ToC: Pros & Cons

  • Helps to explain both how and why change takes place
  • Can be relatively straightforward or more complex
  • Does not follow a rigid ‘one size fits all’ format
  • Encourages NGOs and others to really think about what their project is trying to do and what assumptions they are making
  • It can help you adjust your project in ways that increase its prospects of success
  • It can help you identify intermediate outcomes
  • It enables organisations to think about their work and their organisation more deeply

Advantages

Disadvantages

  • It can end up being over-simplified, over-complicated or simply wrong with arrows connecting boxes in ways that could never be possible
  • Its value is not always recognised by funders
  • It can throw up challenging findings (were your assumptions completely wrong, where you were barking up the wrong tree)

For key differences between the Theory of Change and logframe, click here.