Rhetoric or redundant? Making the most of adaptive management

“Adaptive management” has become one of those pieces of jargon dropped into international development program plans and proposals as an all-encompassing, sometimes throw-away term with little practical meaning. Yet we continue to use it. Why? Because while it often conceals more than it illuminates, it also represents something essential: the idea that a project must be managed in a way that enables ethical adaptation as the problem, context, or project needs shift.

This concept has become a self-evident truth, such that the “adaptive” in adaptive management borders on redundancy. However, that it has become self-evident says a lot about how much our thinking has advanced over the years, from measuring success based on strict adherence to workplans and tasks and bean-counting, to a gradual embrace of uncertainty and systems complexity. Yet the practical application of managing adaptively remains varied and nebulous. To discuss different models, Pact convened a panel of leading practitioners and thinkers in effectively applying adaptive management.

Read the full article on USAID's Learning Lab blog.