Rationale
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How can assessment of impact move beyond attribution to documenting contributions to social change?
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How do you methodically and reasonably capture the richness of what is occurring in projects or programs?
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How do you effectively involve stakeholders in monitoring and evaluation of projects or programs?
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How do you effectively integrate monitoring and evaluation into projects or programs from the planningstage?
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How do you decide what to monitor and evaluate?
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How do you notice, explain, and respond to unexpected results?
Definition
The Stages of Outcome Mapping
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Intentional Design This stage helps the project or program design team clarify and reach consensus on the macro-level changes it would like to support and to plan appropriate strategies. The design team should clearly express the long-term, downstream impacts that it is working toward, bearing in mind that the project or program will not achieve them single-handedly. These desired impacts will provide reference points to guide strategy formulation and action plans, rather than serve as mere performance indicators. Progress markers, which will be used to track performance, should be developed for each boundary partner. They will identify the incremental—and often upstream—changes that the project or program sensibly hopes to influence, prompt behavioral change, and build the foundations of sustained social change. After clarifying what changes the project or program hopes to influence, the design team should select activities that maximize the likelihood of success. In short, the intentional design stage articulates answers to four questions: why, how, who, and what.
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Outcome and Performance Monitoring This stage provides a framework for monitoring actions and the progress of the boundary partners toward outcomes. The performance monitoring framework builds on the progress markers, strategy maps, and organizational practices developed at the intentional design stage. There are three data and information collection tools: an outcome journal to monitor boundary partner actions and relationships, a strategy journal to monitor strategies and activities, and a performance journal to monitor the organizational practices that keep the project or program relevant and viable. These tools will provide workspace and processes and help the design team reflect on the data and information that it has collected and how these can be used to improve performance.
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Evaluation Planning This stage helps the design team set priorities to target evaluation resources and activities where they will be most useful. Evaluation planning outlines the main elements of the evaluations to be conducted.
Benefits
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Understand and influence more effectively human and ecological well-being.
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Plan and measure social change in projects or programs.
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Foster social and organizational learning.
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Identify individuals, groups, and organizations with whom one might work directly to influence behavioral change.
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Bring stakeholders into the planning and monitoring and evaluation processes.
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Strengthen partnerships and alliances.
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Plan and monitor behavioral change and the strategies to support those changes.
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Monitor the internal practices of projects or programs so that they remain effective.
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Design an evaluation plan to examine particular issues more precisely.