Monitoring Strategies and Action Plans
Strategies and action plans devised at the beginning of a project are not infallible; they require constant revision based on project progress. As projects evolve, new information and challenges emerge, necessitating adjustments to our strategies. This underscores the importance of monitoring in any social impact endeavor. Simply put, monitoring involves regularly collecting information to track the project’s progress and uphold quality standards.
Within the CSR lifecycle, monitoring is integral as established in the CSR policy. Monitoring mechanisms should encompass:
Real-time monitoring.
Mid-term monitoring.
Real-time monitoring allows for the prompt identification of issues and problems as they arise. It ensures the availability of necessary resources in the field at the right time and quantity, aiding in keeping projects on schedule and within budget.
For instance, in our skill development project, real-time monitoring can include data such as daily attendance of beneficiaries, their progress to ensure they benefit from the training, timely conduction of practical sessions, detailed financial data to prevent overspending or budget shortfalls, feedback from trainers and beneficiaries, as well as addressing grievances.
Similarly, mid-term evaluations help ensure that projects achieve expected outcomes by enabling modifications based on changing circumstances or new insights. By scrutinizing the implementation model through survey tools and focused group discussions, companies can pinpoint mid-course corrections to ensure the project fulfills its intended purpose.
In our example, the mid-term evaluation would assess the progress of beneficiaries to ensure they are on track with the training. This evaluation would also identify underperforming beneficiaries who may require additional support or training. Furthermore, it would help identify beneficiaries who irregularly attend the program, enabling the impact team to devise strategies to address this issue. Additionally, the mid-term evaluation would clarify the project's financial position, providing insights into expenditure and available funds for future planning.
Crucial parameters for project monitoring include:
Timeframe assessments: Evaluating progress based on the stipulated project timeline.
Cost vs Budget assessments: Monitoring financial status to ensure sustainability and accountability.
Output delivery: Examining project outputs at regular intervals to ensure goal achievement.
Community responses: Monitoring community feedback to build trust and address concerns.
Monitoring for emerging issues: Developing strategies to respond to evolving trends.
Reasons for not meeting pre-decided/agreed-upon targets: Reflecting on strategies and implementing corrective measures.
Recommendations on mid-course corrections: Analyzing data and progress to inform future strategies.
Social Audit: A tool for accountability, measuring effectiveness, and empowering beneficiaries in project evaluation.
Social auditing enables organizations to assess and demonstrate social, economic, and environmental benefits. It helps track progress, understand stakeholder responsibilities, plan transparent CSR activities, and assess implementing partners' capabilities for future projects.
In our skill development example, social auditing involves gathering scheme records, administering surveys, and conducting spot inspections. Public hearings allow citizens to address grievances and reconcile issues, providing valuable inputs for CSR policy and project updates.
It’s imperative to have a strict monitoring and evaluation plan for successful project implementation. Incorporating built-in components for tracking, monitoring, and reporting ensures the success of CSR projects and fosters social development.
Difference between Monitoring and Evaluation
It's essential to understand the clear distinction between monitoring and evaluation, as teams may overlook one or the other during a project. Monitoring is crucial throughout a project to ensure that we are on the correct path and to record any necessary changes needed. In simple terms, monitoring helps us ensure that we achieve our intended results by recording all vital information gained during the project and refining our strategies accordingly.
On the other hand, evaluation helps us assess whether we have achieved our intended outcomes. It ensures that we check all the boxes and have created the impact in society that we aimed for. Evaluation provides a comprehensive analysis of the project's effectiveness and its contribution to the desired societal goals.
For better understanding, the following table illustrates the difference:
Monitoring | Evaluation | |
Initial question | What’s happening in the project? | Why is something happening, with what degree of quality, and with what consequences (results)? |
Why? | To review the project’s progress - To be able to make informed decisions. - To be able to carry out adjustments. - To provide a basis for further analysis (e.g., evaluation). | To describe and assess progress and results - To draw conclusions and derive recommendations. |
Who? | Carried out internally by project staff. | Carried out internally or externally. |
When? | Continuously (throughout the whole project). | At any given time during the project, at the project’s end, or sometime after the project’s completion. |
Important for what level of the logic model? | Focus on inputs, outputs, and easily measurable results (outcomes). | Focus on results (outcomes and impact) |
Evaluation
Evaluation is considered the most crucial step in ensuring an impactful CSR program. It helps in determining the real outcomes of the project, distinguishing between outputs and outcomes. Outputs are the results of a set of activities conducted, while outcomes represent the ideally desired state of the output that could lead to impact. For instance, if the expected impact of a CSR program is employment and skill development in a specific area, the outcome should reflect people gaining employment and utilizing their skills for livelihood.
Tailored performance indicators and specific parameters reflecting the context and focus of the program are essential for meaningful monitoring and evaluation. Without these, both monitoring and evaluation may yield generic results lacking relevant lessons learned and useful recommendations for future programs. Therefore, proper creation and management of a CSR monitoring and evaluation framework are critical for project success.
Impact evaluation provides companies with an opportunity to measure impact, learn from successes and challenges, and incorporate learnings into future CSR projects. Ideally, an independent third party conducts impact assessments on a project-by-project basis. These assessments include site visits, and measure changes in identified indicators, and should be communicated internally and in public communications.
Good evaluations possess the following characteristics:
Impartiality
Technical adequacy
Usefulness
Stakeholder involvement
Value for money
Feedback/dissemination
Reasons for Evaluation:
To learn: Extracting lessons from every CSR intervention benefits the company, its CSR team, implementing NGOs, beneficiary communities, and the wider CSR sector.
To know: Critical stakeholders expect to be informed of the efficacy of CSR interventions and the extent to which results are being achieved.
To support decision-making processes: Decisions such as whether to continue with aspects of a CSR policy or financial support to an intervention require support from independent evaluations.
To document: Evaluation reports serve as documentation of an intervention's design, implementation, processes, and outcomes.
Evaluations are used to:
Make resource decisions, such as whether to continue financial support.
Inform stakeholders of intervention status and worth.
Enable decision-making on best alternatives.
Build consensus among stakeholders on how to respond to a problem.
Identify issues around emerging problems, such as children dropping out of school or an increase in outmigration.
For successful evaluation, interventions require:
Clearly articulated objectives, activities, outputs, and expected outcomes.
Monitoring systems include indicators, baseline data, regular data collection and analysis, and dissemination of monitoring information within the organization.
A budget was earmarked for evaluation.
Achievement of Project Objectives:
Evaluation focuses on the completion of project goals aligned with its objectives. For instance, in our skill development project example, the evaluation would assess how many beneficiaries secured employment and utilized their skills for livelihood, thereby gauging the project's impact on the village's economy.
Steps Leading to Impact:
The evaluation identifies effective and ineffective actions, helping determine the course of action that contributed to the intended impact. Lessons from one project can inform and improve future initiatives. For instance, incentives or trust-building programs implemented during the skill development project to boost attendance can offer valuable insights for similar endeavors.
SROI (Social Return on Investment)
SROI is a principle-based method for measuring extra-financial value, considering social, environmental, and economic factors to calculate impact. It serves as a tool for measuring the total value generated for every rupee invested in a program. The method offers numerous benefits:
Understanding Social Value: Organizations can comprehend the social value created by their activities in a robust manner, enabling them to manage activities and relationships to maximize that value.
Stakeholder Dialogue: SROI facilitates dialogue with stakeholders, helping assess the extent to which activities meet their needs and expectations.
Language of Investment Return: By framing social impact in the language of 'return on investment', SROI appeals to investors, commissioners, and lenders, garnering increasing interest as a means to measure social value beyond financial metrics.
Influence on Contractual Relationships: SROI can demonstrate to potential customers, such as public bodies or large purchasers, that they can redefine what they seek from contracts by considering social and environmental impacts.
Strategic Management Tool: Monetized indicators in SROI can assist management in analyzing potential outcomes of changing strategies and evaluating their suitability for generating social returns or exploring alternative resource allocations.
Assurance and Verification: Assurance and verification mechanisms are available through various bodies, including The SROI Network.
SROI transcends mere monetary value, emphasizing the broader concept of value creation. While money serves as a common unit for communicating value, an SROI analysis encompasses qualitative and quantitative aspects, presenting a narrative of change that informs decision-making.
There are two types of SROI:
Evaluative Analysis: Conducted retrospectively based on actual outcomes, such as the total number of program graduates gaining employment in a skill development project.
Forecast Analysis: Predicts the social value created if activities meet their intended outcomes, encompassing improvements in participants' standard of living, access to basic infrastructure, enhanced soft skills, confidence, and positive changes in their dependents' lives.
In summary, the qualitative findings from the job and skills training program highlight tangible outcomes like improved employment prospects and intangible benefits such as enhanced confidence and personal growth. Financial proxies are developed for each outcome, including higher earnings, increased time management skills, enhanced personal assets, expanded social and professional networks, and reduced government subsidies.
Applying SROI analysis to a skill development project reveals qualitative findings indicating program effectiveness in employment generation and personal development. Financial proxies derived from these findings can estimate the social value created, exemplified by a hypothetical SROI ratio of $2.08, signifying $2.08 of social value generated for every dollar invested.
Conclusion
CSR initiatives demonstrate a commitment to broader social issues beyond profit margins, appealing to customers who share similar values. Operating sustainably aligns with good business practices, especially considering regulatory requirements in countries like India, where CSR compliance is increasingly imperative.
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