Basic Impact Assessment At Project Level Page 2
ADVERTISEMENT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36This paper has been prepared by Colin Kirkpatrick and
David Hulme, with contributions from Linda Mayoux,
Caroline Pinder, Tertia Gavin and Clive George
1.
WHAT IS IMPACT ASSESSMENT?
In its broadest sense, impact assessment is the process of identifying the anticipated or
actual impacts of a development intervention, on those social, economic and
environmental factors which the intervention is designed to affect or may inadvertently
affect. It may take place before approval of an intervention (ex ante), after completion (ex
post), or at any stage in between. Ex ante assessment forecasts potential impacts as part
of the planning, design and approval of an intervention. Ex post assessment identifies
actual impacts during and after implementation, to enable corrective action to be taken if
necessary, and to provide information for improving the design of future interventions. The
stages in the project cycle where impact assessment needs consideration are shown in
Figure 1.
A distinction can be made between two separate but interlinked levels:
Internal monitoring and evaluation for ongoing learning, through for example the
•
integration of specific impact indicators into existing management information systems,
which makes information immediately available to staff;
External impact assessment, often involving independent investigators.
Such
•
assessments produce reports for specific purposes, such as poverty impact
assessment, regulatory impact assessment, social impact assessment or health impact
assessment. Certain types of ex ante assessment may be part of the approval process
for certain types of intervention, including environmental impact assessment and
economic impact assessment (cost-benefit analysis). These may contain their own ex
post monitoring activities. Separate ex post assessments may be undertaken or
commissioned for any particular intervention or set of interventions, to provide fuller
information than may be available from routine monitoring and evaluation.
In the context of sustainable development, the social, economic and environmental
impacts of an intervention are all interlinked. The various types of impact assessment may
therefore need to be combined in an integrated impact assessment, whose nature will vary
according to the type of intervention, and the aims and cost-effectiveness of the overall
impact assessment package.
For each impact assessment type a wide range of methodologies has been developed,
according to the precise purpose of the assessment, the types of question to be asked, the
organisational context, the socio-economic context, available budget, research capacity
and other factors. An impact assessment may include any or all of:
•
Quantitative statistical methods
involving baseline studies, the precise identification
of baseline conditions, definition of objectives, target setting, rigorous performance
evaluation and outcome measurement. Such methods can be costly, limited in the
types of impacts which can be accurately measured, and may pose difficulties for
inference of cause and effect. Some degree of quantification may be necessary in
2
ADVERTISEMENT
0 votes
Related Articles
Related forms
Privacy Impact Assessment Update For The Advance Passenger Information System (apis) - U.s. Department Of Homeland Security - 2013
Legal
Template For Automatic Number Plate Recognition (anpr) Infrastructure Development Privacy Impact Assessment
Business
Real Property Assessment Division First Level Appeal Application Form - Government Of The District Of Columbia
Financial
Related Categories
Parent category: Education