Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis: A practical method for project planning and evaluation

This institutional Learning and Change Initiative (ILAC) brief number 17 provides an overview of using Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA) on projects involving the water and food sectors.

PIPA is similar in its philosophy to 'outcome mapping' (Earl et al., 2001) with the main difference being that PIPA engages participants in predicting how project outcomes can lead to social, economic and environmental impacts.

At the heart of PIPA is a participatory workshop in which project implementers and key stakeholders construct project impact pathways. In the PIPA workshop, participants create a logic model once the underlying impact pathways have been discussed and agreed upon.

Contents

  • Development and use of PIPA
  • The PIPA workshop
  • Moving from outcomes to impact
  • Monitoring and evaluation

Sources

Douthwaite, B., Alvarez, S., Thiele, G., & Mackay, R. The Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative, (2008). Participatory impact pathways analysis: A practical method for project planning and evaluation.