Abstract:
It is a fundamental obligation of the evaluator to support the evaluand in theorising about their initiative and their assumptions of change. Most initiatives we evaluate are fragile in some sense - often they are charting new territory that may be contested. No one finds innovation comfortable or easy - it is too complex. Finding a way into that complexity and reducing it to practical understanding is one reason for an evaluation. However, this does not go as far as to say that all such initiatives are characterised by an overarching logic (it may even be unethical to insist that there must be a logic), that is, a discrete 'theory of change'. In fact, there may be no logic, or multiple logics. In any event, there are many ways of understanding programs and logical analysis is but one.