Theories of Change

The Adaptation at Scale Prize Project (A@SPP) is an ongoing project under the overall Ideas to Impact (I2I) programme. This project uses financial incentives, in the form of cash awards, to stimulate and sustain transformational change in Nepalese society. Most of the project's activities involve working with already identified development and adaptation practitioners. Thus, we seek to maximize the benefit to the poor, vulnerable and deprived population by improving their capacity, skills, and knowledge in adapting to climate change in Nepal. We spoke to project Team Leader, Madhav Karki in Kathmandu about what is climate change adaptation, its place in Nepal and the challenges of running a prize in the international development context.

On today’s episode we are going to be looking at the importance of trade and investment to drive economic growth and alleviate poverty in low-income countries. Recently, donors, including the UK Department for International Development, have placed an increasing emphasis on trade and investment over aid. Is this shift in approach proving to work? What are the main benefits and challenges? Can trade and investment reduce reliance on aid in the long term and reduce poverty? We speak to Susan Haird, an Associate Director for our Trade & Investment unit. In her last post, Susan was Deputy Chief Executive of UK Trade and Investment, now the Department for International Trade. Blog post http://www.imcworldwide.com/news/how-can-imc-help-countries-and-firms-boost-investment-and-trade-through-development-aid/

Innovation has become a big buzzword in the international development space with donors looking to fund programmes that use the latest technology or ideas to help the world’s poorest. But what is innovation and what are the advantages and potential limitations and problems these methods can bring? How can donors/implementers think through these issues? Today's guests: Lea Simpson (@leasimpson) is a business leader, trained coach and tech optimist with experience in brand, technology, commerce and design thinking and founder of the consultancy Brink (@hellobrink). She is also the Team Leader for the DFID-funded Frontier Technology Livestreaming programme. Bojan Božović is a Principal Consultant and Project Manager of Frontier Technology Livestreaming at IMC Worldwide. Links: https://medium.com/frontier-technology-livestreaming https://www.hellobrink.co

On today’s episode we are going to be looking at the challenges of evaluating research and communicating that information to decision makers. Development programmes and research generate lots of data and information and recommendations but what does that data mean? Was it rigorously obtained? How was it produced? And leading on from that how do we use this information to influence policy and future development programmes to make a bigger impact? Our guests are Megan Lloyd-Laney (@MeganLLoydLaney) of Comms Consult and Dr Tamsin Bradley of the University of Portsmouth. Learn more: http://www.researchtoaction.org/ http://www.whatworks.co.za/

A discussion with Jonty Slater, innovation expert and prize lead of the Ideas to Impact programme. We look at the different kinds of innovation prizes currently being used in the development space and how this format may lead to new solutions.

Key performance indicators, or KPIs, have a long history in business and industry. But as international aid is subject to demands for increased accountability, transparency, and better value for money, KPIs are finding increasing use among international development agencies like the UK Department for International Development. In this episode, Sajid Chowdhury chats with Matt Spannagle, an independent climate change and development consultant who has worked in over 50 countries. He is a leading climate change advisor with experience with multiple donors and aid agencies implementing climate change policies. Article http://www.imcworldwide.com/news/why-are-kpis-important-in-international-development/

What are the primary challenges of solid waste management? by IMC Worldwide

In this episode of the IMC International Development podcast, we talk with colleagues Dr. Andre Steele and Rumana Kabir about the current state of play in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction programmes. Andre was a co-author (alongside Ian Davis and Tony Lloyd-Jones) of a recent topic guide for the Department for International Development entitled "Effective Post Disaster Reconstruction Programmes". You can find it at evidenceondemand.info

Fragile and conflict-affected states are challenging environments for international development programming, including project and programme evaluations. Sajid Chowdhury is joined by two special guests to talk about how to conduct evaluations in difficult circumstances. Jon Bennett has over 30 years of experience in evaluation, post-war needs assessment, food security, internal displacement, rural development, relief, evaluation and NGO training. He has worked in Africa and Asia in Field Director, Country Representative and Team Leader posts for the UN, World Food Programme, and Oxfam. Helen Stevenson is part of our monitoring and evaluation team at IMC Worldwide and project manager of several evaluations we implement on behalf of international development donors.

A discussion with WASH expert Malcolm Farley, about non-revenue water (NRW) and its impact on developing countries. If you think you have an answer to help address NRW check out the Dreampipe Challenge (www.dreampipe.org) to learn more.

There are many types of development approaches that seek to reduce poverty, including social protection, rural or community development programmes, and private sector development in the form of Making Markets Work for the Poor or M4P. Many of these involve income-generation for the poor, but what do these projects and programmes actually aim to achieve? Is it just about money, or is there something more? Sajid Chowdhury is joined by special guest Tim Bene, who strives to improve aid effectiveness by taking a results-oriented approach to appraisal, formulation, monitoring and evaluation. He has reviewed or evaluated nearly 100 projects and programmes financed by donors such as the EU and DFID and implemented by a wide range of international organisations, consulting firms and NGOs in more than 20 countries.

In this issue of the IMC Worldwide podcast, we discuss the recent opening of Connect to Grow, a three-year programme managed by IMC, which aims to connect Indian innovators with enterprises across South Asia and Africa in order to improve people's health and agri-food prospects. Team Leader of the Connect to Grow programme David Irwin and Deputy Team Leader Baiju Vaidya join IMC Senior Communications & Knowledge Management Consultant Sajid Chowdhury to talk about the programme's goals and its plans for the future.

GOAL has been running a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programme in northern Syria, focusing on improving water supply by working with existing water utilities to return water distribution to pre-conflict operational standards. IMC has supported the programme with technical assistance for the development of a cost-recovery system. The aim of IMC’s assistance is to increase the resilience of water supplies by reducing reliance on external funding sources. In this podcast, senior Communications & Knowledge Management Consultant at IMC Worldwide, Sajid Chowdhury is joined by Andre Steele, Principal Engineering Consultant and WASH expert, and by Zahed Yousuf, Technical Director of Governance & Peace Sensitivity. Niall Boot, the Global WASH Advisor for GOAL also contributes over Skype.