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Transformational Assumptions

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Working with Assumptions in International Development Program Evaluation

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Abstract

While prescriptive assumptions are related to strategies (and alternatives) devised to address a problem, transformational assumptions relate to how the immediate results of a strategy program or intervention (outputs) are expected to lead to long-term desired changes. The use of Elicitation, Program theory matrix and the theory of change Approach for explicitizing transformational assumptions is appraised. An integrative approach is proposed.

There are certain propositions which philosophers, at one time or another, have said we ‘unthinkingly assume’ or ‘instinctively believe’. To say that this is something we unthinkingly assume is to imply that it is a matter for dispute whether it is true. Talk of ‘un-thinking assumptions’ is thus tied up with the idea that the philosopher’s job is somehow to justify, or else show to be un-justified, what we ordinarily neither question nor think of questioning

Vesey 1954, p. 226

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. World Vision, Inc, 300 I Street NE, Washington, DC, 20002, USA

    Apollo M. Nkwake

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  1. Apollo M. Nkwake
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Correspondence to Apollo M. Nkwake .

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Nkwake, A.M. (2013). Transformational Assumptions. In: Working with Assumptions in International Development Program Evaluation. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4797-9_10

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