It is often difficult to learn from changes a complex development process produced—exactly what was achieved, how, by whom, and what can be gained from this to improve future projects.

This discussion will explore innovative tools for learning from development efforts in complex situations, and how they might be relevant to the World Bank. We will hear diverse experiences from within the Outcome Mapping Learning Community of adapting Outcome Mapping concepts to design programs to achieve results, and monitor and gather evidence from processes of change. This includes the experience of the Overseas Development Institute's RAPID Approach, which blends Outcome Mapping with political economy analysis for rigorous learning about policy change, examples of monitoring and evaluation tools used by Outcome Mapping practitioners, and the World Bank Institute’s pilot use of Outcome Mapping tools for learning from capacity development processes.

Outcome Mapping tools offer potential for consideration within the stocktaking of approaches that might inform evidence-based learning and knowledge management in the Bank. The tools offer a way of thinking about change, with clients at the center. The tools can surface tacit thinking and qualitative knowledge about results, and promote mutual learning about what works, for whom, where, why and how. This detailed learning about a development process can support adjustments as a program progresses, and it provides for robust lesson documentation to inform indicators, next steps and wider adaptation or scale-up of emerging practices.