Research reports and studiesFebruary 2021Tim Kelsall, Ed Laws and Barbara BefaniFresh produce on sale in a market in Tanzania. Photo: Güldem Üstün / Flickr‘Adaptive management’ and ‘politically smart programming’ are increasingly popular ideas in development. They capture an ambition to programme in ways that are more flexible and experimental, and which respond to and capitalise on political dynamics and incentives. Over the last 10 to 15 years there has been a notable increase in aid programmes that explicitly reference these terms, or similar ideas such as ‘doing development differently’ and problem-driven iterative adaptation.There is a growing consensus that interventions are more likely to make a positive difference in highly complex situations if they adopt these principles and methods. However, according to recent reviews of the literature on thinking and working politically and adaptive management, much of the evidence used so far to support these approaches is anecdotal, does not meet high standards for robustness, is not comparative and draws on a small number of self-selected, relatively well-known success stories.To generate lessons to help deepen the evidence base, this report uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to explore the most important ingredients of success in the Institutions for Inclusive Development (I4ID) Programme – an adaptive, issue-based governance initiative in Tanzania.Read the research The ingredients of successful adaptive programming in Tanzania: a QCA analysisDocumentpdf Annex: QCA models and findingsDocumentpdfRelated Composing a symphony or causing a racket? Intentional design for evaluation and learning among subgroups in multi-site, multi-organisation development initiativesAn analysis of multi-site, multi-organisation structures and their varying needs in relation to monitoring, evaluation and learning.Working and discussion papers2 December 2020 Linking constituent engagement and adaptive management: lessons from practitioners A discussion of how development programmes can ensure that constituent engagement informs meaningful adaptation.Working and discussion papers23 October 2020 Navigating adaptive approaches for development programmes: a guide for the uncertainA comparison of the most prominent adaptive approaches and their application to development programmes.Working and discussion papers22 September 2020See more:adaptive developmentmonitoring, evaluation and learningadaptationevidence and policygovernanceTanzania
