System Mapping

Systems maps come in many shapes and forms; what you will be using it for, and the questions you want to answer with it will determine which type of systems map to use. It’s important to strike a balance between mapping the detailed complexity and making it simple enough to be useful, at the right time to use it. Remember, it's a living map (not a static one) and will change over time.

Systems mapping is a process for understanding, diagramming, and prioritising intervention opportunities in a city. By individually—or, more ideally, using participatory methods--charting the relationships, dynamics, and interactions between different actors in a system, actions can be taken to affect change that has systemic rather than isolated impact. To have as robust and precise a sense of a system, however, it is advantageous to involve many stakeholders and citizens who have both conventional and marginalised experiences. This means systems mapping can be a one off exercise, but offers the most opportunity and usefulness when conducted iteratively with varying participants.

This tool could be useful to analyse a context and frame a problem before contracting. ​​​​​​​

The activity is best done with stakeholders who have a close proximity or lived experience relative to part of the system. Each stakeholder can inform the system mapping process to enable the system map to more accurately reflect the dynamics, interactions, and relations with other actors. ​​​​​​​

The time commitment of System Mapping depends on the degree to which it is planned to be participatory and/or iterative. If it is planned to be both, it can take approximately a 1-2 months to plan, invite, coordinate, execute, and iteratively repeat the process.

If it is planned as a one-off exercise with participants, it can take 2-3 weeks to plan, invite, coordinate, and execute.

If it is planned as a one-off exercise with a small internal team, it can be planned and executed within a few days or less. The actual act of System Mapping—as an exercise in and of itself—can take 2-4 hours. This amount of time will depend on how many stakeholders are participating and the number of different ways of mapping the group attempts.

1) Identify the challenge statement Write down the challenge statement for your complex problem in the centre of a worksheet/flipchart. Try to be concise, but not too narrow in your description (defining the right problem scope is important in not going too broad or too narrow).

You can refer to the 'Challenge Statements' section to assist you with this process.

2) Identify key issues Brainstorm and describe the key issues that affect/contribute to that challenge. Make it concise.

3) Identify potential drivers Discuss what the drivers are behind each key issue. Write each driver down on the map.

4) Team discussion Discuss the relationships between key issues and drivers with your team, by drawing lines and linkages between them. Drivers can be linked to multiple issues. Identify any possible sub-issues that contribute to your problem but are not on the map yet. Write them down on the map and connect them with key issues and/or drivers. Try to be clear on how certain you are about the relationships and linkages, how strong (and resistant to change) they are.

Involving more and different stakeholders in multiple iterations of system mapping can be an excellent way to test the initial insights.

The tool should be translated into the local language. If needed, additional features and elements can be added. ​​​​​​​