‘A guiding framework for all stages of thinking, action and sense-making’ when intervening intentionally in social change processes (van Es, Guijt and Vogel, 2015, p. 12).
Theory of change is both a process and an output (Vogel, 2012): the process of working out the theory, often in group sessions led by a capable facilitator (thinking and doing theory of change analysis), and the output of that process (a document of how and why a goal will be reached).This differs from change theory, which is: ‘Theoretical and empirically grounded knowledge about how change occurs that goes beyond’ one project (Reinholz and Andrews, 2020, p. 1).