Are we helping our clients move out of poverty?
Impact assessment is monitoring and evaluating changes in the welfare of beneficiaries that result from our actions. This involves both measuring change, and attributing that change to specific interventions, using quasi-experimental data collection methods.
Currently, we are researching theories of impact assessment to determine the methods that will be the most appropriate in terms of both scale and validity. La Ceiba’s small size imposes constraints on the potential methodologies available to us. Different methods also have varying legitimacy and degree of proof, and so we must choose the appropriate method based on the intended audience for our impact assessment. We are considering a double-difference approach, comparing well-being before and after implementation of our programs in clients and a counterfactual group that is similar in all characteristics but the program in question.
Theory of Change
We are also constructing a Theory of Change. By creating a Theory of Change, we will able to track the progress of our efforts. When a building a Theory of Change, a long-term goal is established with specific targets set up periodically to evaluate our progression towards our end goal. A Theory of Change is vital to impact analysis as it sets up a blue print of the organization for impact assessment. It enables causation to be established by isolating and evaluating the independent variables driving the change.
Poverty Scorecards
We currently use the Quick Poverty Scorecard for Honduras to provide a standardized long-term evaluation of our client base’s poverty level. Poverty Scorecards, utilized by such organizations as USAID and the Grameen Foundation, are used as an industry standard in order to collect context-specific data on households that can be compared across countries. With the “Quick Poverty Scorecard”, La Ceiba can now successfully conduct quantitative analyses to categorize household income levels into groups that are consistent with national and international evaluative standards. Such an analysis is crucial to providing:
- A metric with which we can honestly assess the efficacy of our own actions towards increasing household incomes
- Scientifically relevant data for the greater academic community.
