cause

This resource was suggested to BetterEvaluation by Ronald Mackay.