The Humanitarian Impact Institute supports humanitarian and development actors to develop complex theories of change (ToC) for humanitarian and development programs in unstable and conflict-affected contexts in all sectors and themes and across the humanitarian-development nexus.

Linear or overly rigid designs are often ineffective, but do require theoretical structuring.

HII can also reconstruct a Theory of Change if necessary, as well as review and adapt theories of changes where new evidence supports this. Our goal is impactful programming, and recalibrating ToCs can help drive this increased impact as well as serve as a vehicle for learning for implementers. 

Effective Theories of Change also incorporate understandings of local power dynamics and conflict triggers, as well as be representative of diverse groups including gender, age, disability, socio-economic status, ethnicity and social standing/marginalisation. 

HII can also help incorporate mechanisms for monitoring ToC validity and the underlying assumptions and learning goals should also be built into the ToC.