Theory of Change (TOC) retreat thrills ACPC staff

The staff of ACPC be­gan the New Year with a three-day soul-searching session on how best to deliver on the ClimDev's promise to help Africa tackle climate change impacts. Colleagues from part­ner institutions and from other ECA Divisions were as thrilled as the staff on how the applica­tion of the Theory of Change to the ClimDev Programme led to fundamental questions about some assumptions we had held "as acts of faith" since the pro­gramme began.

The retreat which lasted from 22-24 January 2013 reviewed the ClimDev Programme documents within the matrix of the Theory of Change. It set out the problem statement and showed how the ClimDev responds to the prob­lem (climate change) by carrying out a set of actions to achieve ob­jectives through to impacts.

The Theory of Change think­ing will be used to assess the attributes of ClimDev Africa in terms of achieving the de­sired impact. The outputs level statements of the programme framework document were thoroughly examined and the need for revision identified. The inter-relations between core partners were also exam­ined and the roles of leadership and support of actions were set out for further review. A ten­tative plan for establishing the monitoring framework and evaluation approach were de­veloped by Paul Simon who led the retreat.