When you encounter a condition you want to change, your first reaction might be to propose a solution. That works for simple situations where you are in a position to make a decision, where you have clarity about the issue, and where you have confidence that the solution will resolve the issue. But other situations like hunger or disease are too complex for that approach. In those kinds of cases, jumping to potential interventions before identifying the real problems – the multiple parts and root causes that create the complex outcomes you observe – could make the situation worse.
This is where problem structuring is valuable. Problem structuring can help untangle the various components of a complex situation and identify the specific factors that can lead to a safe or effective intervention. For practitioners in fields such as global health, policy, development, and more, addressing the wrong “problem” in a complex situation can waste time and resources and potentially even have harmful or unintended consequences for communities. Problem structuring is a systematic approach to identify the relevant stakeholders, identify the goals of these stakeholders, and understand how the different factors influencing the problem connect.
In the following pages, we will describe how the process of problem structuring can help you understand the underlying factors of the condition you want to change. As we do so, we will use two terms that sound similar but are important to distinguish:
- A problem situation is the condition or issue you initially observe and want to change.
- A problem is an underlying factor that contributes to a problem situation and that has to be addressed to change the problem situation. A single problem situation may involve multiple problems.
In this module, you will learn:
| Why problem structuring matters |
| How to rethink what a “problem” is |
| How to categorize a problem |
| How to prepare your problem situation for problem structuring |
