Ripple Effects Mapping Within a Process Evaluation of Sport for Development Provision in England

Ripple Effects Mapping Within a Process Evaluation of Sport for Development Provision in England

Abstract

Evaluating the impact of sport for development is fraught with practical and methodological challenges. The evaluator is often presented with complex and messy social realities compounded by ill-defined interventions with hard-to-follow outcomes. Further, those subject to an impact evaluation can feel under the spotlight with little contribution to the research programme, which complicates the potentially informative learning and developmental processes of the evaluation. This article provides an introduction to ripple effects mapping as an evaluation technique and draws on the case study of a community-based, physical-activity intervention within the UK. This article will demonstrate the utility of ripple effects mapping as a co-productive technique for exploring programme outcomes but also as a tool to capture and understand the impact of the programme on participants. Through the presentation and analysis of the example ripple effects mapping, produced collaboratively with programme participants and stakeholders, the discussion illustrates the suitability and potential of ripple effects mapping as a process evaluation tool. The article presents ripple effects mapping in the context of evaluating sport for development practices and provides a critique and reflection about the refinement of ripple effects mapping as a robust evaluation tool.

One. Introduction

The twenty thirty Agenda for Sustainable Development recognises sport as an important enabler of sustainable development. A priority area identified by the United Nations General Assembly is the promotion and facilitation of research, monitoring, and evaluation in sports for development and peace. This priority reflects the need to better understand the potential outcomes and impacts of community sport-based programmes, but also why such changes occur and under what circumstances. However, understanding the "impact" of sport for development and what counts as "evidence" remains a pressing issue. This article presents a novel approach to understanding impact through the application of ripple effects mapping within the evaluation of a national sport for development programme in England. Given the range of potential outcomes sought through sport-based programmes for change, it comes as no surprise that impact evaluation continues to be fraught with a number of challenges. The focus of this article is to reflect upon and discuss the utility of ripple effects mapping within an evaluation setting and critically assess the strengths and limitations of the technique. Ripple effects mapping workshop results are presented and analysed to give examples of how outputs may appear and how they can be interpreted, yet also what further methods can be applied to triangulate findings and add depth. The following section outlines several of these common challenges, before introducing ripple effects mapping as a technique. The purpose here is not to suggest ripple effects mapping is a straightforward panacea to remedy the trials and tribulations of conducting robust evaluation, but rather to demonstrate both its evaluative potential and current limitations. This article is therefore guided by the following two research questions: How can ripple effects mapping be used to understand the pathways to impact of sport for development programmes? What are the limitations of ripple effects mapping and how can the technique be further refined to address these limitations?