Operationalising system change assessment

Many programmes aim to influence systems to achieve their goals. Yet, programme teams often struggle to assess progress towards their vision for an improved system.

This brief, with accompanying templates, provides practical guidance and tips from experience on how to assess system changes.

It focuses on three user-friendly tools that help programme teams to:

• outline system change expectations with measurable indicators and meaningful questions to assess progress
• develop workable plans to asses system changes regularly, and efficiently

Accompanying templates (xlsx downloads):

1. Strategy table template
2. Helicopter lens assessment plan template
3. Intervention lens assessment plan template

Useful for:

This brief is targeted at programme teams and practitioners involved in development projects, particularly those using an MSD approach. It is useful for organisations aiming to influence systems for goals such as poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, resilience and inclusion.

Related blogs:

• Assessing system change: you may not know it but you are probably already doing it, so why not go the extra mile?
• A pragmatic approach to measuring system change
• Causality counts. Not the counterproductive debate on attribution or contribution
• Want to assess system change? Just get started
• Defining and assessing market system resilience: demystification is needed

Watch recordings of these related BEAM webinars:

• March 2022: Get started on assessing system change
• April 2020:  A pragmatic approach to assessing system change