Impact Obsession

I wholly support the need to track progress and impact for any social change initiative, but I also have reservation about popular slogans like 'evidence first', 'metric driven', 'impact based funding', etc.

The general argument for social impact assessment is lacking context, the focus on standardization also overshadows different needs and different forms of social enterprises. E.g. how much do we truly understand the assessment needs of fledgling startups? When is the right timing to hold them accountable to uniform standard? What should be in place before social enterprises adopting a more statistically rigorous approach? Etc.

Critics point out that if funders are primarily behind the drive of adopting uniform impact assessment standard, it will create a gap where the needs and voices of social enterprises may not be the key part of consideration.

So take a pause before reaching unhealthy level of rhetoric, give social enterprises the time and space to evolve, experiment to find the right indicators that are truly relevant to the beneficiaries. It's time to maintain a healthy obsession about impact assessment.