This project was conducted in a large development NGO to understand the challenges associated with assessing impact at both a programme and organisational level.
Findings demonstrate that external stakeholders, such as governments and donors, increasingly demand accountability for funding and this has resulted in a move towards rigorous and professionalised impact assessment within NGOs. Findings also highlight that there are a range of impact assessment tools used by NGOs, yet resource constraints create challenges when undertaking such assessments.
How do you decide between educating more kids and saving less infant lives? It’s very difficult. One of the criteria is beginning to be that if you come in with a new proposal for a new phase of your programme, if you’ve got a rigorous evaluation with some encouraging results, you’ve probably got an edge on the rest and if you haven’t, you might regret it.