Q&A: Demonstrating and Measuring Societal Impact

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edit  ·  Q&A CompilationInternational Waters Management (Q&A)
Q&A: International Waters Management Q&A: GEF Results Framework and IW Indicators Q&A: IWRM Implementation and Measuring Progress Q&A: Demonstrating and Measuring Societal Impact Q&A: Creating and Enhancing Public Participation Q&A: Confidence and Partnership Building Q&A: Climate Change and Adaptation in IW Projects Q&A: Project Management and Coordination Q&A: Building Public-Public and Public-Private Partnerships Q&A: Inter-governmental Coordination
The Q&A's (questions and answers) in this compilation are originally inspired by a set of priority topics from a needs survey and subsequent "clinics" discussions by participants of the 4th Biennial GEF International Waters Conference - Cape Town 2007. This constitutes an innovative attempt to developing a broadly shared, joint knowledge base on pertinent issues in "International Waters Management", using the advantages of a Wiki to promote a user-driven collaborative approach. The intent is to let this knowledge base grow, in a participant-driven matter. Contributers are very welcome. Please register with the WaterWiki Administrator to get editing rights.

The aim of this FAQ is to share experiences on working with indicators that measure change at society-level i.e. exploring the different levels of impact such as raising awareness, changing behaviors, transforming people and their organizations, etc.

Contents 1 What constitutes "societal impact" ? 2 How to make an international project generate positive societal impact? 3 How do you measure societal impact? 4 How can you make the population interested and involved in environmental issues? 5 Further Readings 6 Links to Organizations and Other Resources

What constitutes "societal impact" ?

• Change of behavior
• Awareness raising
• Ownership
• Empowerment
• Capacity building
• Level of income (not monetary but could be quality of life such as education,health, etc)
• Sustainable structures
• Policy change
• Legal institutions

How to make an international project generate positive societal impact?

How do you measure societal impact?

• Projects should measure changes in societal impact based on human development indices (HDI), which exist in all countries as a baseline to measure such impacts.

• Communities targeted by projects should be measured separately from the general population, so as to highlight changes that have taken place, otherwise they will be obscred within the national statistics.

How can you make the population interested and involved in environmental issues?

Further Readings

Links to Organizations and Other Resources