We all know that we need to show that what we are doing is worthwhile and effective and ‘on the right track’. Such a process ideally links intent to outcomes in succinct and measurable (and even objective) ways and highlights effective process too. It helps us to reflect on our actions, to plan what next as well as to communicate what and how we do what we do to all sorts of audiences. But often, it is not a simple thing to do.

This paper: The Singer not the Song, from Allan Kaplan and Sue Davidoff discusses this conundrum, talking about impact monitoring and social change and some of the tensions between focusing on achievements over ‘emergence’. The paper is derived from a conversation convened in November 2010 by the Proteus Initiative amongst a group of southern African NGO leaders, under the auspices of EED. This conversation centered around the conundrums of evaluation for development interventions and the paper is conversational in tone as it articulates a range of perspectives to arrive at what is described as two logics:

“When we try to achieve something, something material in the world, tangible and visible, time bound, separate from other things, something that depends primarily on our work and input, something that we have some control over, then we could say that we work with the logic of achievement, and that we could apply the logic of impact monitoring.

When we work with complex social processes, which are possibly (at least in some ways) intangible and invisible, which are so long-term as to evade the confines of arbitrary time limitations (that is, they will take the time they take), which are intimately and inextricably bound up with many other things and processes, which depend primarily on the movements and energies of others (those others whom we serve), which we have very little control over, then we should perhaps be working with the logic of emergence, and we need to employ a different form of assessment, a different way of working out whether we are on the right track.”

Download the PDF to read more: The Singer not the Song by Allan Kaplan and Sue Davidoff.

For more about Allan and Sue's work, visit the Proteus Initiative website.

Added July 2011