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Topic: Process Tracing

Speaker: Derek Beach

Date and Time: 30 September 2025 | 14:00 CET

About the Topic: Process tracing is a qualitative research method used to identify and test causal mechanisms in complex contexts. It enables evaluators to go beyond “what works” by systematically examining how and why interventions produce outcomes. In this session, Derek Beach will demonstrate how process tracing can be applied in evaluations to strengthen the credibility of findings and enhance understanding of causal pathways. Participants will gain practical insights into designing and conducting evaluations that are both methodologically sound and contextually grounded.

For more information on Process Tracing, see:

1.       The World Bank, 2025, Process Tracing Methods in Program Evaluation

2.       Evaluation (2025), ‘Working with interviews in Process Tracing evaluation methods.’

3.       Evaluation (2023), ‘Theorizing how interventions work in evaluation: Process-tracing methods and theorizing process theories of change’.

About the Speaker: Derek Beach is a professor of Political Science at Aarhus University, Denmark, where he teaches and research on process tracing methods and European integration. He has authored articles, chapters, and books on research methodology, policy evaluation, international negotiations, referendums, and European integration, and co-authored the book Process-tracing Methods: Foundations and Guidelines (2019, 2nd edition, University of Michigan Press). He has taught process tracing methods at numerous workshops for both academics and evaluation practitioners, as well as led Ph.D.-level methods courses throughout the world. Beach has conducted evaluations at the national and international level. He was an academic fellow at the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group in spring 2022. He is an academic coordinator of the Methods Excellence Network (MethodsNet).