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The Efficacy System

engage.re answers the question: "What's actually working - and how do we know?"

Whether you're tackling a crisis, addressing an issue or unlocking an opportunity, see - in real time - which strategies, projects, and teams are delivering outcomes at every level from your neighbourhood to the planet.

How It Works

  1. 1
    Communities gather around a shared issue - housing, climate, education, health, anything that matters.
  2. 2
    They set measurable goals - specific, trackable outcomes that define what "better" looks like.
  3. 3
    Anyone can contribute via strategies, projects, and teams - and see in real time what's moving the needle.

The Core Metaphor: Tide & Boats

The Tide
Total observed change - what actually happened in the real world among tracked participants. "312 unemployed → employed transitions in Hackney"
The Boats
The portion of change that initiatives claim contribution to. "214 transitions credited to known strategies"

The Gap (98) represents natural improvement, external factors, and untracked causes. This honesty is a feature, not a bug.

You're looking at youth unemployment in Manchester. The community has set a clear goal: 500 young people into employment by year-end. You see 4 strategies targeting this goal. One is outperforming the others by 3x. You click in - it's a mentorship model. Inside, 3 projects are running it, each with their own teams. You can see who's delivering, what's working, and how you can help.

What engage.re Is - and Isn't

engage.re IS

  • Which strategies are actually delivering - not just claiming to.
  • What works in your neighbourhood, your city, or globally.
  • Where your time and effort could make the biggest difference.

engage.re IS NOT

  • A replacement for official statistics or population data.
  • Claiming that X definitely caused Y.

If engage.re shows "500 unemployed in Hackney", it means 500 tracked users - not the actual unemployment rate.

What Gets Measured

Outcome Tracking

"Who helped produce this change in the world?"

When people find employment or air quality sensors show improvement - when goals are being achieved - we show which strategies and projects contributed.

See: Tracking and Attribution

Input Equity

"What has each team member contributed to this initiative?"

Track time, money, knowledge, and other resources that participants invest - enabling fair recognition and equity distribution.

See: Equity

The Foundation: Contribution Analysis

Based on John Mayne's methodology (1999), used by UNDP, IUCN, and major foundations worldwide.

In complex systems, proving that X caused Y is often impossible. Too many factors interact in unpredictable ways.

Contribution analysis asks instead: "Was X a plausible contributor to Y?" - both more honest and more useful for decision-making.