More about me
Silva Ferretti is a freelance consultant with extensive international experience in both development and humanitarian work. She has been working with diverse organizations, committees, networks and consortia (e.g. Agire, ActionAid, CDAC, DEC, ECB project, Handicap International, HAP, Plan International, Save the Children, SPHERE, Unicef, WorldVision amongst many others).
Her work is mainly focused on looking at the quality of programs and on improving their accountability and responsiveness to the needs, capacities and aspirations of the affected populations.
Her work has included impact evaluations / documentation of programs; set up of toolkits, methodologies, standards, frameworks and guidelines; coaching, training and facilitation; field research and assessments.
Within all her work Silva emphasizes participatory approaches and learning. She has a solid academic background, and also collaborated with academic and research institutions in short workshops on a broad range of topics (including: innovations in impact evaluation, Disaster Risk Management, participatory methodologies, protection, communication with affected populations).
She emphasizes innovation in her work, such as the use of visuals and videos in gathering and presenting information.
Silva Ferretti
Freelance consultant FreelanceWhat strikes me is that we all discuss ToCs as if they were "a thing"....
Talking about a "logframe" is easy: there is standard format to it.
It might be slightly adapted, but it is quite clear what it is, how it looks like, how it works.
The same is not true for ToCs. What a ToC is can be vastly different.
I feel we might all use the same word, but having something vastly different in mind...
Best
Silva
Silva Ferretti
Freelance consultant FreelanceIt depends on what is a Theory of Change, and how it has been generated/shared.
If it remains the same as a big logframe, hidden in some proposals... it does not add much value.
If it is co-generated and owned... possibly EMERGING from the process of change, then it is an added value.
As an evaluator, I see that staff on the ground welcome discussions at theory of change level when they help to systematize experience.
But they might be clueless and confused by TOCs as proposal annexes.
So, if the Theory of Change is just bureaucracy it is actually a complication.
If it is a process of systematizing experience, owned by these involved in making change, it is super useful.
Unfortunately, the latter are very rare.