Matt, Digvijay
Revealing System Structures
What is theory of change:
A method showing the impact resulting from an investment where investors can discuss actions that will bring change regarding societal issues, helping individuals or building organizations. It is a kind of route map that leads to results by transforming funding and assistance.
Diverse objectives and investors:
Some investors have the objectives to support clients in need and others like more to address societal issues such as encouraging education, strengthening health services or lowering poverty. Other investors are more interested in the development of companies by improving long-term sustainability or charities. In any case, for each of the different goals mentioned above, there is a need for a different approach to the theory of change and the goal of the investor must be reflected in the plan.
Placing development in organizations first:
An investor is considering change as the way non-governmental organizations or foundations are expanding in order to have a significant influence on groups, including the decision to assist particular kinds of businesses in providing services, that differ from financial support, like coaching, instruction or strategic guidance, which is also known as “the investor plus” activities 'term. This strategy, which has a bigger lasting influence, also increases the organizations’ effectiveness.
Inorporate the two achievements and organisation:
The investors who share a specific objective and invest for the improvement of organizations must look in both ways into their theory of change: one section addresses the results they hope to obtain while the other concentrates on how to improve inside jobs of the businesses. Since it guarantees that the organizations are sufficiently stable to produce lasting impacts, both of these approaches are effective.
A local development challenge:
One of the main problems regarding global development is that most of the investors and particularly governments are granting funds on specific projects like construction of campuses or launching of health programs, but do not fund the capacity of the organizations to help them manage social inclusion efforts such as youth support or migrant integration. If we take as an example the community organization called “Trajekt” located in Maastricht, if funders would offer more training or strategic development funds rather than just projects, it would help organizations to be more sustainable and more effective and help resolving the housing and inclusion challenges rather than the infrastructure. Due to the lack of appropriate assistance, it is becoming more and more difficult for small businesses to become more efficient or to expand.
Another example from the Limburger Region:
A lot of traditional firms are now prioritizing sustainable growth. One good example in the Limburger region is ‘Gulpener Bierbrouwerij’ that has developed from being a family-owned beer company to a regional sustainability leader using local and organic ingredients. The company is also an energy-neutral brewery using solar panels and advanced energy technology as a STEAMpump that is a solution to move away from natural gas. This shows how companies can become innovators rather than only focusing on profit.
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The logical model: the basis for assessment:
The essential components based on the logical model are inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts. They are helping to evaluate how a project works. Techniques of assessment ensure that the projects are assessed in a structured and accountable way.
Carol Weiss on sophisticated programs difficulties:
In the book called "New approaches to evaluating comprehensive community initiatives" written in 1999, the author, Carol Weiss, explains how complicated it is to evaluate complex programs. This is mainly due to the lack of clear understanding or ability to explain how change is supposed to occur. It is also due to the fact that the ones responsible for the planning and carrying out social projects mainly concentrate on the future targets rather than considering the initial planning. Strategy, building partnerships as well as the implementation of activities, increasing awareness, improving coordination between services are all part of the learning process which constitute all the phases of advancement.
The importance of beginning and mid-term steps:
According to Carol Weiss, when the 'mini-steps' are not well defined, it is difficult to monitor correctly projects. All these short- and medium-term adjustments are crucial to produce larger outcome because without a clear view, the project will not reach its long-time objective. The absence of information leads to misunderstandings and could make the project less successful overall.
How it transcribes governmental structures:
The Theory of Change (ToC) is a method for strategic thinking describing how investments or activities result in benefits and particularly social ones. It functions like a route map for governments, connecting investments and initiatives to easily measured effects on society. If we take for instance the public health sector, a ToC aids in outlining the actions required to improve the quality of life, such as financing, education and awareness-raising initiatives. For a governmental structure to be successful, the same strategy needs to be applied. Government agencies need to have priorities the same way investors do and need therefore customised ToCs in sectors such as economic growth, education and health. This illustrates how crucial it is for government agencies to have a strategic connection so that everyone has a clear goal and plan.
The importance of growth in organizations is one of main ideas in the ToC model. To have a durable effect, funding must be allocated to both the organizations monitoring the projects and the initiatives themselves, such as the construction of schools. Governmental initiatives can become unsustainable if procedures such as management and staff training are not strengthened.
Governments are also covered by the idea of "Investor Plus," in which funders provide assistance in management efficiency such as educating local government officials and upgrading services to the public in exchange of financial support. A government that functions in the role of Investor Plus has more chance to be successful.
It is important for governments to prioritize both the creation of capacity and production of results as investors would do. Improving job centers and increasing training courses are helping to reduce the number of unemployed people and when the objectives and the capability are in line, there is a guarantee for a program to be effective and sustainable.
The focus on the improvement of institutions is more important than initiatives such as donations which only provides short term gains. By taking the example of ‘Gulpener Bierbrouwerij’, we see how business may move from making money to making a difference and this is exactly the kind of example, governments can follow by carefully planning for the future, encouraging transparency and responsibility. Public organizations can be strengthened by frequent evaluations of results.
The logical model is a strategy and evaluation technique that aids governments in monitoring development, measuring usefulness and maintaining accountability. If governments have not the right tools to operate, they may face some challenges to grow. As Carol Weiss underlined the importance of precise actions, it becomes challenging to monitor achievements and measure policies when governments are more focused on targets and ignore the short and long-term strategies.
ToC models usually disregard the consequences of failure but adaptibility is critical. It is important to have feedback processes, particularly in the early stages, as it only benefit the strategy to be followed, the responsibility and the visibilty improvement.
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