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edX

Theory of Change for Development

University of the Witwatersrand via edX

This course may be unavailable.

Overview

Does monitoring and evaluation seem too technical? Are you grappling with logframes and indicators that don’t adequately tell the story of your program?

A Theory of Change (ToC) approach can help.

This course will provide you with a ToC toolkit to help assess any process of change that you may be developing. It is optimized for public and development managers, monitoring and evaluation practitioners, donor agencies, NGOs, academics, and other stakeholders.

A ToC approach helps you situate complex social and development interventions. ToC is both a process and a product for explaining the various contributors to change, and the multiple levels of outcomes that result from program implementation.

The course will introduce you to thetheory of change approaches and principles. It will give you the tools to both understand existing theories of change as well as develop your own. You will also be able to connect a theory of change to logframes and other organizational tools for further monitoring and evaluation.

Syllabus

Week 1: You will learn what a Theory of Change is, and what the value this approach offers in a development context.

Week 2: You will gain an understanding of the method for problem analysis, and build a results chain using problem-solving.

Week 3: You will learn how to do stakeholder mapping, and program mapping.

Week 4: You will locate a Theory of Change within a monitoring and evaluation framework. This involves understanding risks and assumptions, interpreting a Theory of Change, and testing a Theory of Change.

Taught by

Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa and Ezethu Mandlelize

Reviews

4.7 rating, based on 3 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Theory of Change for Development

  • Anonymous
    It is a very interesting course, which enabled me to get a good picture of some monitoring evaluations tools. It helps me to understand the theory of change steps and gives me a clear picture of how it works in a development context.
    I think one of the drawbacks of the course it video text are not available for all videos, these texts will help for further reviewing,
    It is simple and not complicated.
  • Anonymous
    This is a great course. I like that it has attracted a lot of African students from different countries, so there is space to talk about development challenges in South African and African contexts.
  • Anonymous
    This course was a good introduction to theory of change. It was practical and engaging, and allowed participants to apply what they learned directly. Very hands on, and I look forward to using what was covered in the course.

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