[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Thinking Holistically

## Details

**Authors** Rachel Gibson

**Year** 2024

**Publisher** Villages in Partnership

**Kind of work** article, casestudy

**Discipline** Public Policy

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

**Applied** false

[Read it](https://villagesinpartnership.org/thinking-holistically-the-implicit-use-of-dsrp-and-systems-thinking-models-by-rachel-gibson/)

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To examine whether and how a nonprofit working on extreme poverty in Malawi uses systems thinking in practice, and to show that its decision-making process can be mapped onto the DSRP model even though the organization does not use that vocabulary.

### Who or what was studied (sample)

Villages in Partnership, a nonprofit operating in the Sakata region of Malawi, examined through an interview with Aaron Shaver, the organization's Digital Operations Specialist, together with organizational documents and household survey results reported by the organization.

### How they did it (methods)

A short qualitative case analysis written as a doctoral paper. The author interviewed a staff member about how the organization sets priorities and designs interventions, then mapped the described practice onto each of the four DSRP patterns in turn, drawing additionally on organizational reporting including a household survey of living conditions that used indicators such as diet variety, housing materials, and transportation access.

### What they found (results)

The author concludes that the organization's process can be mapped using the DSRP model despite the absence of explicit systems thinking terminology, and that its six integrated program areas of water, food security, education, health care, infrastructure, and economic development reflect an interconnected-root-causes approach to poverty. The organization's own reported figures include approximately 90 percent of people in partner villages having convenient access to clean water, against a substantially lower national average, and measurable upward movement on the organization's "economic opportunity slide" for families using three or more interventions.

## Commentary

### In short

A practitioner case analysis arguing that a poverty-focused nonprofit in Malawi already works in the four DSRP patterns without naming them, using the model as a retrospective lens on how the organization sets priorities and designs interventions.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

**Added** 2026-10-01

**How to cite this** Rachel Gibson (2024). Thinking Holistically. Villages in Partnership.