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The concept of adaptiveness refers to the capacity of an intervention to quickly adapt to changes happening in the context where it operates, or when planned actions do not lead to the expected effect. Adaptiveness requires flexibility, reflectiveness and the capacity to learn and, more importantly,'unlearn'what no longer works.

The environments in which development institutions operate are among the most complex, dynamic and unpredictable that can be imagined, involving many different agents that interact with each other and respond to interventions in different ways (Burns and Worsley 2015; Kleinfeld 2015; Ramalingam, Jones, Reba and Young 2008). They thus demand an extraordinary adaptive capacity. However, the corporate culture, organisational structures, operating procedures and behavioural incentives of the aid industry typically favour a logic of bureaucratic control and predictability. As a result, development programmes are frequently planned and executed in a linear, technocratic and rigid way (Natsios 2010; Ramalingam 2014).