An Approach to Theory of Change for Swedish Development Cooperation?

Summary

EBA working papers are shorter studies that investigate a question of limited scope or that complements a regular EBA study. Working papers are not subject to a formal decision from the expert group but instead reviewed by the secretariat before publication. The authors are, as with other EBA publications, responsible for the content of the report and its conclusions.

At the end of 2020, the Swedish Agency for Public Management (Statskontoret) and the Swedish National Financial Management Authority (ESV) undertook a review of the government's governance of Sida, and of the agency's internal efficiency and management procedures. One of the recommendations to Sida was that the authority should develop its work with theories of change in order to strengthen learning and the application of experience, evaluation and evidence in the implementation of the government's strategies.

To contribute to this work, EBA decided to produce an anthology with texts that shed light on theories of change from different perspectives. Before the finalisation of the anthology, the contributions, of which this is one, are published as separate working papers.In this text, Joakim Molander and Wolfgang Biersack describe the theory of change that International IDEA has established to guide the organisation towards the objective of promoting and advancingsustainable democracy. The IDEA theory of change builds on an outcome mapping methodology and focuses on the institutions and actors whose capacity International IDEA strives to develop. The authors go on to discuss how IDEAs model could potentially be used by Sida.

Democracy is a prioritised area in Swedish development cooperation and a significant part of Sidas activities focus on promoting democracy. It is EBAs hope that this text will contribute with a perspective of how another actor has developed a theory of change at the strategic level for its democracy work. The text also provides general insight into how theories of change can be developed using outcome mapping.