Putting learning at the centre - Adaptive development programming in practice

The time is ripe to revisit ways to better build learning for adaptation into development programming.
This paper begins by clarifying why and what kind of learning matters for adaptive programming. This involves briefly analysing the key concepts of adaptation, complexity and learning and suggesting that a greater focus is required on the relationships between development actors than we have seen to date. It then turns its focus on how strategies and approaches applied throughout a programme’s conception, design, management and M&E can enable it to continually learn and adapt. This paper synthesises relevant thinking about learning in a potentially diverse universe of adaptive programming and draws out some implications for practice.