Sample interview questions to articulate the implicit theory of change of a project, program or policy
(adapted from Funnell and Rogers pp 124)
These questions can be used in individual or group interviews with key informants, including those who designed a project, program or policy, those who are currently working to deliver or manage it, and those who are involved in it in other ways, including as intended beneficiaries.
Questions that can be used before a project, program or policy starts:
· What benefits would you expect to see from this project, program or policy?
· What are the current barriers to achieving this? How will the project, program or policy overcome these?
· How would life be better for participants if this project, program or policy worked well?
· What is it about the project, program or policy that you think will make the difference for them?
· What else will be needed to achieve these results? Who or what will provide this? (Probe to see if this is about activities of another program or favourable context for implementation or particular participant characteristics). How will the project, program or policy seek to engage these other organizations?
· What might be some negative impacts from the project, program or policy? How might these come about? What might be done to reduce the risk of these?
Questions that can be used after a project, program or policy has been implemented for a while:
· Can you give me an example of where this project, program or policy is working really well? What does it look like when it works really well? What do you think makes it work well in this case?
· Can you give me an example of where this project, program or policy is not working very well? Why is it not working well in this case? (Probe to see if the problem is that it is not being implemented well, or if the theory of change is not working as expected).
· What have been the impacts from this project, program or policy?
· What is it about the project, program or policy that you think makes a difference?