At the heart of the issue of interventions is the question of “how” resources are provided. It is in the details of “how” the resources of an intervention are provided that interventions have their most significant impacts.

Specifically related to all the potential impacts listed above are issues of:

• How to decide the recipients through targeting
• How to hire staff
• How to choose partners
• How to interact with and work with local authorities
• How to decide what resources to distribute and how much
• How to time and sequence distribution and where
• How interagency coordination affects intervention impacts
• How the role of a donor or donors affects and constrains intervention impacts
• How the role of a headquarters affects and constrains intervention impacts
• and so on

The “how” is not just the “modality” of the intervention and the way we do our work, though that too should be part of this analysis. We should absolutely be aware of why we decide to engage in a context in a particular way. We should also be aware of how we engage with respect to the people with whom we interact.

For example, even if an agency distributes much-needed and wanted goods in a completely unbiased way, if they decided their approach without clear inclusion of local ideas or if they make deliveries rudely and peremptorily, the “how” of their approach will negate the lasting benefits of the deliveries.

People care how they are included, how they are respected, how they are informed, in short, how they are treated.

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Related Topics
Critical Detail: Targeting – Who receives the benefits?
Critical Detail: Resources – What do we provide?
Critical Detail: Staffing – Who is hired?
Critical Detail: Partnering – Who do we work with and through?
Using the Six Critical Details
Critical Detail Mapping
Lesson 5: The details of interventions matter