Program Theory of Change

The program is supported through a Cooperative Agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and The Aquaya Institute. This knowledge-building initiative contributes to the goals of USAID's Water and Development Plan, established under the U.S. government's Global Water Strategy. The REAL-Water program comprises three interrelated components. The first component focuses on implementation research that applies scientific methods, international collaboration, and rigorous analyses to address critical water and development themes, including improving rural water management, strengthening water safety management, improved planning for water resources, and increased USAID mission access to specialized expertise. The second component fosters the use of evidence in decision-making by national policymakers and government officials, development partners, and public and private sector service providers through collaboration across sector stakeholders. The third component coordinates and collaborates within USAID and with related USAID programs that are contributing to the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) knowledge base. The program theory of change is a visual representation of the anticipated change processes and synergies that REAL-Water aims to achieve. The theory of change focuses on three central research streams initiated under Component 1 implementation research in year 1, as well as additional buy-in opportunities where USAID Missions opt to add funding to address specific research questions under the rural water umbrella. The theory of change also highlights the use of research knowledge in implementation activities and the use of implementation knowledge in research activities, with a focus on water safety management (WSM) interventions that were piloted prior to the start of the REAL-Water program. The REAL-Water program theory of change assumes that conditions in the study locations will favor multi-stakeholder engagement and inputs into implementation activities in practice, leading to a minimum level of program outputs (research knowledge production) and a proposed level of program outputs, assuming that conditions in the REAL-Water study locations favor multi-stakeholder engagement and inputs into implementation activities in practice. The program also assumes that activities to support REAL-Water Component 2 (use of evidence in decision-making) will take place during all program years through both local- and global-level engagement activities, with a three-step process to move engaged stakeholders from overall program awareness to providing input to applying knowledge in practice. The REAL-Water program theory of change is intended for internal reference and external communications related to monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) and engagement activities. It does not replace the existing program results framework, as cited in the MEL plan. Broader sharing of the program-wide theory of change may help to further Component 3 goals (coordination with USAID, CKM II, and the other WASH mechanisms). The program-wide theory of change captures a broad scale of anticipated change processes and synergies, but it does not delve into specific actors and change factors in any given local study areas. It may be accompanied by study-specific or location-specific theories of change.