Outcome Harvesting and Outcome mapping
a)???Outcome Harvesting (OH)
Outcome Harvesting is an evaluation method that enables evaluators, grant makers, and managers to identify, formulate, verify, and make sense of outcomes, by defining an outcome as a change in the behavior, relationships, actions, activities, policies, or practices of an individual, group, community, organization, or institution (boundary partners). The outcomes should be logically linked to a program (although not necessarily directly caused by it).
The outcomes can be positive or negative, intended or unintended, but the connection between the initiative (s)/activity (s) and the outcomes must be verifiable. The change pathway should be clear and verifiable. Outcome Harvesting collects evidence of what has been achieved, and works backward to determine whether and how an intervention contributed to the change
Outcome Harvesting is done during or after an intervention and applies different techniques to produce evidence-based and verifiable answers to the following questions:
·????????What happened?
·????????Who did it (or contributed to it)?
·????????How do we know this? Is there corroborating evidence?
·????????Why is this important? What do we do with what we found out?
Answers to these questions provide important information about the contributions made by a specific program toward a given outcome or outcomes, intended or unintended negative or positive.
Stages of OH
·????????Harvest users and harvesters identify questions to guide the harvest
·????????Both users and harvesters agree on what information is to be collected and included in the outcome description as well as the change pathway.
·????????Harvesters collect in depth information about changes that have occurred in social actors and how the change agent contributed to these changes. Information can be gathered from interviews, surveys, workshops, documents and other sources.
·????????The harvesters write draft outcome descriptions with questions for review and clarification by the change agent.
·????????Conduct outcome harvesting workshop with change agents
·????????Consultation with independent individuals who know about the subject very well, either in terms of technical profession or interaction with the program or both.
·????????Organization of outcome descriptions order to make sense, analyze and interpret the data, and provide verifiable answers to the harvesting questions.
·????????Presentation and facilitating discussions among users on the findings and recommendations as well as way forward/action plans
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?b)???Outcome Mapping (OM)
Outcome mapping is a methodology for planning, monitoring and evaluating development initiatives in order to bring about sustainable social change. Outcome mapping, from the inception of a project, plans and assesses the project to understand possible outcomes and anticipate change. Whenever you undertake a project, you expect a certain level of uncertainty, but outcome mapping aims to reduce unknowns. Rather than reacting to changes and obstacles as they arise during a project, outcome mapping allows you to plan in advance. The team collaborates on a framework that encourages self-monitoring and assessment throughout the course of the project.
In outcome mapping, outcomes are conceptualized as “behavioral changes.” Thinking in terms of changes rather than results encourages you to focus on how the change happens rather than treating each change as a forgone conclusion. Once you’ve identified how a behavior change came about, outcome mapping empowers you to adapt and plan accordingly.
At the planning stage, the process of outcome mapping helps a project team or program be specific about the actors it intends to target, the changes it hopes to see and the strategies appropriate to achieve the changes. For ongoing monitoring, OM provides a set of tools to design and gather information on the results of the change process, measured in terms of the changes in behavior, actions or relationships that can be influenced by the team or program.
As an evaluation approach, OM unpacks an initiative’s theory of change, provides a framework to collect data on immediate, basic changes that lead to longer, more transformative change, and allows for the plausible assessment of the initiative’s contribution to results.
Steps of OM
OM involves 12 steps in three stages: intentional design, Outcome and performance monitoring, and evaluation planning.
The Intentional Design stage is based on seven steps which are normally developed in a sequential order:
1.????Vision – The vision describes the large-scale development changes that the programme hopes to encourage
2.????Mission – The mission spells out how the programme will contribute to the vision and is that ‘bite’ of the vision on which the programme is going to focus
3.????Boundary Partners – The boundary partners are those individuals, groups, or organisations with whom the programme interacts with directly and with whom it anticipates opportunities for influence
4.????Outcome Challenges – An outcome challenge statement describes the desired changes in the behaviour, relationships, activities, actions (professional practices) of the boundary partner. It is?the ideal behavioural change of each type of boundary partner for it to contribute to the ultimate goals (vision) of the programme
5.????Progress Markers – Progress Markers are a set of statements describing a gradual progression of changed behaviour in the boundary partner leading to the ideal outcome challenge. They are a core element in OM and the strength rests in their utility as a set of desired changes which indicate progression towards the ideal outcome challenge and articulate the complexity of the change process. They represent the information which can be gathered in order to monitor partner achievements. Therefore, progress markers are central in the monitoring process. Progress markers can be seen as indicators in the sense that they are observable and measurable but differ from the conventional indicators used in?Logical?Framework?Approach (LFA). Progress markers can be adjusted during the implementation process, can include unintended results, do not describe a change in state and do not contain percentages or deadlines
6.????Strategy Maps – Strategy maps are a mix of different types of strategies used by the implementing team to contribute to and support the achievement of the desired changes at the level of the boundary partners. OM encourages the programme identify strategies which are aimed directly at the boundary partner and those aimed at?the environment in which the boundary partner operates.
7.????Organisational Practices – Organisational practices explain how the implementing team is going to operate and organise itself to fulfil its mission. It is based on the idea that supporting change in boundary partners requires that the programme team itself is able to change and adapt as well, i.e., not only by being efficient and effective (operational capacities) but also by being relevant (adaptive capacities).
The monitoring stage involves four steps:
8.????Monitoring Priorities – Monitoring priorities provides a process for establishing the areas of the project to be monitored.
9.????Outcome Journals – Outcome journals are a tool for collecting data about the progress markers over time.
10.?Strategy Journals – Strategy journals are a tool for collecting data about the activities of a project.
11.?Performance Journals – Performance journals are for collecting data about organisational practices.
The evaluation stage involves one step:
12.?Evaluation Plan – Evaluation plan provides a process and a tool for designing an evaluation using OM.