Impact Orientation

Designing and Evaluating Impact-oriented projects: Some Challenges and Lessons Learnt

11th FoME Symposium, October 1-2 , 2015Jens Koy, Freelance Evaluator, Bonn

How can foundations ensure long-term effects and lasting

changes?

How can impact be integrated into project design?

Results Chain / Theory of Change

ImpactOutcome

Planned / unplannedPositive / negative

OutputActivitiesInput

“controlled “by the organization / foundation”

ExampleImpact Democratization

The role of the media is strengthend (information & watch dog function)

Outcome Media in county X provide more information about national economy and national budget

Output 30 journalists trained

Activities 10 workshops5 foreign exchange scholarships….

Input 300. 000 €2 experts

Outcome-Indicator

Outcome:

Media in county X provide more information about national economy and national budget

Indicator: In country X the extend and quality of reporting (concerning national economy and budget) in one national and two regional newspapers are increased.

(SMART enough? Baseline?)

Strength of Outcome-orientation

• State of the art to foster effectivity and efficiency of programs

• Advanced concept: Not only planning! More emphasize on the effects / outcome of activities!

• Vision: More flexibility for the implementation of the project. Activities can be adapted to changing needs!

Risks of Outcome-orientation & „Solutions“

• Risk of narrow minded thinking-> open minded attitude - reality is not linear

• Risk of bureaucracy-> provide more flexibility + resources for adaptations to changing contexts

• Risk of information overkill-> Reduction to what you need & analyse; different stakeholders have different (information) needs

Lessons learnt - Evaluations

• Balance between “impact orientation” and “analysis of the quality of activities”

• Identify focus points of interest; don’t get lost in questions, structures and criteria.

• Foster more critical thinking in evaluations to learn more about organizational blindness and potential to improve projects

• Allocate more resources for implementation of the recommendations into the practical project work.

Thank you very much for your attention