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Summary: This paper documents some of Save the
Children’s experience in developing a new
framework for assessing the impact of its
work, and some of the lessons learned from
implementing it in two-thirds of our 60 country
programmes.
Until recently, the social mission of most Non Governmental Organisations
(NGOs) has tended to exempt them from the levels of scrutiny on issues of
performance and accountability found in the private or public sectors. The
last few years however have seen NGOs working in international
development and relief paying increasing attention to demonstrating the
impact of their work on those they purport to help.
In 2001, Save the Children UK began developing a new framework for
assessing the impact of its work in order to improve the organisation’s
accountability as well as learn from its work to maximise its impact. This
paper documents some of SC UK’s experience in developing the new
framework, and some of the lessons we have learned from implementing it
in two-thirds of our 60 country programmes. It aims to provide a frank
account of the process, its strengths and weaknesses, and draw some
conclusions about improving impact assessment processes. It is hoped
that our experiences may be of interest to other development actors,
many of whom are grappling with similar issues.
Section 2 focuses on why development agencies are wrestling with the
issue of impact assessment and some of the theoretical challenges they
face. Section 3 covers the development of SC UK’s impact assessment
framework, and its links to rights-based approaches to development.
Section 4 documents lessons learned on both a theoretical and practical
level. Sections 5 and 6 conclude by looking at some of the work currently
being undertaken to address the lessons learned and some of the issues
that remain to be addressed by the development sector as a whole.Owner: Simon Starling, Marta Foresti and Helen Baňos Smithpdf: www.savethechildren.org.uk/scuk/jsp/resources/details.jsp?id=1851&group=...