In time, we hope that this system will allow more creative and honest assessment of change and create space for staff to listen to and engage with the concerns of poor people. More critically, the approach puts poor people at the centre stage in learning, analysing and responding to their own situation.

In other words ALPS challenges our own hold on power, and forces us to relinquish it.

Key elements of ALPS are its emphasis on accountability to the poor, particularly women and girls, rather than just to donors, and its goal of sharing information freely between ActionAid and the people with whom it works.

The only thing fixed about the system is its principles; the procedures described in it are open to change and aim to be as minimal as possible.