Assessing Impact without Indicators, Case Study from Vietnam

Abstract

Between June and August 2007, the Author carried out an independent evaluation of a community based rural development project in North Vietnam, Phu Tho province (Annex 1). The project, which had a four-year life span from 2003 to 2007, included 2 districts (Than Thuy and Tan Nong), 9 communes and 7,197 beneficiary households. The project employed a community-based approach with three specific objectives: improving hygiene and nutrition, boosting agricultural production and enhancing the capacities of the local authorities and the communities (empowerment). Although the project proposal included a defined logical framework, output and impact indicators were not clearly defined. Moreover, during the project baseline, the information and data collected were not structured into a monitoring system with indicators. Therefore, the main challenge of the final evaluation was to appraise project impact with alternative methods that could appreciate “changes” in livelihoods and the environment (in quantitative and qualitative terms), without previously agreed indicators. The aim of this paper is to describe the overall process of the final evaluation and the way the impact evaluation was designed, discussing the limits and advantages of the methodologies used