The theory of no change

C. Woerlen, S. Rieseberg
DOI:  10.12910/EAI2015-024

Evaluation reports often fail to give a satisfying answer why an intervention failed to achieve certain outcomes. This is frequently because elements outside of the evaluandum’s project/ program logic are not analyzed. The framework presented in this article identifies a set of relevant barriers that need to be removed in order for market transformation to take place. A visualization tool illustrates these barriers and their intensity. The tool can be combined with a visualization of the project intervention so that the match of the intervention with the barriers can be assessed at a glance. This framework allows for a better understanding of shortcomings of projects or programs and the identification of overlooked barriers.