More basic terminology

Here's another set of concepts that seem to cause a great deal of confusion. They are much used in results-oriented planning (often called results-based management or RBM). I like to explain them as follows:

Output = The direct result of an activity - something that is under your/ your project's control. For instance, I brush and floss my teeth several times a day, and the output is a clean set of teeth.

Outcome = Something that your activity is designed to help produce - but it takes some more factors for that kind of result to come about. For instance, I clean my teeth to avoid getting caries, so healthy teeth are my desired outcome. But my chances to have good teeth are much enhanced if I avoid eating sweets or very acid food, if I have healthy gums, if I have the right kind of genes, and so on. Even people with clean teeth get caries.

Impact = A long-lasting result that can be directly traced to an intervention. For example, if my dentist extracts a tooth, the impact is a gap in my mouth. 

Rigor = being honest about the limits

This is another instalment of my "moans about poor evaluation practice" series, triggered by a recent review of evaluation reports in the complex field of governance and human rights.
One of the reports I read used a "traffic light" system: for each evaluation question, the authors decided whether what they found was good ("green light"), in need of some improvement ("yellow light"), or bad ("red light"). That in itself made me feel a bit queasy. Does a "red light" mean an organisation has to drop everything and stop operating? Does that form of visualisation pay any respect to the efforts people put into their work? Yes, evaluators are there to assess the "value" of what they are supposed to evaluate, but does that entitle us to make pronouncements as to what must stop and what can go on? I am not sure.

Output Outcome Impact Blues

A glorious and instructive song for evaluators, available from the very respectable Institute of Development Research, so it can't be wrong. Click here to enjoy it.