Table 1 Features of complex social programs

• Based on set of theories and assumptions about how an intervention will lead to change

• Achieved through active participation of individuals

• Developed and implemented through long process which may be fallible

• Not necessarily implemented in linear fashion and influenced by respective power of those actors involved in implementation

• Very susceptible to effect of different contexts (e.g. policy timing, organizational culture and leadership, resource allocation, staffing levels and capabilities, interpersonal relationships, and competing local priorities and influences)

• Prone to being changed during process of implementation

• Open dynamic systems in themselves, which are able to change the conditions that enable them to be implemented successfully (generating unintended positive and negative effects)