Use measures, indicators or metrics

As part of an evaluation, it is often important to either develop or use existing indicators or measures of implementation and/or results.

Using an existing indicator or measure can have the advantage of producing robust data which can be compared to other studies, as long as it is appropriate.

Considerable work has been done to develop measures and indicators that can be used for the outcomes of development projects.

The terms “measure”, “metric” and indicator” are often used interchangeably and their definitions vary across different documents and organisations. Hence, it is always useful to check what these terms mean in specific contexts.

Terms that are commonly associated with measurements include:

• A target is the value of an indicator expected to be achieved at a specified point in time. Often a benchmark is used to mean the same thing.
• An index is a set of related indicators which intend to provide a means for meaningful and systematic comparisons of performance across programmes that are similar in content and/or have the same goals and objectives.
• A standard is a set of related indicators, benchmarks or indices which provide socially meaningful information regarding performance.

Resources

Advocacy

This set of outcome indicators, developed by the Urban Institute, is aimed at supporting the development, monitoring and evaluation of advocacy programs.

Education and Training

This set of outcome indicators, developed by the Urban Institute, is aimed at supporting the development, monitoring and evaluation of youth tutoring programs.

This set of outcome indicators, developed by the Urban Institute, is aimed at supporting the development, monitoring and evaluation of youth mentoring programs.

This set of outcome indicators, developed by the Urban Institute, is aimed at supporting the development, monitoring and evaluation of Employment Training/Workforce Development Programs.

Governance

Reports aggregate and individual governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories over the period 1996–2020. (World Bank)

Provides a framework and tools that were developed in order to assess the delivery of public goods and services in Africa. (Mo Ibrahim Foundation)

Explore a snapshot of key development indicators for a country related to its macroeconomic profile, global integration, and social outlook. (IADB)

Health

This set of outcome indicators, developed by the Urban Institute, is aimed at supporting the development, monitoring and evaluation of Health Risk Reduction Programs.

Inequality

This module from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) demonstrates a range of ways to measure inequality by using the statistical concepts of location, shape and variability.

Poverty

This book form the World Bank provides a range of tools which allow the user to measure, describe, monitor, evaluate, and analyze poverty.

Aims to capture the multiple aspects that constitute poverty. (Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative)

Welfare

This set of outcome indicators, developed by the Urban Institute, is aimed at supporting the development, monitoring and evaluation of Transitional Housing Programs.

This set of outcome indicators, developed by the Urban Institute, is aimed at supporting the development, monitoring and evaluation of Prisoner Re-entry Programs.

This set of outcome indicators, developed by the Urban Institute, is aimed at supporting the development, monitoring and evaluation of Emergency Shelter Programs.

Wellbeing

This website from Children Now provides an interactive display of statistics reporting on the wellbeing of children in California. It uses 38 indicators to rank child well-being in each of California's 58 Counties.

World peace

The Global Peace Index, an initiative of Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), provides a ranking for each nation in regards to their peacefulness.

Method

Reviewing documents produced as part of the implementation of the evaluand can provide useful background information and be beneficial in understanding the alignment between planned and actual implementation.