Organisational Development: Capacity-Development/ Strengthening for Organisations| Module 2: Context Assessment and Systemic Analysis

Systemic Analysis

Sample Systemic Analysis of Community Conflicts in X Country

Systemic Analysis: Definition

• System: a complex physical or social structure that has different parts, all of which are interconnected in one way or another
• Analysis: in-depth investigation/ assessment or scrutiny of something
• Systemic Analysis:
• Investigation and in-depth scrutiny of the different parts of a systems to understand their connection, hence the impact of some parts on others.
• Systemic Analysis can be the investigation of a physical system (such as an environment, machine, location, etc.) or social systems such as work-places, communities, etc.
• CBOs and RLOs Systemic Analysis:
• Analysis of the complex dynamics (issues, infrastructure, stakeholders, etc.) of the identified community/ context where the CBO(community-based organization) or RLO (refugee-led organization) works.
• This process is undertaken to understand the complex dynamics of the identified community so that the CBO/ RLO can plan and implement their work from a point of knowledge (we will cover Strategic Planning in the module: Strategic Planning)

How to Do Systemic Analysis

• Brainstorming (pop-corn ideas):
• Term-Clarification:
• Drawing Connection:
• Indicating Cause à Effect:

1. Brainstorming (pop-corn ideas): the present stakeholders/ participants must all be given a chance to share idea(s) of a part/ issue of the system they have agreed to analyse (system identified during the community mapping done in the morning during the first session)

• For a small group, the facilitator can ask each participant to share his/ her idea (issues/ parts of the system) verbally. The Facilitator writes each idea on its own card and puts it (no particular order) on the pinboard, wall or floor
• For a medium and large-sized group:
• The facilitator requests each participant to write down his/ her idea (one idea per paper/ card) and then collects all those ideas. This individual-writing prevents a situation whereby some people’s participation may be influenced or downed by what others have already shared.
• The facilitator then collects all the papers/ cards and puts them (no particular order) on the pinboard, wall, or floor.

2. Term-Clarification: The facilitator takes the participants through each of the shared ideas (now on the pinboard, wall or floor) to make sure that all the participant have the same understanding of the term.

• In the event that the different participants have a different understanding of any term, clarification is made on what the term/ word means. In case of different ideas for the same word, additional words/ terms similar to the term being clarified (but having different meaning) can be created and put on the pinboard, wall, or floor. E.g. ‘money’ can be a vague term unless the participants clarify if they mean ‘excess money’, ‘limited money’, ‘legal’, ‘illegal, etc. Another common term whose clarity a group would need is ‘unemployment’; some people may understand it as never being employed, having employment then losing it, not working for the corporate even when someone still is employed else where or is self-employed, etc.

3. Drawing Connection: a direct line between is drawn between any two parts/ issues on the systemic map. Before a line is drawn, the participants must agree whether or not the two or more parts are connected in any way

4. Indicating Cause -> Effect: Once step 3 is done and a connection is drawn between two elements, it’s important for the participants/ stakeholders to show (with an arrow) which of the two elements leads to/ causes the other. It is possible to have both elements causing each others, in which case the arrows appear on both ends of the line.
5. Step Back: Once the participants are satisfied that they have made the connections they need between any two or more issues, they all take a step back and look at the map they have now created (it may look compact and complex but having gone through the process, they can all easily understand every aspect of it) to see the picture they have created. Two things: the map can confirm what they already knew or reveal things they were blind to or had not thought had as much or less weight to the entire context.

Use of Systemic Analysis

The created systemic map, representing the relevant context can be attached as part of text reports or used on its own to inform external actors, guide strategic mapping, and or reference in the future (especially when a new map is done) for comparison on the progress (or not) of the context and related interventions.

The Systemic map is also most helpful in helping the owners identify other aspects of the context such as the actors or duration of the specific issues identified in the map.