Resource ID: INDIGO-ARES-0100
This report introduces systems thinking for Oxfam staff and other development practitioners. It explains how a systems approach can be integrated within programmes and ways of working and provides tools and links to a range of useful resources for further learning. In doing so it builds on the experience and thought leadership on systems thinking that Oxfam and other organizations have already shown.
The adoption of systems thinking in practice requires a number of behaviours and practices that together provide the means to operate effectively within complex systems such as the ones we deal with. They include: a shift away from fixed, long-term planning to more iterative and adaptive planning based on learning and experimention; a focus on multistakeholder approaches and co-creation with local stakeholders; the search for context-specific solutions rather than generic ones based on good practice elswhere; a recognition that our paradigms and pre concieved ideas often limit our abilty to understand local contexts; and increased work across organizational boundaries, reducing differences in power, bringing in different ideas and perspectives and resulting in a deeper, less biased understanding of the systems we engage in.
Impact goal: Health, Defence, Housing, Agnostic, Democracy, Education, Well being, SDG oriented, Social impact, Local rejuvenation, Sustainability eco, Development poverty reduction, Employment financial well being
Internal/external: Internal
Leader: OxFam
Method: Observation, Theory of change, Mission alignment
Output format: Qualitative only
Scale: Macro
Sourcing: Self driven
Time frame: Ongoing, Prospective, Retrospective
Type: Guide
Used in sectors: Charity, Development
Who: Third sector
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