Concern Universal’s vision is of a world where Although the impression may be that these justice, dignity and respect prevail for all. Our theory of change explains what we believe are the conditions needed to achieve change and to reach our mission of reducing poverty.
These notes have been developed to accompany, and explain, our Theory of
Change diagram. The diagram demonstrates the impact of poverty and how we seek to reduce it.
WHY? - External Environmental Factors
(left-hand side of diagram)
There are many reasons why people are living in poverty. The ‘External Environmental
Factors’ column demonstrates some of these issues. Many people are born into these conditions, and lack the money, skills or ability to lift themselves out of poverty. This list shows the most common causes and consequences of living in poverty, and was compiled as part of the CU 2009-14
Organisational Strategy.
HOW? - Change columns (Individual,
Community, Society)
This paper demonstrates how we see change happen. Concern Universal works hand in hand with local communities, supporting people to work together to make improvements to benefit the whole community. This way, people can be empowered to call upon those in authority to take make the changes people need to improve their lives.
The diagram shows that Concern Universal programmes support change on three levels;
Individual, Community and Society. Concern
Universal feels that in order to have a sustainable impact on poverty, all of these different levels need to be addressed. At an
Individual level, we support those who speak out and have the influence to improve their community. At a Community level, we develop strong local organisations and forge partnerships between communities, local businesses, other charities and government.
At a Society level, we work to influence government and institutions so that they give a greater focus to reducing poverty.
changes are sequential, starting with the individual and working up to the institutional, we recognise that reality is more complex than that. We do not expect for programme strategies to work from one level to the other, or even necessarily to cover all three areas.
However, we recognise that to have a sustainable impact on poverty all three levels will need to be addressed, either by ourselves or by other organisations.
OBSTACLES - Challenges (at bottom of page)
There are many obstacles to reducing poverty and many challenges will arise that may hinder our progress and stop us from achieving our goals. Challenges may arise at an individual, community or institutional level. You can see examples of these at the bottom of each column in the diagram. Concern Universal is committed to learning more about the difficulties we face and how we can overcome them. We do this through in-depth project evaluations and impact assessments. These reports help us improve the impact our programmes have, and enable us to work more effectively with partners and communities.
ACHIEVEMENTS - Change boxes (righthand side of diagram)
Our mission is to reduce poverty and inequality, and this is where the Theory of
Change diagram ends; in the orange circle on the right-hand side of the diagram. We consider our work successful if the people that we support are able to say they now live with justice, respect and dignity.
The five
‘key change’ boxes on the right-hand side of the diagram show the improvements needed to reduce poverty and inequality.
These are; changes in levels of food security, changes in well-being, changes in levels of respect for rights, changes in skills development, and changes in household resilience to unplanned events and disaster shocks.