1996levyinstitutionalisinggendermainstreaming

This paper by Levy, raises a critical question of concern: how to institutionalise or sustain change related to new perspectives in the practices of governments and other organisations involved in the development process. Doing so, it zooms in on the institutionalisation of a gender perspective in development policy, planning and practice.
It proposes that the conditions under which gender can be institutionalised, are represented by at least thirteen elements. Each element represents a site of power. Gender relations and their intersection with other social relations, are located at a variety of different &#8220;sites of power&#8221; in any particular institutional context and its organisational landscape. A ToC addressing gender changes can be inspired on these different &#8220;sites of power&#8221;.
Related is <a href="https://changeroo.com/toc-academy/posts/the-web-of-institutionalisation-assessing-uptake-of-toc-thinking-in-hivos">this</a> post, which applies Levy&#8217;s institutionalisation framework on institutionalising ToC thinking within the development organisation Hivos.

This paper present thirteen elements to institutionalise gender, which can be used as a basis to develop a ToC that addresses gender changes.

Institutionalising gender equality

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First article. International aid agencies face major problems when attempting to evaluate their achievements. Activities, intended beneficiaries, partner institutions and social contexts are diverse because of their global scale. How can agencies&#8217; &#8216;theories of change&#8217; be adequately represented in summary forms that respect the complexity and diversity? This article, the first of two, looks at a range of types of change processes and how they can be represented. It starts with linear processes, traditionally represented via the Logical Framework, and ends with network processes. The solutions proposed are informed by three related cross-disciplinary theoretical perspectives: evolutionary theory; complex adaptive systems; and social network analysis.
Second article. International aid agencies face major problems when attempting to evaluate their achievements. Activities, intended beneficiaries, partner institutions and social contexts are diverse because of their global scale. How can agencies&#8217; &#8216;theories of change&#8217; be adequately represented in summary forms that respect the complexity and diversity?
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Two articles that look at a range of types of change processes and how they can be represented. It starts with linear processes and ends with network processes. The second article elaborates further on a network perspective.

Scale, complexity and the representation of Theories of Change

Instead of thinking about TOC as the “magic bullet” that can solve all of the planning and evaluation challenges, it should rather be seen as a tool to learn how to ask fundamental different questions from those we are used to.
This is a series of different articles by different authors. The section that is of relevance to this blog post is on page 12 – Introduction to theory of change by Andrea Andersen. In this article, she delineates what  a ToC is, what the process is of creating a ToC, what is the value in creating a ToC, and concludes by giving us the difference between a ToC and a logic model. The take home message in this article is that individuals encountering a ToC for the first time should be open minded and should see the extent to which it can help them to be better strategic thinkers throughout all their work, and not think of it as only a planning tool.

The key message in this article is that individuals encountering a ToC for the first time should be open minded and should see the extent to which it can help them to be better strategic thinkers, and not think of it as only a planning tool.