Skip to main content
Evaluation 2023 Main banner
Icon Legend
Presentation Icons
PD Workshop
PD Workshop
Virtual Offering
Virtual Offering
Presidential Strand
Presidential Strand
Plenary Session
Plenary Session
BOF
BOF
Ignite
Ignite
Back

Program Theory and Theory-Driven Evaluation

Using narratives to build theory, and vice versa, to evaluate and learn in complex settings

Wednesday, October 11, 2023
4:15 PM – 5:15 PM ET
Location: Room 208

Location: Room 208

Abstract Information: As John Mayne, the internationally renown Canadian evaluator one said "theory of change should tell a good story." This multi-paper session will explore the connection between theory and narrative. The session will describe three evaluations in which narratives were used to build theory of change, or theory was used to shape causal narratives, or both. The theories used range from stakeholder-derived theories of how their projects worked to published social science theories that explain behavior change, such as how policy change happens. The narratives used range from the collection and pattern matching of many 'micro' accounts of small changes to broader descriptions of historical processes playing out over many years. The session will explore whether a heuristic can be developed to determine when in a project cycle to use theory to develop narrative, or vice versa, or both. The three papers to be presented are: Paper 1: 'Outcome Trajectory Evaluation (OTE): An approach to tackle research-for-development's long-causal-chain problem.' Paper 2: 'Helping programs identify emerging outcomes in complex systems: working on value-chains in Bihar, India.' Paper 3: 'Using outcome harvesting to give prominence to an emerging multidisciplinary approach to plant breeding.' In all three papers, narratives were used to describe complex outcome trajectories and provided a focusing mechanism for the evaluation team, assisting the evaluations with the challenges inherent in evaluating interventions into complex and dynamic systems.

Relevance Statement: The relevance of this proposed session is that it explores the link between theory and stories in evaluation. The session will explore the use of narratives (i.e. stories) to build theory of change, or theory to shape stories, or both, with the intent to develop a heuristic for when to do what. In all three papers, narratives were used to describe complex outcome trajectories and provided a focusing mechanism for the evaluation team, assisting the evaluations with the challenges inherent in evaluating interventions into complex and dynamic systems.

Presentations:

  • 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM ET
    Helping programs identify emerging outcomes in complex systems: working on value-chains in Bihar, India

    Presenter: Elizabeth Hoffecker, MCP (she/her/hers) – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

  • 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM ET
    Outcome Trajectory Evaluation (OTE): An approach to tackle research-for-development's long-causal-chain problem

    Presenter: Boru Douthwaite, Principal evaluator (he/him/his) – Selkie Consulting Ltd

  • 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM ET
    Using outcome harvesting to give prominence to an emerging multidisciplinary approach to plant breeding

    Presenter: Claudio Proietti, MSc (he/him/his) – CIRAD

Back to Top