COFFEE BREAK
Learn from the experts during a quick coffee break!
Join us for a Causal Pathways Coffee Break, in which experts share snippets of their Causal Pathways work and lessons learned. Grab your favorite warm drink and join us for a quick lesson!
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Check this page throughout the year for updates on the latest offerings.
Current offerings
4/14/26 @ 11:00am ET
Tackling Complexity: A 10-Year Causal Mapping Analysis of Systems Change — with AI as Analytical Partner
Materials
What does it take to understand a decade of systemic change across governments, global brands, civil society, philanthropy, and migrant worker leaders? This Coffee Break explores how a ten-year retrospective of forced labor reforms in Thailand’s seafood industry was analyzed using causal mapping and historical analysis to trace not just what changed, but how, why, and under what conditions change accelerated, stalled, or reversed. Drawing heavily from the study’s methods, we’ll unpack how over 150 documents, stakeholder interviews, focus groups with worker leaders, and stakeholder validation sessions were woven into a dynamic causal analysis. We’ll also examine how AI was intentionally used to augment, not replace, human judgment in identifying patterns across time, testing causal pathways, and strengthening analytic rigor. Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at how we make sense of complexity at scale. Register here.
Jewlya Lynn
Policy Solve
Past offerings
11/18/25 @ 11:00am ET
Exploring Causality when Measuring Systems Change: Examples from The Freedom Fund
Materials
The coffee break session will be led by Dr. Elizabeth Anderson (Head of Research and Evaluation, The Freedom Fund) and Dr. Helen Shipman (Independent Consultant). The session responds directly to a frequently raised question: How can I bring causal pathways evaluative approaches into complex, messy systemic change work? The Freedom Fund's concrete, actionable ways of evaluating systemic change with a causal lens will be shared and brought to life through two example evaluations that examine how and why change happened as The Freedom Fund and its partners sought to address exploitative child domestic work in Ethiopia.
Elizabeth Anderson
The Freedom Fund
Helen Shipman
Independent Consultant
7/3/25 @ 11:00am ET
Attending to quality and rigour throughout causal pathways evaluation
Materials
Appropriate definitions and processes to support quality and rigour in non-experimental evaluation is a concern that theory based and participatory evaluation communities are actively engaged in. In this webinar we introduced guidance developed by the Causal Pathways initiative aimed at evaluation and learning officers in philanthropic foundations, situating the guidance and practice in broader debates on values-driven and use-oriented evaluation.
Marina Apgar
Institute of Development Studies
Tom Aston
Independent Consultant
Megan Shoji
Mathematica
Slides
4/9/25 @ 11:00am ET
Strengthening Outcome Harvesting Analysis with AI-Assisted Causal Mapping
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Materials
Heather Britt
Steve Powell
Gabriele Caldas Cabral
Enhance Outcome Harvesting analysis with AI-assisted Causal Mapping. In this coffee break, Heather Britt, Steve Powell and Gabriele Caldas discuss their pilot to enhance analysis of causal relationships in Outcome Harvesting. Their pilot demonstrated that AI-assisted Causal Mapping can reveal interrelationships between outcomes and identify new actors contributing to change. They describe the pilot process, explain how they interpreted the findings, and share five practical tips. A principle-led analysis plan and the right human expertise are key to in guiding the use of AI in analysis.
Causal Map
Causal Map
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Independent Consultant
Slides
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