How can we plan a programme so as to considered the impact it will have? 

 Programme Design  -  

How do we Evaluate Programmes?

 

See also definition of impact and  relate  with  Impact Assessment

 

In a general sense "impact" is the change occurring in the environment (physical, social, economical, cultural ... depending where we measure it) of certain activities or operations that are aimed at specific targets and objectives, but also that have a consequence (i.e. "impact") on a the wider context as the environment reacts and integrates  in the systems the changes occurred at a specific level. 

In the development sector the "impact" is the adaptation of the socio-economic system to the achievement of the programme overall objectives.  An organization by itself will implement a project/programme that will produce certain results and achieve certain objectives; but because it works in partnership and subsidiarity with other stakeholders, that will be able to avail of the products and results achieved, there will be further consequences on a wider scale of those achievements. This is the expected impact obtained by a programme/project designed and implemented through a network of alliances with a spirit of subsidiarity. 

 

So the key element for achieving an impact is managing the project cycle with a spirit of partnership with the other project stakeholders at all its level and phases so as to capitize on the chain of subsidiarity and avoid conflicts of interests. See  Manage concerted efforts with Partners/Counterparts; Involving Stakeholders)

While the responsibility of producing the project outputs lies entirely with the project team, its impact, i.e.  the contribution of the project to the achievement of programme objectives is not entirely a responsibility of the project team because it depends how different project stakeholders response to the delivery of project outputs.

Technically:

So while defining the scope of the project and decide if to go ahead with allocating resources to it it is very important to consider the role  of all the stakeholders and forecast their requirements while utilizing project outputs as factors leading towards overall programme objectives.

 

 

Vrinda here please re-write the following para to keep them logically related to the lines above   also verify the coherence with the links above.

 

EG: Consider a how a community level education project might contribute to a national-level programme whose objective is to achieve universal primary education. 

The impact that the programme is intended to achieve may be described as:

By 2010, all girls and boys in country x will complete a minimum of four years’ quality primary education (Programme)

 The programme might aim to achieve this by influencing government budget policy in order to remove the financial barriers to education, while the projects directly implemented within the program might seek to change specific socio-cultural barriers to girls’ education in the project area.  There might be more than one project carrying out similar activities in different districts, or a project for national-level advocacy activities and budget monitoring.

 

 

 

What outcomes, or key results, are needed bring about this impact?

 

Once we have identified our overall objective and the impact we are trying to achieve (either at the programme or project level), we need to describe the outcomes we think are needed to bring about this impact.

EG: In our example of the programme whose objective is to achieve universal primary education, the outcomes, or key results, that are needed to bring about the programme and project impact we have described might include:

 

2.3 What changes in policies, practices, ideas or beliefs need to happen in order to achieve the outcomes?

In order to achieve these outcomes, we will need to change the policies, practices, ideas and beliefs (PPIBs) that cause or perpetuate poverty. These PPIBs may be at any level - they may be the policies, practices, ideas and beliefs of decision makers, communities, donors, governments or anyone else whose actions may have an impact on the lives of the community in question. 

EG: Examples of the changes in policies, practices, ideas and beliefs that will have to occur in order to achieve the overall objective of achieving universal primary education include:

 

 

 

Our strategy is the course of action or plan that we will pursue in order to realise our objective - it is how we will go about achieving impact.  There are many ways of intervening in any problem, and it is important we carefully consider different strategies and the implications of each.  There can be different levels of strategy within a programme or project.

EG: In our example about universal primary education, complimentary strategies to achieve the desired programme impact that " all girls and boys in country x will complete a minimum of four years’ quality primary education by 2010" might be:

There might be a short-term strategy to train women teachers and a longer term strategy to increase the investment by the local education authority to train women teachers.  

We may have already begun to identify the strategy or strategies for our programme or project during the identification process - through decisions about which problems to focus on, through our discussions on the various constraints and opportunities of possible objectives, and through the choice of our overall objective.  However, we now need to be much more explicit about how we are going to bring about the changes that we have identified - in particular about the assumptions we are making about how change happens (see How change happens section in Programme Identification, above), and the potential risks involved in the strategy we have chosen. 

 

Here are some examples of questions that might help you think through and choose between different strategies: