Earlier this month LINC conducted a training course on systems thinking for international development. We had 20 participants including a mix of international development practitioners, staff of NGOs, contractors and donors. Over the course of four days we discussed the fundamental concepts of Systems Thinking and how these concepts can be applied to a variety of persistent development challenges. Participants performed a System Scan for their own development problems and uncovered new insights to improve intervention design and performance monitoring and evaluation.
We were happy to receive positive feedback from the participants who learned, “how useful and powerful applying systems thinking really is”. Some participants also found it valuable to use a variety of methods that forced them to view a problem from new angles and come up with different insights. Others also praised the focus on “practical exercise and application” throughout the course.
We have also been thrilled to hear from participants who have already been using the System Scan in their work. We believe in the power of systems thinking to transform the way development work is approached in order to lead to sustained change. We look forward to continuing our efforts with our next training – “Network Analysis for Systems Thinking: Understanding Actors and Relationships” in December.
