The time to focus more on intentional programming with a direct lens on impact measurement and not numbers is now. How can we posit that on a global scale we are creating change by measuring only numbers and not paying attention to the effects of each of our programs?
Scenario-
Organization A calls for a meeting of stakeholders to deliberate on what can be done to reduce poverty in Nigeria. The different stakeholders meet at a first-class venue for 3 days, have very intelligent conversations with documents created, and then the event comes to an end. The report of this activity is sent to the body funding the project with numbers mentioned of the people that attended spread across different regions of the country, pictures, recommendations, papers, and more.
This way the event is termed successful.
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These conversations are very important, but should they be the one-stop way forward to solving the problem? How do these memos or position papers or recommendations affect the issue at hand? How do we measure that from these meetings something has changed? How does this affect the woman in a village who needs a job? Or the young girl/boy who does not have access to education because the family cannot afford to pay school fees? What can we say are the result or effect of these meetings held day in day out?
There might be obvious answers to these questions, but are they action-based answers or just document-based? Are they solving real-time problems or are funds just being used to create more documents?
I have been a part of some of these meetings and I am speaking from the experiences I have had. We go for these stakeholders’ discussions and then we come up with documents. After the event, we are told that we will receive updates on how it is going, and then time passes, and no update. Suddenly one receives an email inviting one for another such meeting to upgrade the agreement or recreate another or to focus on another issue.
To be sincere, there have been times when I just feel so worried and wonder if these meetings or workshops are creating real changes. Sometimes I feel like it is better if I stay in the community and work with the Durian women daily creating change and impact instead of meeting and talking. I am not denying the importance of these conversations, but I desire to be on tables where we have discussions, create solutions, decisions are made, backed with actions and we can track the impact of these actions on the lives of the people. Then maybe after 6 months of work, we can gather again to review what has been done so far.
What do you think?
