- Published by
- Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED)
Guidelines for programmes implementing the DCED Standard for results measurement in private sector development.
Systemic change is at the core of effective development, offering the potential to create jobs, provide access to essential goods and services, and support livelihoods at scale.
The Standard specifies seven elements of a successful results measurement system. This guide covers the fourth element; capturing wider change in the system or market.
It introduces the concept, and importance, of systems change and provides guidance on how to use the Standard to assess systemic change. It reviews and critiques various approaches currently in use, concluding with recommendations for good practice.
The DCED Standard provides three rules of thumbs to help identify ‘systemic’ changes. They should be:
- sustainable in the long run, enduring past the end of the programme
- scalable, reaching many more people than in the original pilot
- resilient, adapting to new market conditions and circumstances
The guidance is informed by the approach developed in the 2020 paper A Pragmatic approach to assessing system change
What practitioners say about the tool
"It gives a good high level overview of how to assess change in MSD programmes. It is clear about the important aspects without being too prescriptive."