Will Allen

Golden Reflection - Lake Tutira, Hawke's Bay.

#photography #landscape #nz #foggytrees

📢 HAPPENING NOW 📢

The IPBES Bureau has commenced its 24th meeting in Bonn, Germany! 🇩🇪 On the agenda: charting the course for future Plenary sessions, reviewing financial plans, and enhancing engagement with key partners.

Wishing all a productive day of discussions #ForNature !

Micro-RCTs Meet Action Research: A New Model for Participatory School Reform in the North East Last week, our co-founder Dr Wayne Harrison joined the Durham County Council–Durham University Education Working Group to share insights from our research collaboration with the North East Combined Au...

A powerful example of participatory systems thinking in education. Evidence as dialogue, not decree.
🔗 www.linkedin.com/pulse/micro-...
🌍🧪 #Education #SystemsChange #ParticipatoryResearch

Great article. In a world saturated with mis- and disinformation, trust in science must rest not just on evidence, but on openness, care, and connection. 🌍🧪

We need social science as much as STEM in policymaking - Impact of Social Sciences STEM dominated policymaking during COVID-19 – social sciences were sidelined. Ludwicki-Ziegler and Moawad urge greater integration of social studies for balanced, effective policy.

💥New: We need social science as much as STEM in policymaking

STEM steered the #COVID-19 response, but Sebastian Ludwicki-Ziegler ( @sebaszieg.bsky.social) & Lise Moawad @humboldtuni.bsky.social argue for integrated, interdisciplinary science advice beyond the #crisis

🤝

Why ‘awareness’ isn’t enough: shifting public engagement on sustainability - learningforsustainability.net Awareness isn’t enough—real change in sustainability depends on context, relationships, and support to act.

Raising awareness isn’t enough.
Real change in sustainability depends on alignment, not just information.

My latest post explores why collaboration, context, and practice matter more than persuasion. 🌍🧪

🧭 learningforsustainability.net/post/shiftin...

#behaviourchange #sustainability

Social learning - learningforsustainability.net Social learning supporting sustainable change Explore the concept of social learning, a collaborative approach to addressing complex environmental challenges. Discover key strategies, frameworks, and resources that emphasise dialogue, reflection,...

New resource hub on social learning in complex settings—tools, framings, and links to support reflection, collaboration, and adaptation.

🔗 learningforsustainability.net/social-learn...

#SocialLearning #SystemsThinking #Collaboration #Complexity #LfSinsights 🌍🧪

Social learning in action: working together on complex challenges - learningforsustainability.net In complex, real-world settings, progress often depends on people learning together. This post explores what social learning looks like in practice, and why creating space for reflection, dialogue, an...

New blog post: Social learning in action 🌍🧪

In complex settings, progress depends on people learning together. This post explores how reflection, dialogue, and shared sense-making help teams adapt and move forward.

🔗 learningforsustainability.net/post/social-...

#LfSinsights

Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) - learningforsustainability.net Resources and strategies to support monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) for systems change and sustainability work.

New resource hub on evaluation in complex settings 🌍🧪

Tools, framings, and approaches to support learning and adaptation. For practitioners, evaluators & facilitators working on systems change and sustainability.

🔗 learningforsustainability.net/evaluation/

#Evaluation #Complexity #LfSinsights

Participatory action research: tackling today’s complex challenges - learningforsustainability.net Participatory action research (PAR) offers a practical and inclusive approach to tackling today’s complex challenges. By combining collaboration, critical reflection, and iterative cycles of inquiry a...

🌍 Participatory action research (PAR) blends reflection, collaboration, and action. In this post I explore how it supports work on climate, equity, and systems change. 🧪

🔗 learningforsustainability.net/post/par-for...

#PAR #collaboration #systemschange

Cumulate knowledge at science-policy interfaces to inform policy Identifying opportunities from an interface perspective

Five opportunities for knowledge cumulation at science-policy interfaces.

✍🏻 Insights from a new paper by Benjamin Hofmann‪ and colleagues @eawag.bsky.social, @ethz.ch & @unibe.ch

transforming-evidence.org/blog/cumulat...

Exploring futures in practice: collaborative approaches for navigating change - learningforsustainability.net This post shows how futures thinking, foresight, scenarios, and visioning can support shared insight, planning, and adaptation in complex settings.

🌍 Thinking about the future is essential—but terms like foresight, scenarios & visioning often blur together.
This post shares a practical take on four futures approaches, incl. the 'wave' method for exploring change. 🧪
🌊🧭 learningforsustainability.net/post/explori...

Scale-up influences and definitions of scale-up ‘success’: evidence from globally scaled interventions Influences on scale-up and definitions of scale-up ‘success’ that include scaling inputs, outputs, outcomes, and context.

How do we define 'successful' scale up? What influences this?

In our latest paper we found that 'success' was a combination of scaling inputs, outputs, outcomes and contexts...

Read more about it here: academic.oup.com/tbm/article/...

Designing together: reflections on co-design in complex settings - learningforsustainability.net This post reflects on co-design practice in complex, multi-stakeholder settings, highlighting six interwoven elements that support inclusive, adaptive, and collaborative approaches.

Co-design in complex settings isn’t about finding the perfect process—it’s about working well together in real time.

🌍 I shared this short reflection a couple of months back. Still finding it useful.

🔗 learningforsustainability.net/post/co-desi...

#codesign #systems #evaluation 🧪

Futures, foresight, scenarios, and visioning - learningforsustainability.net A curated set of practical foresight, scenario, and visioning resources to support futures thinking in sustainability, systems change, and participatory planning.

🌍 Thinking about the future? I’ve updated my Futures Thinking resource page to help make sense of different approaches—foresight, scenarios, and visioning—and share practical guides, frameworks, and papers. 🧪
Take a look: learningforsustainability.net/futures-thin...

Abstract This essay takes aim at normal academic practice in interpretative analysis. Specifically, the ways methodological discussions are often stilted, wooden and don’t sufficiently attempt to trace the intellectual journeys which scholars have traveled to arrive at their understandings. Based on this I consider some of the epistemological under-laboring that sits at the foundation of social scientific analysis of much qualitative data. With a sound understanding of what it means to understand, we can grasp something of the “rational shadow” that is often cast over the realities of human knowledge production. That is because, while we scholars might organize our time so that we can have a moment when we are “doing our analysis,” such a moment, when understood as a bounded, linear and rational event or series of progressive steps, is an epistemological fiction. It is, then, more rational to acknowledge the diffuse, tacit, and non-rational features of human understanding, and build methodological and analytic strategies which lean into these realities. And, in that regard, we can provide a more rational analysis of our relatively rational analysis. Keywords interpretative analysis, research philosophy, understanding, epistemology, knowledge

Do you ever read qualitative social science; sociology, psychology, criminology, and the like, and get a sense that the methods just don't give enough insight into what actually happened? Yep, me to, esp in relation to where scholars' ideas came from. More here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🌍 Learning for Sustainability
I post on systems thinking, facilitation, co-design & evaluation — grounded in practice and shared learning.

📄 Worth revisiting: Evaluation in complex settings: reflections on practice and evaluator roles
🔗 learningforsustainability.net/post/evaluat...

🧪 #LfSinsights

Social learning in practice: Strengthening collaboration amid complexity - learningforsustainability.net This post explores how social learning supports effective collaboration and integrating diverse perspectives to tackle complex challenges.

🌍 Learning for Sustainability
I post on systems thinking, facilitation, co-design & evaluation — grounded in practice and shared learning.

📄 Worth revisiting: Social learning in practice: Strengthening collaboration amid complexity
🔗 learningforsustainability.net/post/social-...

🧪 #LfSinsights

Glocal Evaluation Week begins tomorrow! 🙌

✅ 390+ knowledge-sharing events happening online & in person around the 🌏
✅ Lots of opportunities to gain new knowledge & insights on #evaluation & #development topics you care about

👀 Explore the #glocal2025 agenda & sign up for events: glocalevalweek.org

"The global launch of #glocal2025 is an invitation to reimagine #evaluation & how it can serve as a foundation for building bridges, fostering meaningful dialogue, & restoring trust. Join us in exploring how evaluation can help shape a more just, resilient, & connected world." #MandE #Eval #gLocal

Exploring complexity: a thread through recent reflections - learningforsustainability.net This post outlines how evaluation, co-design, systems thinking, and participatory research practices often build on shared foundations.

🌍🧪 New post: Exploring complexity

In messy, real-world settings, practices like evaluation, co-design, systems thinking & participatory research often overlap. This post weaves blog threads on learning, collaboration & systems into a shared picture.
🔗 learningforsustainability.net/post/explori...

May Roundup Hello friends!

May’s newsletter is here - with some of my AI reading this month 👇🏻 aixinsights.substack.com/p/may-roundu...

Evaluation's Journey towards the Future, Part 5. The Liminal space of Not-Yet Futures - Evaluation and Transformation Share this post  Mention ‘polycrisis’, and people’s eyes glaze over – intimidated by its complexity and a sense of powerlessness. What if, instead, we consider what it means to be in a liminal space? ...

Evaluation's Journey towards the Future, Part 5. The Liminal space of Not-Yet Futures zendaofir.com/evaluations-...

UNICEF at the gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2025 Join us from June 2 to 6 for a week of learning and knowledge sharing dedicated to monitoring and evaluation.

✨ Join #gLOCAL2025 from 2-6 June! @unicef.org #Evaluation colleagues will present key insights & innovations in #evaluation across a series of featured sessions. For a comprehensive list of UNICEF-led sessions, visit our page: www.unicef.org/evaluation/u... 👈
@gei-globaleval.bsky.social #gLOCAL

Organizational readiness for change: A systematic review of the healthcare literature - Laura Caci, Emanuela Nyantakyi, Kathrin Blum, Ashlesha Sonpar, Marie-Therese Schultes, Bianca Albers, Lauren Cla... Background Organizational readiness for change (ORC), referring to psychological and behavioral preparedness of organizational members for implementation, is of...

Just out: "Organizational readiness for change: A systematic review of the literature"

Explores how healthcare organisations assess and build readiness for change. Highlights the importance of collective commitment and capacity.

📚 Read here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

#ChangeManagement

Entry points for driving systemic change toward a more sustainable future The nine entry points identified in this paper reveal recurring approaches to transition and transformation informed by theories and grounded in empirical insights from diverse case studies. They can ...

Entry points for driving systemic change toward a more sustainable future: One Earth www.cell.com/one-earth/fu...

Evaluation in complex settings: reflections on practice and evaluator roles - learningforsustainability.net Reflections on evaluator roles and practice in complexity-aware MEL, sharing five grounded patterns for learning, adaptation, and strategic insight.

In complex settings, evaluation needs to do more than measure results. This post shares 5 grounded patterns from complexity-aware MEL—and reflects on what this asks of evaluators.
🔗 learningforsustainability.net/post/evaluat...

| International Day of Plant Health |
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Today, we observe the International Day of Plant Health. Protecting plant health is essential for ensuring food security, supporting rural livelihoods, and fostering climate resilience.
#PlantHealthDay

🌱 Happy International Day of Plant Health!

Today we are launching Year 3 of the #PlantHealth4Life campaign 🌿

Whether you travel responsibly ✈️, plant smart 🌼, or teach kids about nature 🧒 - your everyday actions can help keep plants healthy.

Let’s spread awareness together: europa.eu/!TpFdCX