~AEA Public Library

The development sector is demonstrating much interest in applying complex adaptive systems (CAS) reasoning to monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL). Although not originally designed for application to development work, findings from pioneering work using SenseMaker in complex settings has shown great promise. Interest in the development community is growing.

This Ignite presentation will introduce SenseMaker: where it originated, how it works and in what areas of MEL activity, and why it is so apposite as a response to current methodological challenges posed by CAS thinking. Using an innovative SCAN online tool, the presentation will explain how this mixed qualitative and quantitative approach can be designed for fast deployment in specific areas of inquiry. Catholic Relief Services’ use of a new pcsSCAN to gather individuals’ experiences of capacity strengthening will illustrate how users can think of monitoring as evaluation to nudge the system in the desired direction of travel.