Basic Impact Assessment At Project Level Page 9
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
364.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ENTERPRISE AND PROJECT LEVEL
IMPACT ASSESSMENT
All impact assessment studies have an underlying conceptual framework. In well-planned
and well-resourced IAs with long ‘lead-in’ times such frameworks are usually explicitly
identified; by contrast, in many smaller scale exercises the framework is implicit and may
be seen as ‘common sense’. There are three main elements to a conceptual framework:
a model of the impact chain that the study is to examine
•
the specification of the unit(s) or levels at which impacts are assessed
•
the specification of the types of impact that are to be assessed.
•
4.1
Impact Chains
Behind all aid financed initiatives, is the assumption that the intervention will change
behaviour and practice in ways that lead to the achievement (or raise the probability of
achievement) of desired outcomes.
IAs assess the difference in the values of key
variables between the outcomes on ‘agents’ (individuals, enterprises, households,
populations, policymakers etc) which have experienced an intervention against the values
of those variables that would have occurred had there been no intervention (Figure 3).
The fact that no agent can both experience an intervention and at the same time not
experience an intervention generates many methodological problems. All changes are
influenced by mediating processes (specific characteristics of the agent and of the
economic, physical, social and political environment) that influence both behavioural
changes and the outcomes in ways that are difficult to predict.
The impact chain is very simply depicted in Figure 4. A more detailed conceptualisation
would present a complex set of links as each ‘effect’ becomes a ‘cause’ in its own right
generating further effects. For example, in a conventional microfinance project a package
of technical assistance and capital changes the behaviour (and products) of a
microfinance institution (MFI).
The MFI subsequently provides different services to a
client, most commonly in the form of a loan. These services lead to the client modifying
her/his microenterprise activities which in turn leads to increased or decreased
microenterprise income. The change in microenterprise income causes changes in
household income which in turn leads to greater or lesser household economic security.
The modified level of household economic security leads to changes in the morbidity and
mortality of household members, in educational and skill levels and in future economic and
social opportunities. Ultimately, perhaps, these changes lead to modifications in social
and political relations and structures.
9
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