Impact Assessment
Impact assessment is defined as the systematic analysis of the lasting or significant changes- positive or negative, intended or not – in people’s lives and in civil society brought about by a given action or series of actions. In practice, it is often used more loosely to indicate assessment of changes in high level objectives, such as poverty or the environment.
OPM draws on its evaluation experience, its experience in designing and implementing surveys using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and its expertise in economic analysis to undertake both social and economic impact assessment. In recent years OPM has undertaken ex-post impact assessments of a number of social sector programmes and of research activities, such as Hillside Agricultural Research Programme in Nepal, and ex-ante impact assessment (PSIA) of proposed policy and programmes in Pakistan’s microfinance sector.
OPM is currently responsible for the design and implementation of an evaluation of cash transfers to orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya. This will use a community-level randomised controlled design to measure programme impact on a set of child and household level welfare measures.
OPM has also undertaken ex-ante economic impact assessment for the private sector, notably an assessment for Exxon of the output and income multiplier effects of their investment in Chad.
Poverty and Social Impact Assessment (PSIA) is increasingly used as an important analytical toolkit by both multilateral and bilateral agencies to assess ex-ante the impact of policy reforms and PRSPs. OPM has been involved since an early stage in the development of time constrained approaches to PSIA, and was contracted by DFID to manage six PSIA case studies in Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Armenia, Honduras and Pakistan, to understand key methodology and implementation issues.
Impact assessment has also been a key part of OPM’s wider evaluations, in particular the evaluation of DFID’s Renewable Natural Resource Research Strategy (RNRRS) and the evaluation of the Uganda PMA, where a household survey was carried out to assess poverty impact on rural households.
Project Examples
