The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research has been developing a new approach to Evidence-Based Programme Design with their partner The Policy Lab. The approach is designed to support UN practitioners working in post-conflcit settings to improve the impact of security and peacebuilding activities, like the reintegration of ex-combatants into civilian life.

In 2013, UNIDIR engaged Livework to help them ensure that EBD tools were engaging and usable by a range of stakeholders – often a challenge for many programme design tools used in the field. Livework participated as a member of the UNIDIR team to bring design thinking and a range of skills to the work, including co-operative prototype development in Geneva and Somalia.

The collaboration showed that a visual and interactive approach enabled the UNIDIR team to engage a wide variety of stakeholders, and help them work in more experiential ways. This can help stimulate adoption of the Evidence Based Design process, and ultimately contribute to the create of better programmes.

UNIDIR: http://www.unidir.org/
The Policy Lab: http://thepolicylab.org/