Measuring unintended effects in peacebuilding: What the field of international cooperation can learn from innovative approaches shaped by complex contexts

This paper explores how peacebuilding programs can identify unintended effects using adaptive management and participatory methods.

It highlights tools like outcome mapping and conflict sensitivity to capture both positive and negative outcomes.

This paper by Lemon and Pinet (2018) examines the challenges and opportunities of capturing unintended effects in peacebuilding efforts. Drawing on 96 evaluations from Search for Common Ground (SFCG) conducted between 2013 and 2016 across 24 countries, the paper explores how peacebuilding programmes can uncover both positive and negative unintended effects. The insights aim to inform international cooperation and development practitioners working in complex, conflict-affected environments by offering innovative approaches for understanding broader impacts that go beyond a project's planned outcomes.

Key features

• Defining unintended effects: The study distinguishes unintended effects as those outcomes not foreseen in the project's logical framework or theory of change. These effects can be positive, negative, or neutral, and are often overlooked by conventional evaluation methods focused on predefined results.
• Evaluation techniques and methodologies: The resource highlights how peacebuilding practitioners can utilise adaptive management, outcome mapping, and conflict sensitivity frameworks to better capture unintended effects. It argues that more granular and flexible monitoring approaches enable practitioners to identify changes beyond the scope of the original project design.
• Positive and negative unintended effects: The analysis found that programmes targeting women, youth, and media were particularly effective in identifying unintended outcomes, partly due to their participatory nature. It also notes that positive unintended effects can often emerge organically through methods such as outcome harvesting, while negative unintended effects are harder to capture due to participant reluctance to discuss problems.
• Role of participatory approaches: Participatory methodologies, particularly those involving women and youth, proved effective in broadening the scope of enquiry beyond formal project objectives. These approaches helped evaluators gather insights on both intended and unintended effects, offering a fuller picture of a project's impact.

How would you use the resource?

M&E practitioners in fragile and conflict-affected settings can use this resource to enhance their ability to detect unintended effects during programme evaluations. The guide encourages the use of adaptive monitoring and participatory methodologies, allowing for the collection of broader insights into how interventions impact conflict dynamics and local relationships. It provides practical techniques like outcome mapping and conflict sensitivity analysis, which are especially useful in the peacebuilding context.

Why are we recommending it?

This resource is valuable because it focuses on the often-overlooked unintended effects of interventions. Its innovative approaches to evaluation offer tools to ensure that programmes do not only track intended outcomes but also adapt to unexpected changes in complex conflict environments. This is especially relevant for peacebuilding and development projects that operate in dynamic, unpredictable contexts.