Editorial Comment:

This paper introduces the major concepts of Outcome Mapping and discusses the International Development Research Centre’s experience in developing and implementing Outcome Mapping with Northern and Southern research organisations. The IDRC has encountered four fundamental challenges in assessing and reporting on development impact that inhibit learning by development research organisations.

1. While development research organisations are under pressure to demonstrate that their programmes result in significant and lasting change in the well-being of large numbers of intended beneficiaries, such ‘impact’ is often the product of a confluence of events for which no single organisation can realistically claim full credit.
2. In order for change to truly take root, ownership and control must have shifted from the external organisation to exogenous actors and organisations.
3. Assessing long-term development impacts does not usually provide the kind of information and feedback required to improve a programme’s performance. It provides ‘clueless feedback’.
4. The heavy emphasis on demonstrating the impact of programmes has meant that the development of learning capacities within organisations are ignored.

To address these problems, IDRC has been working with a number of organisations to develop and field test a methodology called Outcome Mapping which takes account of the complexity of development processes and focuses explicitly on learning. It establishes a vision of the human, social, and environmental improvement to which a programme hopes to contribute and then focuses monitoring and evaluation on factors and actors within its sphere of influence.

Outcome Mapping is based on three principles, which are viewed as essential to encourage learning:

• Planning for and assessing both external results and internal performance;
• The cyclical nature of planning, monitoring, and evaluation;
• Systematised self-assessment as a consciousness-raising, consensus-building;
• Empowerment tool for those working directly in a programme.

Each of these principles encourages a programme to think holistically about its work in order to improve, and offers more generalisable lessons about encouraging learning and reflection that may be of value to others, whether or not they are using Outcome Mapping.