MEL 360 General Guidance
Strengthening MEL with Systems Thinking
The General Systems MEL Guidance introduces practitioners to the core concepts and approaches of Systems-Informed Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL). It explains why systems thinking matters in complex contexts and shows how it can be applied across projects, programs, and portfolios.
The guidance emphasizes integration rather than replacement. You will find practical entry points and tools to steer your practice. Flexible and adaptable, this guidance supports teams at any stage of their Systems MEL journey, helping make MEL more reflective, adaptive, and connected to real-world system change.
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What This Guidance Offers?
What This Guidance Offers?
This Guidance introduces how systems thinking can strengthen Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL). It begins with the why—why systems thinking matters in complex contexts—and then moves into the how: principles and tools to put Systems MEL into practice.
Here you’ll find:
Systems MEL principles
Touchstones to guide your work in complex systems.
Orientation Lens
To clarify role and purpose.
Domains of Change
Entry points for seeing where transformation emerges.
Spiral
A set of focal areas that teams revisit again and again, adjusting their approach as the system shifts.
Learning Curve
understand the Systems MEL practice journey.
This isn’t a fixed recipe. This Guidance offers flexible starting points you can adapt to your context. Whether you’re new to systems thinking or already experimenting, it will help you make MEL more reflective, adaptive, and connected to real system change.
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Why Systems Thinking in MEL
We Work in Complex Systems
Video: Getty Images
Our lives and work are shaped by systems—social, political, ecological, and economic—that are dynamic, interconnected, and often unpredictable. These systems involve people, institutions, environments, and resources interacting in ways that continually evolve.
The world isn’t just complicated—with many parts—it’s complex, meaning cause and effect are hard to trace, change is nonlinear, and outcomes often emerge unpredictably. A car is complicated: it has many parts, but it follows a clear design. Traffic, on the other hand, is complex: it involves drivers, signals, weather, and behavior interacting in unpredictable ways.
That’s why the challenges we face are complex. Climate change, inequality, environmental degradation, political instability—these don’t have single causes or simple solutions. They emerge from the behavior of the complex systems we’re part of.
In these systems:
Cause and effect behave nonlinearly. Small interventions can have big ripple effects—or none at all.
Outcomes emerge in unpredictable ways as different actors and conditions interact within the system.
Context determines results. What works in one setting may fail in another.
Change is adaptive: As we intervene, the system shifts in response.
Change is experienced differently by different groups across the system. What one group experiences or views as a successful change may be seen as inadequate or harmful by another.
This is the nature of complexity. It is not chaos—rather, it is patterned unpredictability: change unfolds in ways that aren't random, but still cannot be precisely predicted. For example, while we can’t forecast the exact journey of a protest movement, we can often identify the conditions that make it likely to emerge. In complex systems, we can’t fully control or predict what will happen. Trying to force linear solutions- solutions with a simple cause and effect logic- into these environments often misses how change actually happens.
So what do we do?
More:
Understanding Interrelationships in Systems Thinking
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Systems Thinking: A Way to Work in Complex Systems
Systems Thinking: A Way to See and Work Differently
If complexity is the nature of the challenge, Systems Thinking is the lens we need to make sense of it.
Systems Thinking doesn’t simplify the mess. It helps us work with it—by identifying patterns, relationships, leverage points, and feedback. It asks us to:
Zoom out and in
Understand the whole and the parts.
Map connections
Who’s influencing what? Where are the bottlenecks or amplifiers?
Question assumptions
What mental models shape behavior?
Look for feedback
What’s reinforcing the current situation? What might shift it?
Include diverse perspectives
Whose knowledge and experiences are shaping our understanding—and whose are missing?
Crucially, Systems Thinking helps us understand how our interventions contribute to system change—not just whether they “worked” in isolation. It reframes projects not as isolated efforts but as part of a dynamic ecosystem of actors and influences.
You can’t control all the outcomes—but you can contribute to change
Systems Thinking is how we navigate complexity. It’s not a set of tools—it’s a way of seeing, asking, learning, and acting.
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From Systems Thinking to Systems MEL
From Systems Thinking to Systems MEL
If complexity is the nature of the context, and systems thinking is how we navigate it—then our MEL practice must evolve too.
Results-based Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) often assumes a predictable world:
Clear goals
Fixed plans
Linear logic
Measurable outcomes
But real-world systems—like agriculture, climate resilience, or food equity—are dynamic, relational, and unpredictable. Approaches that assume predictability can miss how change actually happens.
Systems MEL helps us not just track change but understand and enhance our contribution to system transformation. It shifts the focus from attribution to contribution - exploring how our work interacts with others to influence broader change.
Systems MEL doesn’t replace Results-Based MEL—it builds on it, adding flexibility, systems awareness, and a mindset of continuous learning.
It invites us to ask:
How can our initiative learn from what emerges, not just track what was planned?
How can our initiative adapt based on real-time feedback, rather than follow a fixed blueprint?
How can our initiative account for power, relationships, and behavior—not just outputs?
How can our initiative bring in diverse system perspectives and lived experiences to shape what we learn?
And ultimately, how can our initiative better contribute to the deeper, long-term changes these systems need?
In a world shaped by complexity, Systems MEL helps initiatives stay grounded, adaptive, and connected to the transformations they seek to change.
Systems Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (Systems MEL) is a way of tracking and learning from change in complex systems.
It goes beyond measuring outputs to look at relationships, patterns, and feedback—helping initiatives learn, adapt, and contribute more effectively to long-term systems transformation.
More:
Cheat Sheet: Conventional vs. Systems MEL
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Integrating Systems MEL
Integrating Systems MEL
MEL isn’t an afterthought
In systems approaches, MEL is embedded from the beginning—helping shape how initiatives are framed and evolve over time.
Orientation tools are foundational
Elements like Strategic Intents, boundaries, and spheres of influence anchor MEL in purpose, values, and system context.
Not a binary choice
Don’t abandon conventional MEL—Enhance it. Systems MEL builds on existing practices to better navigate complexity and reflect on contribution.
MEL becomes a strategic partner
It supports reflection, course correction, and meaning-making throughout—not just accountability reporting.
Bottom line: If MEL is expected to support transformation, it must be part of how teams think, act, and learn—not just how they report.
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The Value of Systems MEL
The Value of Systems MEL
Systems MEL helps development practitioners:
Track deeper change, capturing and making visible shifts in power, relationships, behaviors, and mindsets that drive long-term transformation.
Adapt in real time by evolving strategies based on emerging insights and changing conditions.
Understand and enhance contribution, revealing how your work connects with broader systems to amplify collective impact.
Identify leverage points where small, strategic actions can create system-wide ripple effects.
Engage plural perspectives to ensure learning reflects diverse experiences and addresses systemic inequities.
In short, Systems MEL helps projects become agents of systems change. It focuses MEL on what matters most: not just tracking activities, but increasing and learning from our contribution to systems change.
Systems MEL helps you design and navigate initiatives that are:
Contextual
grounded in the realities of place, history, and relationships.
Inclusive
shaped by diverse actors, knowledge systems, and lived experiences.
Transformational
focused on shifting underlying structures, behaviors, and patterns over time.
More:
Key Concepts in Systems Thinking
deeper learning:
Systems Thinking and Complexity Science distinct fields
Implemented by:
United Nations
Development Programme
FUNDED BY:
MEL 360 is part of the Systems, Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation initiative (SMLE) of UNDP funded by the Gates Foundation.
CONTACT US AT:
WEBSITE DESIGNED IN 2025 BY RAFA POLONI FOR UNDP