Network models

[This page is a copy from the old website, and is yet to be imported and reconstructed in this new website]

This page is about two complementary perspectives: the evaluation of networks, and how a network perspective can inform the design and evaluation of development programs (which may not have been designed as networks)

Please note: the rest of this page is still under construction. Please ignore and use the links to the old website above instead

1. The purpose of this webpage

…is to explain how network models can be used to describe development projects. Descriptions can be useful for documenting an intended set of activities and outcomes, and for documenting the actual activities and the outcomes that eventuate. An evaluation will normally need to develop and compare both types of description.

There is a background assumption: that better descriptions of planned and actual developments will make it easier to implement these developments, and to evaluate them. Consider an extreme negative example of this proposition: what would be the consequences if all project proposals had to be communicated by mime?

There are some related webpages that are relevant:

2. Where are network models likely to be a useful means of description?

Network models are likely to be useful in any of the following kinds of settings:

  1. Where there are many actors (people and / or organisations) who are fairly autonomous and where there is no central authority able to direct the behavior of all the other actors.
  2. In large projects with many stakeholders, rather than small projects with few, where a single authority is less likely to be found. National and international level development activities are likely to have larger numbers of actors, without there being one over-riding authority.
  3. In projects where there is no single objective, but many alternative and/or competing objectives. These may be symptomatic of the absence of a central authority, and / or the intention that the participating parties have considerable independence.
  4. In projects where a given output may be used by many actors and a given actor may use many outputs. In other words, where there is a complex web of relationships, not simple one-to-one connections.
  5. In projects deliberately designed to function as networks. These will vary in the extent that they are designed to be centrally managed ( /coordinated / facilitated) or not.

Network models can also be useful as a means of describing projects that are more “traditional”, where there is a single agreed objective, clear lines of authority, clearly differentiated responsibilities, and which can be describe by a temporal logical model (e.g. a Logical Framework). Here network models can provide supplementary detail that cannot be easily represented otherwise. See section 5 below for more on this topic.

3. What is a network?

A network is a collection of people and / or things that are connected to each other by some kind of relationship. Many kinds of entities can be part of a network: people, projects, documents, events, organisations, cities, countries, etc. And there are many kinds of relationships that can link such entities, involving transmission or exchange of information, money, goods, affection, influence, infection, etc.

Note: A network does not need to be labelled or formally named as a network to be a network. Such networks are part of a much larger set of networks, some of which may be recognised as de facto or informal networks, and many others may not be.

Note: Because this webpage is concerned with the use of network models for planning and evaluation purposes the focus will be on networks of actors, objects and events that are observable. That can be interviewed or that can be read, or that can be read about. So network models of abstract processes will not be discussed here. (PS: Here is an example of a network of abstract processes that was part of the ToR for an evaluation of a complex “project” (multi-donor budget support). The challenge with this kind of network would be to establish linkages between events which, as described in this example, are themselves not so readily observable)

In the narrowest sense, network analysis is the analysis of the structure of relationships within a network. A wider view also considers the attributes of the members of a network. The tools used for network analysis come from a field of social science known as Social Network Analysis (SNA). SNA is especially relevant to the development of network models of development aid programs, because development aid is about people and their institutions. SNA is the main intellectual influence on the contents of this webpage. Network analysis is also done of biological systems, physical systems and economies, but those usages are not discussed here.

4. Examples of networks that can be seen in development projects

  • A network of international donors supporting various NGOs within a particular country
  • A network of NGOs within that country, who have contact with each other, work with each other and who may also compete with each other
  • Within an NGO, a network of staff, who are connected formally and informally
  • Within an NGO, a network of activities which form different kinds of business processes, that generate different types of services. Such as workshops, training events and email newsletters
  • A network of donors and NGOs linked by common policy concerns, such as specific objectives within the national poverty reduction strategy
  • A network of policy documents, linked by overlapping sets of indicators of achievement.
  • A network of events, linked by overlapping sets of participants

5. Two complimentary ways of representing networks: diagrams and matrices

In Social Network Analysis (SNA) a network can be represented in matrix form and in the form of a network diagram. A network matrix can be converted into a diagram, and vice versa. The network matrix shown below represents the existence of relationships between a set of 16 NGOs in Ghana. Each cells value tells us the number of times a specific relationship was mentioned in an NGO report. Note that the convention with such matrices is that the cell entries always show the relationship that exist from the row actor to the column actor. In other words, how often the row actor mentioned some form of relationship with the column actor, in their report. As will be shown below, there are many other aspects of relationships that can be shown, other than simply whether the relationship exists or not.

Click on each image to get a full screen version in a new window.Click again to get better resolution with the network diagram

In the network diagram we can see aspects of the network structure which are not readily visible in the matrix. There is a cluster of NGOs on the left, where all the NGOs are linked to each other. In the top left corner there are some isolated NGOs, not linked in to the network, and there are some NGOs that are quite central, having many connections (e.g. WILDAF and ABANTU). But the matrix view has its own advantages. It is possible to do simple summary analyses of the network, through the use of summary rows and summary columns, as will be shown below.

6. Describing relationships within a network matrix or network diagram

The network that has been shown above has a very simple description of the relationships involved. The matrix cell values simply state how often a relationship has been referred to. For the purpose of project planning and evaluation a more detailed description would be needed. In Social Network Analysis cells in a matrix can be used to describe many aspects of relationships:

  • Existence of a relationship: Described by using a 1 or 0 in a matrix (as above), or the presence or absence of a link in a network diagram
  • Type of relationship: Described by using numbers, such as 1, 2, 3,… to represent different categories of relationships, that have already been identified as of interest.
  • Frequency of interaction: Described by using numbers to indicate frequency per period or in total. Or by indicating the relative proportion of an actor’s time spent on each relationship.
  • Value of the relationship: Described by using numbers to signify a rating or ranking of the relative value or priority of different relationships
  • Sequence of the relationships: Described by using numbers (e.g. 1, 2, 3) to representing a sequence of events over time, or dates representing actual times
  • Details of a relationship: In small matrices the cells can contain text descriptions of the relationship

The same information can be shown in network diagrams by colour and size coding the links between the actors

The choice of what aspects of a relationship to map is a strategic choice, of one amongts many, that needs to be informed by one’s theory, or view, of what is most important in the network being modelled.

(this section is still being drafted)

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