Limpopo Basin Impact Pathways Workshop

1. Limpopo Basin Impact Pathways Workshop 15 – 17 November 2007 Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg Boru Douthwaite, CPWF Impact Project CIAT, Cali, Colombia

2. Impact Pathways Matter

3. Why make Impact Pathways explicit? • People plan and implement projects (programs, countries …) on the basis of their change models - their implicit theories about how the world works, i.e., impact pathways • If you can improve the impact pathways (IPs) you can improve the practice, making impact more likely • IPs show a project’s rationale and networks • Help communicate what the project is doing • More fundable • Help with planning, including MTPs • Provide a basis for evaluation • Starting point for evaluation is a good model of what you think will happen • Provide information to support programmatic integration • Provides impact hypotheses for ex-post impact assessment

4. PIPA makes Impact Pathways explicit It does so by developing two perspectives …. • A problem tree that shows a linear logic linking project outputs to project goal; and • Network maps that show the evolving relationships necessary to achieve the goal

5. Impact pathways – a more complete picture…. Problem Tree Network maps

6. Foundations • Adaptation of concepts from Program Evaluation • Renger and Titcomb (2002) – problem trees • Chen (2005) – program theory • Mayne (2004) - performance stories • Innovation histories • Douthwaite and Ashby, 2005 • Social network analysis • Cross and Parker, 2004

7. Workshop Road Map

8. Outputs produced after the workshop

9. Use of PIPA Outputs

10. Expectations

11. Causal analysis / Problem tree

12. Exercise 1 Refining and presenting your problem tree • Adapt or develop anew your project problem tree for presentation (PowerPoint or cards) • If cards, writing one problem per card • Use one color for problems the project will address • Use another for other problems • Modify, and add as you see fit • But don’t go into too much detail • We’ll present the problem trees together with project visions in plenary

13. Example of a Problem Tree developed during an IP workshop

14. Main problem to Goal Determinants to Products Problems to Outcomes PN 34 Improved Fisheries Management Problem and Outcome Trees

15. Exercise 2 Deriving Products/ Outputs from the Problem Tree • The determinants are the problems the project is directly addressing with its outputs Hint: the use of the output solves the determinant • Identify, write on cards and add to the problem tree the outputs, showing which determinants they correspond to

16. Example from Ground Water Governance (PN42)

17. Some definitions • Activity – what we’re doing inside the project • Hold IP Workshop • Outputs – what we produce that other people make use of, that solve the determinant • Improved rice variety; priority setting publication • Determinant – determinants are the problems the project is directly addressing with its outputs • Next users – people and organizations who directly use the outputs • End users – the people and organizations that the next users work with. Often the end users are the ultimate beneficiaries (e.g., resource-poor farmers), but not always. • Politically-important actors– people and organizations whose support is needed for project success • Outcomes – usually the results of the use of outputs by others (often come in chains) • Promotion of rice variety by extension system • Adoption of rice variety by farmers • Higher rice yields • Higher income • More children sent to school

18. Level of influence of a project -change 3 years 10 - 30 years

19. Scaling Out and Scaling Up • Scaling up - an institutional expansion, from adopters and their grassroots organizations to policy makers, donors, development institutions • Scaling out - spread of a project outputs (i.e., a new technology, a new strategy, etc.) from farmer to farmer, community to community, within the same stakeholder groups

20. Exercise 3 Develop a vision of project success 2 years after the end of the project • Take 5 minutes to individually answer the question, then develop common project vision by filling out Worksheet 1 • You wake up 2 years after your project has finished. Your project has been a success and is well on its way to achieving its goal. Describe what this success looks like to a journalist: • What was the situation like before the project started (hint – look at the problem tree) • What were the unmet needs and requirements of next users and end users? • What are the next users now doing differently? • How are project outputs disseminating (scaling out)? • What political support is nurturing this spread (scaling up)? • What are the end users doing differently? • What are the benefits they are enjoying as a result of the project? Keep it realistic

21. Impact pathways – a more complete picture…. Causal Analysis Network maps

22. Workshop Road Map

23. What is a network? A network is a collection of people and / or things that are connected to each other by some kind of relationship • Many kinds of entities can be part of a network: people, projects, organisations, documents, events, cities, countries, etc. • Each of these entities can have different levels of influence in the network, and • And there are many kinds of relationships that can link such entities, involving transmission or exchange of information, money, goods, affection, influence, infection, etc.

24. Advantages of network models • Actor-oriented descriptions: • observable, understandable, verifiable • Captures real-life complexity: • We are subject to multiple influences • We influence many others • Network models help us understand innovation processes: • Innovation processes happen through different actors, acting in networks • These interactions, relationships and influence are modeled in network maps

26. Airline network

27. Road Network

29. How change happens Orlikowski and Hofman, 1997 Improvements in poverty alleviation, food security and the state of natural resources result from dynamic, interactive, non-linear, and generally uncertain processes of innovation.” EIARD, 2003

30. A network diagram (organisations linked by a project) Influence pathway: actor + relationship + actor + relationship…

31. A plotted network diagram, multiple relations The human eye is an analytic tool of remarkable power, and eyeballing pictures of networks is an excellent way to gain an understanding of their structure. (The structure and function of complex networks, M. E. J. Newman)

32. A plotted network diagram, one type of relation

33. Network tasks….. • Identify relevant actors • Develop network diagrams of key relationships (research, funding, scaling out and scaling up) for • Your project now • Residual network 2 years after project has finished • Identify key levels of influence • Develop a scaling influence strategy (Worksheet 2)

34. Identify key actors • Who are the actors involved in research, funding, scaling out and scaling up in the area your project is working in? • Can be positions (eg. DDG-R) or organizations • Remember actors at different scales: community/local, your own organization, regional, national, international

35. Some types of actors • Government Organization • National Agricultural Research and Extension Organization (NAREO) • CGIAR Centre • University • Ultimate Beneficiary • NGO • Research Organization • Private Sector • Donor • Other (please specify)

36. Exercise 4a Fill out an actor table (Table 1)

37. Exercise 4b Develop a network diagram for your project now • Actors: • Use cards for nodes • Use different colour cards for different types of node • yellow = project implementers, blue = next user, green = end user, red = politically-important actor, red with black dot = donor • Relationships • Use arrows to describe direction • Use colour to describe relationship type • Green = funding; brown = research / work; red = scaling out; black = scaling up • Don’tuse distance/length

39. Identify influence levels and attitudes in the networks Exercise 4c Actors: • Construct influence towers (0-3 chips) for key actors • Indicate their attitude towards your project: positive  neutral  negative 

41. Develop a future network corresponding to the vision Exercise 5 • Draw a second network showing how actors need to be linked to achieve the vision • Adjust the influence and attitude • Will the attitude of the actor remain the same or change? • Will the same actors still be equally influential? • Will there be new influential actors in the area?

42. Exercise 6a Developing a Scaling Strategy(Table 2)

43. Exercise 6b Network Changes Achieved since the beginning of the project(Table 2)

44. Workshop Road Map

45. Developing the Outcomes Logic Model (a description of the project’s impact pathways) • Why (Dart, 2005)? • To evaluate or clarify the logic of the project intervention • To provide a framework to evaluate the performance of a project • Before, during and after • Evaluation can provide information to improve decision making and enhance learning

46. Exercise 7 Outcomes Logic Model (fill one table for all stakeholder groups) KAS = Knowledge, Attitudes and Skills

47. Exercise 8 Identify Outcome Targets (prioritize changes from Outcomes Logic Model) SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attributable, Realistic, Timebound

48. Exercise 9 Identifying Milestones

49. Where we are now

50. Impact Pathways Evaluation