Date: Saturday, September 5, 2026
Hi! I’m Nishat Akhi, a doctoral student from Bangladesh studying at Boston College and an AEA Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) scholar. During my internship with Intention 2 Impact (I2I), I expected to learn new methods and better understand how evaluators measure systems change. I did. But my most important learning came from watching how systems thinking, cultural responsiveness, and the idea that impact is a verb continually shaped one another in practice. That last idea is the one I want to stay with, because it changed what the other two meant to me.
Before beginning my GEDI internship, I was already familiar with systems change through my doctoral research. I use systems approaches to examine the conditions that sustain inequities and to make visible the relationships among policies, practices, resources, relationships, power, and mental models.
Then, across I2I’s work, I participated in evaluation processes designed not only to measure outcomes but also to support learning and decision-making. Evaluation frameworks examined change across individuals, organizations, portfolios, and broader systems. Theories of change were revisited as strategies developed. This helped me see that evaluating systems change requires more than adding systems-level outcomes to a framework. It also requires an evaluation process that can respond to complexity, emerging information, and changes in context. The focus is not only on what has changed, but also on what people are learning and how that learning informs the next decision.
Culturally responsive and equitable evaluation added another important dimension. A systems approach can help identify the conditions influencing an issue, but it does not automatically address whose knowledge shapes the analysis. Culturally responsive practice asks who defines the problem, whose experiences inform the evaluation questions, what counts as evidence, who interprets the findings, and how the results are communicated. In this way, cultural responsiveness does not sit beside a systems approach. It shapes the analysis a systems approach makes possible.
How we evaluate is already shaping the system. This is where “impact is a verb” began to mean something different to me. If impact is only a noun, we wait for it to appear in a final report. When impact becomes a verb, it shows up in how we listen, co-create, question, revise, share power, and respond to what we learn. Evaluation does not simply document change. It participates in creating the conditions through which change becomes possible.
The three concepts strengthen one another. Systems thinking helps evaluators examine the conditions that sustain inequities. Cultural responsiveness helps ensure that culture, context, knowledge, and power are considered throughout that examination. Treating impact as a verb connects both to action by asking how measurement, learning, and communication influence what happens next.
Connect each evaluation activity to a use. For every evaluation question, indicator, sensemaking activity, or product, ask: Who will use this? What decision could it inform? How might it help people adapt their strategy? This shifts evaluation from producing evidence to creating opportunities for evidence to be used.
Look for impact in the present tense. Ask yourself: What are we practicing now that reflects the future we say we want? Whose knowledge is shaping our decisions? What are we doing differently because of what we learned? If impact exists only in the future tense, our current practices may need another look.
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