Each and every development program and policy are planned and executed in the hope to bring about certain changes such as, raising income, preventing child abuse, avoiding diseases, or improving learning. In order to know, whether the intended change is being accomplished or not after the execution of a given policy and development program, policymakers and implementers conduct an impact assessment to examine the phenomenon of change.
The impact assessment is a structured process that measures or evaluates the effectiveness of prearranged or proposed projects and policies by, estimating the extent of change that transpired by a particular intervention. Moreover, impact assessment is allied with project or policy strategic objective because it defines the change that a given organization anticipated to achieve via the execution of a particular policy or development project. Additionally, the structured process of impact evaluation aims to predict, define and estimate the influence of the proposed intervention in attaining the intended goal of a given change.
Furthermore, impact can be defined as the influence or implication resulted from the functioning of prearranged activities. The impact triggered by a development intervention could be intended or unintended — primary or secondary — positive or negative. Intended impact refers to the results or influence of a given intervention. Furthermore, Intended impact usually transpires if or when reinforced via the prearrangement and correct execution of relevant actions. Despite, obtaining desired implication result or manifestation of intended impact, intervention may also produce positive or negative unintended impact. Unintended impact means unplanned negative or positive influence of project activities.
Impact assessment is carried out with the intention to obtain information regarding the phenomenon of change prompted by a given intervention. Each intervention or project intends to achieve specific goal via bringing about positive change or evading negative change.
Moreover, Individual or team who needs or wants to assess the impact of policies and development programs must know the answer to a crucial public policy question; why do organizations evaluate the impact of interventions? And what is the role impact assessment in policy making and management of development projects? Impact assessment is a key fragment of broader policy making and management techniques called Evidence Based Policy Making and Result Based Management. These techniques are globally adopted by governmental and non-governmental organizations, in order to improve the performance of public service delivery. Evidence based policy making and result based management system focuses on the outcome and result rather than input of interventions. However, aforesaid techniques are supported by impact evaluation, whereby results of development interventions and policies obtained via impact evaluation are not only used to set and track the objectives of given policy or development programs but is also used by the policy makers, implementers or program managers, to improve accountability, inform budget allocation and policy decisions.
The impact assessment method aims to monitor and evaluate the activities and objectives of policies and development projects, so as to measures the effectiveness of development program and policies via, estimating the extant of change transpired by a specific intervention or series of interventions. Moreover, impact evaluation is a technique that efficiently support Result based management system. Whereby, policy and development program impact is assessed via, monitoring and other types of evaluation.
In this context monitoring refers to the continuous process that tracks inputs, activities, output and occasionally outcomes of a project, in an attempt to inform policy and development program day to day management, decision making and overall implementation. In other words, monitoring is being used to track; what is happening in a given project via collecting, organizing, interpreting, and documenting the data of ongoing program activities during implementation phase. Through the analysis of aforesaid data implementers can predict and identify the potential risks or problems that might impede the progress of project or derail the project. Early identification of potential problems or risks aid the executing agencies or program managers in taking corrective actions necessary to ensure the execution of projects as per plan.
Each and every project or policy is designed and implemented to accomplish specific purpose. Evaluation can define as, periodic assessment of planned, ongoing or completed project objectives. Evaluation is carried out to determine the change occurred due to the implementation of a given intervention.
The first stage of impact assessment involves prospective analysis, which refers to the process of identifying and characterizing or predicting the most likely implications of proposed actions before execution. Whereas, the second stage includes retrospective analysis, which is the process of measuring the implications produced during and after the execution of proposed project. In other words, the aforementioned aims to recognize how and to what extent a given intervention supports or has supported the intended phenomenon of change.
Author; Khushdil Khan Kasi
