Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis

A Practical Application of Program Theory in Research-for-Development

Authors

  • Boru Douthwaite International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Cali, Colombia
  • Sophie Alvarez Rural Innovation Institute, CIAT Cali, Colombia
  • Simon Cook Basin Focal Projects, Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) and CIAT Cali, Colombia
  • Rick Davies Independent Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Cambridge, U.K.
  • Pamela George IWMI Colombo, Sri Lanka
  • John Howell Living Resources Devon, UK
  • Ronald Mackay OISE/University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
  • Jorge Rubiano National University of Colombia Palmira, Colombia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3138/cjpe.22.007

Abstract

The Challenge Program on Water and Food pursues food security and poverty alleviation through the efforts of some 50 research-for-development projects. These involve almost 200 organizations working in nine river basins around the world. An approach was developed to enhance the developmental impact of the program through better impact assessment, to provide a framework for monitoring and evaluation, to permit stakeholders to derive strategic and programmatic lessons for future initiatives, and to provide information that can be used to inform public awareness efforts. The approach makes explicit a project’s program theory by describing its impact pathways in terms of a logic model and network maps. A narrative combines the logic model and the network maps into a single explanatory account and adds to overall plausibility by explaining the steps in the logic model and the key risks and assumptions. Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis is based on concepts related to program theory drawn from the fields of evaluation, organizational learning, and social network analysis.

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Published

2007-11-21

How to Cite

Douthwaite, B., Alvarez, S., Cook, S., Davies, R., George, P., Howell, J., … Rubiano, J. (2007). Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis: A Practical Application of Program Theory in Research-for-Development. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 22(2), 127–159. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjpe.22.007

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 2 (2007): Fall

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2007 Boru Douthwaite, Sophie Alvarez, Simon Cook, Rick Davies, Pamela George, John Howell, Ronald Mackay, Jorge Rubiano

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