From Better Evaluation.

When to use causal mapping#

Causal mapping is useful when seeking to understand the causal pathways influencing the outcomes of programs operating in complex settings. It helps make sense of a program and its context in stakeholders’ own words. This includes providing ways to make sense of and organise the different, but sometimes overlapping, labels that different groups use to describe the causal factors that are important to them.

Causal mapping can be used to help make sense of large amounts of qualitative data.

Using this method requires expertise in coding and analysis of qualitative data.

✅ So, use causal mapping if you…

• have a relatively large amount of narrative data 

• need help to synthesise a large number of links 

• have information from more than one source (for example respondents, documents)

• are interested in differences between the sources and groups of sources 

• you don’t know the contents or boundaries of the map

• want to capture what your sources actually say, systematically and transparently