Introducing the Causal Pathways Resource Hub

Causal Pathways
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Causal Pathways Initiative
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We are pleased to launch the Causal Pathways Resource Hub: A set of new and revised pages on BetterEvaluation, developed in partnership with the Causal Pathways Initiative.

This initiative seeks to help philanthropy and other funders open the black box of strategy and systems change by building awareness, will, and skills to use evaluation approaches that can make sense of causal relationships in complex change contexts.

The Causal Pathways Resource Hub is a set of resources, including new and updated method and approach pages, that explain why and how to explore causal pathways.  

The hub gives users – from those new to evaluation to seasoned evaluators and evaluation managers – the information they need to commission or conduct evaluations that explore the evidence for pathways leading to change, confirming or challenging theories and assumptions about how change happens. The content includes guidance and information on a wide range of approaches, some of which, by their nature, explore causal pathways and others that can be applied in ways to do so.

What do we mean by a causal pathways evaluation?

A causal pathway is created by a series of events and contributing factors which lead to an outcome or impact.  A causal pathways perspective on evaluation focuses on understanding how, why and under what conditions change happens, has happened, or is not happening. It does this by exploring the interconnected chains of causal links that lead to a range of outcomes and impacts.  

These causal pathways are likely to involve multiple actors, contributing factors, events, and actions – not only the activities associated with the program, project or policy being evaluated or its stated objectives.  A causal pathways perspective pays particular attention to equity: how and why different groups and individuals experience interventions differently and experience different outcomes as a result—something that is often invisible in evaluations that focus on measuring an average effect.

Rather than being a specific approach, causal pathways evaluation can draw on a combination of evaluation approaches, processes, and methods. It uses a range of evidence types, with a particular focus on  participatory processes to engage participants as evaluation designers, data collectors, sources, analysts, and presenters of findings in evaluation processes, thus amplifying their voices and narratives.

The Causal Pathways Initiative has articulated the following features that distinguish a causal pathways evaluation perspective:

  • Addressing power and inclusion
  • Valuing actors’ narratives
  • Articulating explicit causal pathways
  • Paying attention to a range of outcomes and impacts, both positive and negative
  • Understanding contextual variation
  • Using an iterative, bricolage approach to evaluation design
  • Drawing on a range of causal inference strategies
  • Taking a complexity-appropriate approach to evaluation quality and rigour

More information on these features can be found on the thematic page Causal Pathways Perspective.

Causal Pathways Resource Hub

The Causal Pathways Resource Hub team (see list of members below) worked to create a widely accessible and useful library that could help evaluation commissioners and evaluators examine causal pathways in complex change contexts.  They included approaches and methods that are either designed to or can be adapted to do the following:

  • unpack  and test theories of change
  • examine a range of outcomes – intended and unintended
  • consider  contextual variation
  • use a range of approaches to support causal inference
  • value inclusion and empowerment.  

The Causal Pathways Resource Hub team identified BetterEvaluation as a logical home for this hub, given its respected status as a global “go-to” site about all things evaluation. The team was thrilled when BetterEvaluation agreed to partner on this project.  

Together, the Causal Pathways Resource Hub team and GEI’s BetterEvaluation team, with support from other Causal Pathways Initiative members, honed the description of Causal Pathways evaluation, updated and added approach and method pages, and identified key resources to include in the hub. As well as updating and expanding pages on particular evaluation approaches, this collaboration has led to a revision and expansion of material in the BetterEvaluation Rainbow Framework, which organises more than 300 methods in terms of more than 30 different tasks in evaluation.   

We have revised pages relating to the quality of evaluation and developing a theory of change for an intervention. We have also developed a new task page for Develop a design for an evaluation – including methods such as iterative design, joint design, and bricolage design – and a new task page for Understanding the situation. We have also added a new method, causal mapping, which helps document and analyse the causal claims (about "what causes what") that people make in interviews, conversations and documents.

Both teams consider this a living hub that will be updated as evaluation thinking evolves and new resources become available. We would love to hear your feedback or ideas for additional content or resources.

Explore the new and updated method and approach pages, along with the new cross-cutting thematic page:

Theme page

  • Causal pathways

    A causal pathways perspective on evaluation focuses on understanding how, why, and under what conditions change happens or has happened.

Approaches

  • Causal link monitoring

    Causal Link Monitoring (CLM) is an evaluation approach that combines implementation design and monitoring to support adaptive management of projects, helping project planners and managers to identify processes needed to achieve desired outcomes.

  • Contribution analysis

    Contribution analysis is an evaluation approach that provides a systematic way of understanding an intervention's contribution to observed outcomes or impacts.

  • Outcome harvesting

    Outcome Harvesting collects (“harvests”) evidence of what has changed (“outcomes”) and, working backwards, determines whether and how an intervention has contributed to these changes.

  • Outcome Mapping

    Outcome Mapping is an approach that helps unpack an initiative’s theory of change and provides a framework to collect data on the immediate, basic changes that lead to longer, more transformative change.

  • Qualitative comparative analysis

    Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is an evaluation approach that supports causal reasoning by examining how different conditions contribute to an outcome.

  • Qualitative impact assessment protocol

    The Qualitative Impact Assessment Protocol (QuIP) is an impact evaluation approach that collects and documents narrative causal statements directly from those affected by an intervention.

  • Realist evaluation

    Realist evaluation aims to identify the underlying generative causal mechanisms that explain how outcomes were caused and how context influences these.

Methods and tasks

Understand the situation

A situation analysis examines the current situation and the factors contributing to it. This might include identification and analysis of needs, resources, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and/or power analysis.

  • Causal mapping

    ​Causal mapping helps make sense of the causal claims (about "what causes what") that people make in interviews, conversations, and documents.

  • Power analysis

    A power analysis identifies the main types of power in a system of interest.

Develop a design for the evaluation

An evaluation design sets out how data will be collected and analysed in terms of the methods used and the research design.

  • Joint evaluation design

    A collaboration is involved in designing the evaluation, which might involve an implementing agency, an evaluation team and/or a community working together.

  • Bricolage evaluation design

    A bricolage evaluation design flexibly combines and adapts various data collection and analysis methods, approaches, and conceptual and value frameworks to suit the specific context of the evaluation.

  • Iterative evaluation design

    An iterative evaluation design involves setting out an initial overall evaluation design or process at the beginning of the evaluation.

Determine what constitutes high quality evaluation
For any evaluation, there needs to be clarity about what will be considered a quality and ethical evaluation.
  • Rigour

    Rigour involves using systematic, transparent processes to produce valid findings and conclusions. There are significant differences in what this is understood to mean in evaluation.

  • Transparency

    Transparency refers to the evaluation processes and conclusions being able to be scrutinised.

Understand causes of outcomes and impacts
Collect and analyse data to answer causal questions about what has produced outcomes and impacts that have been observed.
  • Process tracing

    Process tracing is a case-based and theory-driven method for causal inference that applies specific types of tests to assess the strength of evidence for concluding that an intervention has contributed to changes that have been observed or measured.

With thanks to:

This blog and the pages within the Causal Pathway Resource Hub were developed, revised, and reviewed by the members of the Causal Pathways Initiative and by Patricia Rogers, Kaye Stevens and Alice Macfarlan. Thanks go especially to the Causal Pathways Resource Hub Team: Carlisle Levine, Fiona Remnant, Steve Powell, Abdoul Karim Coulibaly, Hippolyt Pul and Yulianto Dewata, as well as to Causal Pathway Initiative members who provided invaluable input on the thematic page and various approach and method pages: Marina Apgar, Heather Britt and  Melanie Punton, and to other members of the Causal Pathways leadership team: Julia Coffman, Jewlya Lynn and Kimberlin Butler.

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