A Theory of Change (ToC) outlines the rationale behind a program by presenting a step-by-step narrative of how you are accomplishing your mission. It details what inputs are used, what activities are carried out, what outcomes are achieved, and how these efforts ideally lead to positive changes for program participants. Clearly defining this theory enables organizations to create effective programs and establishes a basis for appropriate data collection.

A Theory of Change is crucial for distinguishing between the program components that a monitoring system should track (outputs and outcomes) and those that require a counterfactual analysis (impact). We consider this clarity a vital prerequisite for developing a Measurement Framework, Outcome Evaluation, or Impact Evaluation. Therefore, we consistently recommend that our clients establish a solid Theory of Change before advancing with any other Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) activities. It serves as a foundational template for critical MERL tasks, including testing assumptions, evaluating data, and enhancing program performance.

Our team specializes in the development and refinement of measurement frameworks. It is essential to ensure that your Theory of Change (ToC) is accurately reflected in your monitoring and evaluation plan, as this is critical for understanding program performance and identifying opportunities for improvement. If you already have a measurement framework, our expert team can review it in light of programmatic changes or new goals to identify key gaps and ensure alignment with your program theory. For those in need of a new measurement framework, we can create a comprehensive plan from the ground up, ensuring that your program theory aligns with activities, outputs, outcomes, and desired impact.

A robust measurement framework establishes a logical connection between detailed program activities, output targets, anticipated outcomes, and desired impacts. Having a coherent and feasible plan to measure your program theory is a fundamental component of an effective Monitoring & Evaluation System.

Outcome evaluation is a type of evaluation that focuses on measuring the results or outcomes of a program or intervention to assess whether it is achieving its intended goals and delivering meaningful benefits to the target population. This type of evaluation is crucial for several reasons: it provides evidence of program effectiveness for accountability to stakeholders, supports continuous improvement by identifying areas for enhancement, aids in resource allocation by highlighting successful interventions, and generates valuable insights that can inform future program design and implementation.

Conducing an outcome evaluation requires careful planning, implementation, and analysis. Our team can help you develop a clear evaluation plan, select appropriate measures and data collection methods that guarantee the data collected is accurate, reliable, and valid – ensuring measures are aligned with the program’s theory of change, analyzing findings for key insights, and helping you to create a plan to use the results for program improvement.

Qualitative Retrospective Evaluations serve as a valuable tool for assessing program outcomes while amplifying the voices and perspectives of participants. These evaluations can be utilized in a focused manner to verify whether a specific intervention is functioning as intended, as outlined in a Theory of Change. Additionally, they can explore the factors driving change, reflecting an organization’s broader commitment to reassessing its priorities, strategies, and activities.

By employing established qualitative methodologies such as contribution analysis, process tracing, and realist evaluation, we effectively conduct qualitative retrospective evaluations to collect, analyze, and present feedback from beneficiaries regarding the key drivers of change in their lives.

When executed rigorously and in accordance with established methodologies, qualitative retrospective evaluations can yield critical insights into whether the social effects of a planned activity—or a series of activities—align with expectations, as well as identify any unintended consequences.

Impact evaluations can be an essential tool for determining if a specific program or activity had the desired effect. They can help to reveal what worked, or did not work, and why. Conducting such evaluations are difficult for most in-house evaluation teams and must be done with scientific rigor to be valid. We help our clients identify how, when, and why to conduct an impact evaluation.

Impact evaluations can employ experimental or quasi-experimental methods to show causation. A few methods that EIG Insights specializes in are Randomized Control Trials (RCTs), Differences in Differences, Propensity Score Matching (PSM), and Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD). No matter the method used, the key qualities of impact evaluation design are that there is a counterfactual group that did not receive the intervention or program under study from which we can compare causal change. The word “impact” gets thrown around a lot to mean many different things. We ensure that when we use the word IMPACT with our clients, we mean an evaluation designed in such a way that reliably measures what would have happened had the intervention or program never existed. This can allow you to confidently report to your program and donors exactly how much of the outcome attainment your programmatic participants are seeing, is caused by the program you have implemented.