Measuring Impact – Summary of the Workshop

Introduced by:
Dr. Emmo Meijer, Senior Vice-President Strategy, Unilever, The Netherlands

Led by:
Susan Stout, formerly of World Bank, USA
Aaron Williamson, The Value Web

Experts:
Biju Mohandas, Manager, Acumen Fund, Kenya
Ankur Shah, Business Development Manager, Acumen Fund, UAE

What matters when measuring impact? How can measures not only inform decision-making, but become a part of the operational DNA of an organization? In these sessions, participants explored these and many other questions in order to get a better understanding of how measurement can be used as the basis for stronger collaborations and more effective management of nutrition initiatives.
Expert panelists gave insights on the measurement and use of measures on impact by companies, the priorities in impact measurement in social venture capital, and the relevance of measures. Emmo Meijer, Senior VP of Strategy for Unilever explored ways in which companies could commit against indicators to measure the effectiveness of their social partnerships and the impact of their products and operations. Ankur Shah and Biju Mohandas, of Acumen Fund, explained how their decision-making on investments is driven by measures, but also how measures needed to be understandable and relevant to the organizations they work with. Susan Stout, formerly of the World Bank, outlined the importance of simplicity and usability in metrics, but also the need for measurement to a part of operations in any organization – something done by them, not to them.

Participants in the workshop first explored the different perspectives of stakeholders in impact measurement, from universities, foundations and international agencies to front-line implementers, product teams in business and NGOs.  Key insights from these conversations included:

• Aligning on measures should be the starting point for collaborations and partnerships
• Measurements can’t be externalized, imposed or extracted
• Metrics and Objectives are flip-sides of the same coin
• Business can offer tools and expertise in measurement that can benefit the development sector

In the follow-up workshop, participants took the lessons from the first round of workshops as their starting point, then dug deeper to try their hand at applying these principles to a tangible partnership. It was here that the group saw the challenge of effective measurement; measures and indicators cannot be put in place without a shared understanding between stakeholders of the overall objectives and the steps required to achieve them. From this exercise, participants came to see that the barrier in many cases is not the complexity of the measures themselves, but the difficulty in aligning on vision and approach.
The learnings from this session were:

• Measurement is not an exercise in mathematics
• There is a clear need for performance management, but,
• The quality of the dialogue between stakeholders is the most important aspect of measurement
• Measurement puts in place a mechanism for motivation and reward for success
• It is important to set short term steps towards long-term goals
• Even soft goals can be measured
• Keep it simple!