During July Patrick and I have been able to undertake a major rewrite of the Draft Impacts Code based on input from the Steering Committee. I have been in contact with most ISEAL members regarding consultation on the Impacts Code and helping them articulate their theory of change. I took a week of holiday as well.
Yours sincerely,
Paddy Doherty, Credibility Tools Manager
Highlights
Impacts Code Drafting
The 12 pages of notes from the Impacts Code Steering Committee meeting on 18-19 June provided lots of guidance towards improving the structure and content of the draft Impacts Code. This was mainly a matter of removing redundant material (predictable, as I initially overwrote on purpose) and refining the connection between the ‘theory of change’ and the ‘what to measure’ sections.
On the latter, we came to a major breakthrough with the amalgamation of the two sections. In the latest draft, the logical sequence of developing the theory of change leading to discover what to monitor is much clearer. We changed some of the jargon associated with impact assessment into what we feel is more plain language, or at least is more widely used in the evaluation community. We removed most of the examples, for though they are helpful, they add to the length of the text (one of the recommendations from the Impacts Code Committees was that the document should be shortened). The examples will most likely end up in an accompanying guidance document, though we have not determined the exact approach for this.
We removed the ‘System Effectiveness” theme from the list of issues to measure; feeling that a standards system’s effectiveness at increasing the uptake of their standard will be captured within the development of the results chains and subsequent assumptions. The standard system will then need to develop indicators for the identified assumptions, regardless of whether these issues are listed in the Appendix 1. We amended the language to clarify that it will likely be the standard-setting organisation, not the standard system (which generally includes many organisations) that will be undertaking impact assessment.
Outreach
I have been spending a fair bit of time communicating with ISEAL members in preparation for the formal consultation on the Impacts Code. I would like to have an opportunity to work with all ISEAL members in order to help them articulate their theory of change. Most standards systems will have a theory of change implicit in their programme, but perhaps not formally expressed. Some members are familiar with the theory of change model and have already worked through this process in some manner (e.g. Rugmark) while others are at different stages in their development or have not considered the concept yet.
This will be an opportunity to further explain the draft Impacts Code to ISEAL members, and for me to gain some understanding of which issues are important to them (to show their contribution to impact). The idea of showing the common contribution of ISEAL members on a select number of indicators is still important to ISEAL, but we need to develop sample indicators that are relevant to everyone (and cheap, and easy to collect, and so on). Direct (face-to-face) outreach to members should help this process along.
Obviously, the middle of summer is not the best time to be trying to contact people and ask them to corral their management for a one-day workshop. However, I am persisting and having some success. It is expected I’ll continue this work through the end of the year.
Consultation
The draft Impacts Code is just about ready for the first formal (60-days) consultation. We are planning to begin this consultation on September 1st, using the ISEAL Online community as the primary vehicle to provide information and to collect comments. We intend to publicise this event, and we are hopeful that everyone receiving this newsletter will assist us to let others know about the consultation.
Next Steps
The current draft of the Impacts Code is with the Impacts Code Committees for their review and comment. I will then prepare the draft for the first formal consultation beginning September first. I’ll be working with Richard Brennan (ISEAL Online Networking Coordinator) to set up the ISEAL Online Community for use with the Impacts Code consultation process. I have arranged to attend an Outcome Mapping Training Workshop on Sep 21-24th. This workshop has been recommended as a very good training opportunity to help prepare me for working directly with ISEAL members.
