The Advance Africa Pyramid
Notes:
- To try to address this dilemma, Advance Africa has proposed a set of definitions and a conceptual framework for differentiating the various types of practices. The Pyramid presented here is designed to help sort out the various types of practices and show how they relate to one another.
- The process shown by this pyramid is not a static process. Some “Best Practices” become outdated and fall back or off the pyramid as new evidence emerges supporting new Best Practices—hence the green arrows moving in both directions.
- The black arrow on the left shows that by moving up the pyramid, more compelling evidence exists that the practice has met certain criteria—has a higher degree of evidence and thus is termed less risky.
- Let me take a moment to explain what we mean by RISK:
- Risk is the degree of uncertainty that the practice will lead to the desired outcome of the Program Manager.
- All these categories fall on the spectrum between HIGH RISK and LOW RISK.
- This risk is determined by EVIDENCE and EXPERIENCE.
- When there is more compelling evidence there is greater indication that the program / intervention has been met with success, and thus has LOWER RISK.
- RISK diminishes as evidence increases. In the same way, an experimental pilot project would be of HIGHER RISK because there is often little to no evidence that it will succeed.
- As I go through the next few slides, I’ll show you how this concept of RISK is applied to the Advance Africa Pyramid.