Science, Environment and Development Group

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Wednesday, 13 December, 2006
Outcome Mapping: A Tool for Measuring the Results of Development Interventions and Innovations
Fred Carden, Evaluation Unit, International Development Research Centre, Canada
10:00-11:30 pm, Perkins Room (R-415), 4th Floor, Rubenstein Building (formerly Eliot Building), KSG (Map)
Biography, Abstract

Biography:

Fred Carden joined the International Development Research Centre's Evaluation Unit in 1993 and became the Director in March 2004. He has written in the areas of evaluation, international cooperation, and environmental management. His current work includes assessment of the influence of research on public policy, and the development of use-oriented evaluation tools and methods in the areas of organizational assessment, participatory monitoring and evaluation, program evaluation and outcome mapping. He has taught and carried out research at York University, the Cooperative College of Tanzania, the Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia) and the University of Indonesia. He holds a PhD from the Université de Montréal and a Master's degree in environmental studies from York University in Toronto.

Abstract:

In development and development research the clarion call is for impact, for demonstration that what we are doing is effective. The calls for measuring results, accounting for impacts, demonstrating efficiency and effectiveness, come to us in the hard language of inputs, outputs and the certainty of the “silver bullet” for development impact. Yet we live and work in a complex, changing and uncertain world. Our efforts must adjust, adapt and cope with an ever changing landscape. If we hope to contribute to social transformation in our work, we can neither entirely know where we are going, nor precisely how we are going to get there. Outcome Mapping was developed as a tool for confronting this dilemma. It presents a framework based on influence not impact. It assumes change, not linearity in our work. And it integrates ongoing reflection and adjustment. Outcome mapping focuses on the people not the things. Hence, outcome mapping defines outcomes as changes in behaviours, actions and activities that contribute to social transformation. This presentation will identify the roots of Outcome Mapping (OM) in open systems thinking and complexity theory. It will relate OM to the measurement challenges that development research and development projects face today. Outcome Mapping is a work in progress and the presentation will conclude with some reflection on challenges and new developments in measuring outcomes.