Позитивные изменения. Том 2, № 3 (2022). Positive changes. Volume 2, Issue 3 (2022)

The principles of theory of change are also used in the Standard for Evidence-Based Social Practices in Childhood, developed with support from the Timchenko Foundation, the Center for Evidence-Based Social Design at Moscow State University of Psychology and Pedagogy, and the Presidential Grants Fund. The importance of these principles is that they show the indispensability of the theory of change for assessing social impact. In order to evaluate a project, it is necessary to have a prescribed theory of change in order to formulate the subject of measurement. A sociological article on subjective well-being change points out that the theory of change, which specifies activities and a chain of social outcomes (Archakova & Garifulina, 2020), is used to define “well-being.” It was noted earlier that the concept of well-being is key to measurement because it allows the involvement of target groups and positive changes in well-being are the ultimate goal of any social projects.

Some grantmaking organizations are implementing the theory of change into their practice of submitting grant proposals, accompanied by educational programs.

Moreover, the monitoring and evaluation tools described in the standard, which involve a variety of data from different sources, can be included in the project at the planning stage, and the easiest way to do this is to correlate elements of the theory of change to their corresponding indicators and research methods. As the aforementioned authors write, theory of change helps operationalize the concept being measured, which allows us to formulate the means of evaluation.

The popularity of the theory of change as a design and evaluation tool in Russia is growing gradually. Some grantmaking organizations, such as the Toward Change Foundation and The Way Home Foundation, are implementing the theory of change into their practice of submitting grant proposals, accompanied by educational programs that allow applicants to become familiar with this tool of project work.

However, there is no widespread practice of implementation yet. In particular, as a study of foreign and Russian experience in evaluating NGO project activities shows[32], the Presidential Grants Fund, which is currently the largest entity financing social projects in the country, does not yet see the prospects and opportunities for introducing the theory of change, as well as requirements to evaluate social effects and impact for its grantees, believing that it would significantly complicate the procedure for issuing and receiving grants. In general, the application of the theory of change in Russia at this stage is an exception, rather than a general standard or rule. This is largely due to the labor intensity of its implementation, including the lack of appropriate digital tools to simplify the task, as well as the general lack of information on the terms and procedures for developing a theory of change. It is worth noting that the first methodological handbook on developing a theory of change in Russian was not published until 2021.

In general, the application of the theory of change in Russia at this stage is an exception, rather than a general standard or rule. This is largely due to the labor intensity of its implementation.

Interestingly, in a collection of English-language articles on the use of the theory of change in world practice, this approach is characterized as “trendy, over-used… methodology” (Vun, 2021). This vividly demonstrates the gap in approaches used in social change projects. On the one hand, catch-up development makes it possible to avoid the problems of growth: late introduction of the technology makes it possible to avoid the mistakes of an earlier version. Such errors in the context of the theory of change include the lack of implementation of monitoring and evaluation practices, as well as the lack of involvement of the affected players. On the other hand, years and even decades have passed since the weaknesses of the methodology have been addressed, and the use of the methodology in Russia remains at an initial level without any counterpart being present.

STRUCTURE OF THE THEORY OF CHANGE: AN EXAMPLE OF THE THEORY OF POSITIVE CHANGE