Situational analysis for program design. Making sense of complex, rapidly changing and challenging contexts:methods guidance for macro, meso and micro levels

This guide offers a menu of options for conducting a situational analysis in support of the
design process in a program approach and adapted to the East and Central Africa
Region (ECAR). It is a compilation of resources that draws from CARE East and Central
Africa‘s Regional Capacity Building Initiative, analytical guidance from across CARE
International (particularly from CAREs Bangladesh and Nepal), and myriad Country
Office (CO) experiences within the ECAR.
The frameworks and tools here span macro, meso and micro level analyses for
understanding the underlying causes of poverty (UCPs) and relate how different levels of
analysis link together to render a comprehensive picture of a particular country context.
This is not a guide to be rigidly applied. It casts a wide net of methods and tools within a
strategically targeted set of themes so that design teams can choose intelligently the
forms of analysis that best suit their contexts. It fulfills the situational analysis needs of
multiple programs at once and their 10-15 year prospective. It is also meant to generate
innovation in practice by COs as they engage in situational analysis as part of their
program design process. Using this guide as a reference, we hope that teams will
develop new ideas during the application process, to inform future situational analyses.