CACIS logo communagir logo quartier
menu

Tool for Assessing the Effects of Local Intersectoral Action

Tool

The Tool for Assessing the Effects of Local Intersectoral Action is an interactive online tool. It generates information for assessing the effects of local intersectoral action in living environments.

It uses a timeline to mark the key events in an intersectoral project. Each of these events is associated with a transitional outcome taken from an inventory of 12 transitional outcomes serving to map the evolution of local intersectoral action up to its effects. This exercise leads to a chain of transitional outcomes specific to each transformation observed in the living environments.

Afterwards, these chains of transitional outcomes are illustrated as diagrams that dynamically show how the processes of intersectoral action are related to their effects.

What is a transitional outcome?

A transitional outcome is a key event that can be observed in practice (holding an activity, drafting a document, a key event, etc.). The outcome is transitional because it is not the end of a process, but rather marks the evolution of the action to achieve goals. Each transitional outcome is a marker of this evolution of the daily operations associated with the collective action.

What is the Tool used for?

Various tools allow actors to explicitly trace the path of their action. Such is the case with logical models as well as methods such as the theory of action or the theory of change. Yet these tools do not provide referents that can be used to think about one’s action.
The Tool for Assessing the Effects of Local Intersectoral Action makes it possible to:

  • Identify, based on the project's history, the key events in the course of action to observable effects in living environments.
  • Link these events to a more general theory of change that identifies 12 generic transitional outcomes combined in different ways by intersectoral bodies to produce visible effects in terms of material and social transformations in living environments.
  • Create a project's chain diagram of transitional outcomes, cull out what has been learned, and reinvest it in the action. 

When applied to a project, the Tool directly reveals what contributed to the effects of the project.

Who is the Tool for?

The Tool for Assessing the Effects of Local Intersectoral Action is for anyone involved in intersectoral projects targeting tangible transformations in living environments who want to document the effects of their action.

Module 1 is for people who want to become better acquainted with the foundations of the Tool. Modules 2 and 3 are for the facilitators of processes for assessing local intersectoral action.

In order for the Tool to be useful, the project must already have passed through some marker of its progression or led to a few achievements.

The Tool can be useful in others ways to anyone interested in intersectoral action.

What does the Tool include?