The annual planning for 2013 of the 8 countries in the WASH programme took place in the form of a workshop using the Theory of Change method. For most partners this was a first encounter with this method, and the general opinion about it has been very positive.

The decision to make use of the Theory of Change Methodology was made by the Dutch WASH Alliance, as it allows planning for a programmatic approach which encourages multi-stakeholder processes and interventions. It seeks to envisage activities needed to come to a certain outcome.

For the Benin case each outcome of the logical framework was put at the top of a big sheet. The partners were then asked to discuss in groups what changes needed to occur to realise this particular outcome. This meant that the actual problem had to be taken apart, looking at the stakeholders involved, the institutional barriers that had to be overcome, behavioural changes to be realised and alike. All these so-called pre-conditions were listed and put in the order the group thought the changes had to happen to get to the final outcome. This was a long and interesting process and created insight in each others’ expertise. Then the problems were partnered up with an activity which would solve or overcome the problem and finally each organisation indicated what activity they were capable of doing.

This whole exercise allowed the partners to: check whether they were missing steps to be taken for the changes needed, analyse the gaps in the activities required, missing partners and alike. In addition the listing showed that some activities such as certain trainings could be done jointly and in some cases it became clear that one partner could support another partner with less experience or another expertise. The whole exercise gave the WASH partners a sense of togetherness.

The outcome of this workshop was a good draft of the planning for 2013, but moreover it was a next step in the consolidation of the Benin WASH Alliance.

If you are interested in the Theory of Change some starting points are:

• www.aecf.org
• www.researchtoaction.org/theory-of-change-useful-resources/
• www.theoryofchange.org/

This blog was posted to the WASTE website, written by Verele de Vreede