Welcome
Evolving Impact is a newsletter and consultancy exploring the intersection of technology, culture and complexity in global development and humanitarian aid.
My name is Ian McClelland. I am endlessly curious about how the world works and how change happens. Join me to review frontier thinking on social change in complex environments and consider the practical implications.
Why ‘Evolving Impact’?
The aid sector is plagued by doublethink. On the one hand, policymakers champion localisation, inclusion and the ‘participation revolution’. On the other hand, they champion RCTs, efficiency and value for money. Our values do not match our theories of knowledge and economic logics.
In recent decades, the ‘what works’ agenda, with its emphasis on RCTs as the gold standard of evidence, has encouraged uniform approaches that largely ignore history, culture and context. Moreover ‘what works’ stifles innovation by undermining diversity and devaluing alternative forms of knowledge.
Evolutionary thinking favours ‘fitness’ according to place and time over the one-size-fits-all mentality of ‘what works’. By ‘evolving impact’, I mean to highlight the importance of context and the need to continually adapt social interventions and organisations to the ever-changing world around us.
“We have never had to deal with problems of the scale facing today’s globally interconnected society. No one knows for sure what will work, so it is important to build a system that can evolve and adapt rapidly.” Elinor Ostrom
The Evolving Impact newsletter explores ways of thinking about innovation in development and humanitarian aid, and social change in general, that resolve existing contradictions. It is a place to make sense of my thoughts, to reflect on my experiences, and develop practical mental models for decision making.
The newsletter is also a way for me to ‘learn out loud’ and hopefully to make connections with other like-minded people. I will not be an expert in everything I will write about so if you have a comment, or have something else you want to share, please get in touch. I would love to hear from you.
A bit about me
I am an innovation strategist and researcher with over 15 years’ experience in the global development and humanitarian aid sector. While people often associate innovation with technology (which I studied as an undergrad), I am an enthusiastic generalist with wide-ranging interests in philosophy and the social sciences.
In previous roles I have managed multi-country partnerships supporting community-led innovation and multi-million pound global scaling funds. I have worked with teams around the world on challenges ranging from gender-based violence to earthquake resilience and response. I have also led the development of several toolkits and resources for responsible innovation.
While working with many brilliant people on lots of exciting projects I have experienced the limitations of ‘design thinking’ approaches to innovation and ‘what works’-style performance measurement, and the bureaucratic inertia that often prevents the adoption and scaling of innovations — which led to my particular interests in complex adaptive systems and cultural evolution.
Prior to focussing on innovation, I held numerous roles in communications for INGOs and academic centres, supporting research, policy, and public campaigns. I have an MSc in Globalisation and Development from the University of Manchester and a BSc in Disaster Management and Technology from the University of Birmingham, and I am a fellow of the RSA.
How I can help
As well as writing on Substack I provide a range of consultancy services to help communities and organisations adapt and thrive in the face of increasingly interconnected global challenges.
Recent and current projects include the design of a toolkit for community-led innovation, an evaluation of an innovative approach to menstrual hygiene management in Gaza and Lebanon, and research on the use of technology in humanitarian supply chains.
Get in touch if you would like support in any of the following areas:
Strategy — developing innovation strategies to maximise impact and make a portfolio more than the sum of individual projects.
Design — supporting collaborative innovation design processes, from problem exploration to scaling proven solutions.
Influencing — developing evidence-based arguments and persuasive pitches for the adoption of new ideas.
Research — supporting evaluation, organisational learning, and understanding of how innovation happens.
