Theories and Indicators of Change: ICAR hosts workshop to develop peacebuilding evaluation tools

Over the past twelve months Susan Allen Nan has led a collaborative initiative among ICAR faculty, the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and USAID’s Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) office in spearheading the THINC Initiative, “THeories and INdicators of Change Initiative.” THINC was initiated by Tjip Walker at CMM, and supported in part by USAID funding.  Most recently, the collaboration culminated with a two day workshop on “Theories and Indicators of Change” that took place at Point of View in Lorton, VA on October 25-26, 2010. ICAR's involvement with the THINC initiative began with hosting a workshop in December 2009.  During the initial workshop, leading scholars and practitioners in the field of Conflict and Peacebuilding Evaluation came together to discuss Theories of Change and Indicators of Change. The report of the December workshop is available online at: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADS460.pdf

The goal of THINC was to collect, organize and analyze the numerous Theories of Change - or the underlying logic in a program intervention - in conflict and peacebuilding programs.  Building from existing literature and work of scholars and practitioners in Conflict and Peacebuilding Evaluation, the initiative sought to bridge the gap between theory and practice in order to understand how organizations, practitioners and the field use theories of change as well as indicators as tools within program or project evaluation. 

Following the initial workshop in December 2009, ICAR faculty members - including Chris Mitchell, Karyna Korostelina, Mara Schoeny, and Thomas Flores - have helped to further advance the initiative by continuing to gather the theories, working in collaboration with each other, and seeking the advice from individuals and organizations. 

In September 2010, Susan Allen Nan led a consultative meeting in Cambridge, MA bringing together the Boston area’s leading practitioners and academics which included individuals from CDA Collaborative Learning Projects Inc., Mercy Corps, Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation, and the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Following these efforts, ICAR organized a two day workshop, which was held this past fall on October 25-26 2010, at Point of View.  The workshop focused on presenting the progress made on the initiative, ways to apply various tools within program evaluation, as well as case studies drawing on field experience.  Participants in the workshop included USAID CMM’s Director Neil Levine and ICAR Director Andrea Bartoli who both gave opening remarks on the first day of the workshop.  Workshop participants were practitioners working in the field of Conflict and Peacebuilding evaluation and came from organizations and institutions such as AED, US State Department, Search for Common Ground, Mercy Corps, CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, as well as scholar practitioners from Tufts Fletcher School, and University of Denver’s Conflict Resolution Institute.

The two day workshop in October included mind mapping sessions as well as presentations given by representatives from the respective organizations on their own monitoring and evaluation initiatives.  The workshop was an opportunity for practitioners and scholars to learn collectively and discuss relevant projects, examples of good practice and challenges to practical work. The THINC initiative represents a leading example of efforts to develop methods to measure success in programs focused on conflict resolution and peacebuilding.