THIS BOOK IS a result of an action-research exercise jointly undertaken by a number of international and local non-government organisations based in four continents. It is an attempt to share with others the lessons learnt from that experience, as well as some of the challenges that arise from thinking about and practising impact assessment. It is aimed particularly at practitioners.
The Introduction initially outlines the problems surrounding Northern NGO activity and the impacts on the “beneficiaries” of their work, and then moves to describe the case studies and the organisations involved in preparing them. The case studies form the foundation of the book and their richness and diversity has been retained. Chapter 2 discusses Oxfam’s and Novib’s overrall approach to impact assessment. It explores issues relating to ethics and participation, and emphasises the importance of ensuring that gender and other aspects of difference are embedded into all processes of impact assessment. This chapter also sets out some of the assumptions and hypotheses which emerged from a literature review at the beginning of the research and which were subsequently tested in the case studies. Finally, this chapter summarises some of the key dilemmas involved in to attributing any observed change to an intervention, and synthesising diverse and sometimes contradictory findings.
Chapter 3 explores how the case studies were designed for assessments in single communities, across several communities, and across a range of projects. It also gives some guidance about basic operational matters which must be addressed in designing an impact assessment, such as how to go about sampling, and what to do if there is no baseline data. It also looks at how some of the most difficult issues, such as setting indicators, were tackled in the case studies. In Chapter 4 the wide range of different tools, methods and approaches is examined as are the problems encountered in the case studies. The reader will find summaries of the lessons learned about various kinds of tools and methods, such as surveys, interviews and workshops, direst observation and case studies. These two chapters (3 and 4) make up the core of the book, and many of the following chapters refer back to some of the basic lessons described in these chapters.
Chapter 5, on impact assessment and emergencies, refers mainly to one of the case studies as well as to some recent material. It explores some of the specific difficulties and challenges of undertaking impact assessment in crisis situations and compares them with the lessons described in previous chapters. This chapter should be seen as a preliminary exploration of the issue as it mainly focuses on relief interventions. In Chapter 6, which focuses on impact assessment and advocacy, the current approaches to this growing field of NGO activity is outlined. Drawing on the case studies and other experiences, the author discusses both how to assess the impact of advocacy and how to use impact assessment in advocacy work. Chapter 7 considers how to assess the impact of projects and programmes on development organisations, and how these organisations manage impact assessment processes. It also considers the impact that development organisations have on peoples lives.
Some conclusions from this research are drawn in Chapter 8, which also indicates the areas which NGOs need to invest in if they are serious about impact assessment are indicated. The author ends by noting key policy implementations that emerge from the case study findings, and thinking about what these might mean for the future of NGOs. The appendices include a bibliography, further details of the organisations and individuals involved in the case studies as well as a list of acronyms.