Investing in What Works
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Articles & Publications
Implementing Policy Change: A Summary of Lessons Learned
This report outlines lessons learned from USAID’s Implementing Policy Change project, analyzing the benefits of its strategic management process and exploring how to combine outside and indigenous resources.
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The Essential Connection: Using Evaluation to Identify Programs Worth Replicating
This publication describes how to use practical evaluation methods to identify social programs that are both effective and capable of being successfully transferred to new settings. It also provides guidance in making sound decisions about the suitability of investing time and money in expansion.
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The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization
This book put the term “learning organization” on the map, and while it does not focus squarely on systems change, systems thinking is a fundamental principle informing Senge’s model. He writes that because “business and human endeavors are also systems…bound of invisible fabrics of interrelated actions,” systems thinking is a critical part of building a
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Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas
Presentation of a theory exploring how causation (or stories) is understood and its influence in problem definition and agenda setting.
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Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches to Implementation Research: a Critical Analysis and Suggested Synthesis
Review of the research literature on top-down and bottom-up approaches to the implementation of public policy, concluding with a suggested model synthesizing the two approaches (Advocacy Coalition Framework).
The New Meaning of Educational Change
Fifth edition of a widely read work focused on how to get new educational programs to work in practice. One chapter is devoted to the role of governments in large-scale school reform and whole-system improvement.
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Diffusion of Innovation
In this renowned book, Everett M. Rogers, professor and chair of the Department of Communication & Journalism at the University of New Mexico, explains how new ideas spread via communication channels over time. Such innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky. To overcome this uncertainty, most people seek out others like themselves who
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An Approach to the Analysis of Political Systems
Application of systems theory to the policy process.
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