04. Dead Aid & Theory of Change

The theory of change method is designed to bridge the gap between the initiation of an effort and the solution. Using the Theory of Change model, students will be able to find a long-term goal for their macro-problem and work backward to find an entry-point where an intervention is required. Groups will ultimately finalize their pain-point, target audience, and a more specific area of research. In addition, understanding dead aid is necessary for creating a successful product. A solution falls under dead aid when it doesn’t consider its target audience enough or dives deep enough into a pain point, resulting in something that could possibly help in the short-term, yet definitely not in the long-term. Finally, students will relate both topics back to how social entrepreneurial ventures fail either by not finding the correct avenue of change, not understanding the connection between optimal conditions, not validating assumptions, or providing unneeded or ineffective aid.