London, 31 July 2012. At the end of the R4D Theory of Change workshop held at DFID, we recorded a conversation with Simon Batchelor (IDS) and Duncan Green (Oxfam GB). In this video, Simon and Duncan explain how they got interested in Theories of Change. They discuss how ToC can be used in research programmes and how DFID and other donors could created incentives for researchers to use ToC in their work.
Other commentary on the workshop includes a blog post by Andrew Clappison entitled ‘10 ways DFID can improve Theories of Change for Research Uptake’ and another by Duncan Green entitled ‘Can theories of change help researchers (or their funders) have more impact?‘
Paula Fray
Shubha Jayaram
Sue Martin
Maria Balarin
James Harvey
Emily Hayter
Susan Koshy
Ronald Munatsi
Ajoy Datta
There’s been a fascinating, heated debate on Duncan Green’s blog following his post on, “What can we learn from a really annoying paper on NGOs and Development” http://bit.ly/QEUR8o The video above is cited in a comment there which suggests that engaging in Theories of Change discussions can help people working in Development to engage more deeply in conversations about the meaning of Aid and Development without falling back on ‘strawmen and aunt sallies’ to replace reasoned argument (and the use of culturally specific metaphors is ironic in the comment, I assume!). I wonder, judging by the level of comments on that blog