2 The Evidence Planning Tool approach

The Evidence Planning Tool enables you to look ahead to the impact of your work to consider whether the assumptions you are making are correct. Figure 2 shows a representation of the flow for gathering information using the Evidence Planning Tool.

Evidence Planning Tool - circular flow diagram Reuse, Enhance, Replace, Limit
Figure 2 Gathering evidence using the Evidence Planning Tool

(Please refer to your print out or open a copy of the Evidence Planning Template from the website for the following discussion explaining the Evidence Planning Template. )

The key focus for the project, organisation or business is written in the middle of the template. Then each of the surrounding quadrants is completed; enhance, replace, limit and reuse. Note: there could be multiple entries in any of the quadrants. Table 1 explains the template in more detail.

Table 1 Explaining the Evidence Planning Template
Enhance

Here you focus on what your project, organisation or business improves or enhances. For example:

  • a project that is focused on increasing the number of women giving birth in health facilities will enhance the survival rates of mothers and babies
  • an organisation focused on improving skills development will enhance the motivation of the workforce
  • a business seeking to expand will enhance the job opportunities for those in the area.
Replace

Here you ask what your project, organisation or business replaces. For example:

  • a project providing job opportunities in a remote community replaces reliance on social welfare
  • an organisation moving from paying wages in cash to bank transfers, replacing an old practice with a new practice
  • an automobile business replaces a manually-operated production line producing cars with a computer-operated production line.
Limit

Here you identify what your project, organisation or business limits. For example:

  • a project focused on increasing the number of women giving birth in health facilities will limit the use and income of traditional birthing-attendants
  • an organisation seeking to rely more on computers than people will limit jobs
  • a business that uses large amounts of ground water in its bottling factories will limit the supply of water to local villages for daily use.
Reuse

Here you ask what the project or organisation builds upon. For example:

  • traditional birthing-attendants could be encouraged to retrain as midwives
  • an organisation could retrain people for roles that computers cannot do
  • a business could adapt an existing factory production line to produce a new product.

1 What is evidence planning? When would you use it?

2.1 Implicit and explicit assumptions