Fostering Transformational Change: Insights from a new learning methodology

In 2024, we launched our Transformational Change methodology: a renewed approach to understand how our work influences policy and to further evidence its impact. Through this work, we aim to identify drivers of change that can inform future IGC strategies and direct resources where they can generate the greatest impact.

A new learning framework to understand drivers of change

Like many organisations in the last decade, the IGC has adopted a practical framework to track our academic and policy impact across our portfolio of projects. This framework operates at the project level and is built on our understanding of the research-to-policy pathway. It assesses policy impact in terms of how individual projects contribute to policy discussions or lead to tangible change. We track academic impact by monitoring the development of working papers, publications in top journals, and citations, among other key indicators.

While this approach has proven effective for transparency and accountability, it leaves an important question unanswered: how does change happen?

How does IGC contribute to policy change?

Our collaborative model—with embedded country teams that bring together policymakers and leading researchers—has proven effective in generating ideas that address critical growth challenges in low- and middle-income countries. However, driving transformational change isn’t just about producing rigorous, context-relevant evidence, it’s also about ensuring that research evidence is integrated into policy decision-making processes to deliver lasting, transformative results. This process is far from linear—it’s a complex, iterative engagement process influenced by political, social, and contextual factors.

Our Transformational Change methodology is designed to identify the scope conditions under which research evidence can contribute to meaningful and lasting change. It begins by identifying the four dimensions that define research-informed transformational change: innovative contribution, institutionalisation, scalability, and impact. We focus on our contribution to change rather than attributing it solely to us. This aligns with one of our core principles: research has the greatest impact when it is aligned with policy priorities, informed by local conditions, and co-developed with stakeholders. 

Figure 1: The four dimensions of Transformational Change.

1. Innovative contribution

The demonstration of a novel approach, grounded in research evidence, that tackles key sustainable economic growth challenges within the context of the IGC’s research themes. This includes introducing new perspectives, challenging established knowledge, reframing debates, or adapting existing knowledge to new contexts.

2. Institutionalisation

Evidence that changes, ideas or recommendations, informed by IGC work, have been embedded into existing structures, systems, or practices of organisations, firms, or governments. This then enables long-term impact by establishing mechanisms for sustaining change over time. 

3. Scalability

The potential to expand or replicate interventions, policies, or processes after initial implementation. This may include scaling an initiative from local to national levels or replicating policies across sectors or countries. 

4. Impact

IGC’s contribution to significant transformations — those that affect a large portion of the population, a substantial part of the economy, a sector’s evolution or a country’s growth trajectory. It focuses on the magnitude, relevance, and effect of the change.

To explore and systematically analyse these dimensions, we are developing a series of case studies that: 

• describe the types of transformational change achieved across these four dimensions;
• identify key factors that were necessary to bring about successful change;
• analyse how our work contributed to the observed effects; and
• discuss plausible scope conditions for Transformational Change. 

Transformational Change case studies from Ghana, Mozambique, and Uganda

We piloted the methodology in three case studies: The Ghana Commodities Exchange, Conflict management and social integration in Mozambique, and the Economic Growth Forum in Uganda. From these, we have gained important initial insights about the drivers of change: 

• transformational change is often the product of ongoing engagement between diverse actors who form coalitions for change;
• transformational change often unfolds over many years with consistent knowledge production and exchange;
• local ownership is critical—not just for generating research but for identifying relevant questions and ensuring lasting impact;
• policy champions play a crucial role, but diversifying gatekeepers and stakeholder networks enhances sustainability; and
• strategic engagement using a wide variety of mechanisms is key—a combination of exploratory research, rigorous projects, targeted outreach and dissemination efforts cumulatively boost outcomes.

These initial insights are already shaping our approach. For instance, we are exploring ways to incorporate additional information on potential policy impact into our commissioning processes.  We are also working to improve how we harness the feedback loop between learnings at the national level and global debates, and are shifting how we monitor research to focus on thematic “clusters” rather than individual projects.

The Transformational Change methodology marks an exciting step forward in how we foster sustainable and meaningful change. 

We invite you to explore the findings from our pilot case studies, watch our film, and stay tuned for more insights as we continue this learning journey.