"To mark 20 years of Outcome Mapping, this paper explores the core principles and concepts that are foundational to using the approach. It also presents a set of guiding practices to support transformative change.
Three principles inherent in Outcome Mapping: 1. Social, policy & systems changes depend on changes in human behaviour; 2. People contribute to their own wellbeing; 3. Sustained improvements in people’s lives or environments depend on relationships.
Four core concepts necessary for effective use of Outcome Mapping: 1. Outcomes understood as changes in behaviour; 2. Spheres of influence; 3. Contributions to outcomes, not attribution; 4. Setting actor-centred boundaries.
Five guiding practices for using Outcome Mapping to support transformational change: 1. Facilitate inclusive & equity-focused participatory change processes; 2. Be accountable to learning at individual, team and organisational levels; 3. Grow a complex adaptive system view, & embrace uncertainty & experimentation; 4. Commit to iterative, collective sense-making with inductive & data driven reasoning; 5. Lead from context & combine Outcome Mapping with other approaches as needed." (Summary, page 2)