Using ideal type theories of change for assessing the contribution of cooperative initiatives to global biodiversity governance

Enhancing the protection of biodiversity urgently requires transformative change. Next to efforts by national governments, international cooperative initiatives, involving subnational and non-state actors, are taking diverse actions to halt biodiversity loss. However, their impact and contribution to transformative change remain unclear. This article develops a novel framework for analysing contributions of diverse cooperative initiatives to an envisaged change. The framework features four ideal types of theories of change based on governance functions of the initiatives: information sharing and networking, operations on the ground, standards and commitments, and providing financing. We then apply this framework to an empirical case of 270 cooperative initiatives active in global biodiversity governance. We argue that this framework provides a comprehensive and flexible approach to structure and evaluate the contribution of cooperative initiatives to global biodiversity governance as well as a starting point for assessing their contribution to achieving the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework.