Title: Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002: Outcomes
1Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of
2002Outcomes Measures
- Cornelia Butler Flora
- North Central Regional Center for Rural
Development - cflora_at_iastate.edu
- www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu
2Purposes of the National Rural Development
Partnershipcomposed of the Coordinating
Committee and the State Rural Development
Councils according to Sec. 6021, sec. 378, B 2,
of the Farm Security and Rural Development Act of
2002
- Empower and build the capacity of States and
rural communities to design flexible and
innovative responses to their own special rural
development needs, with local determination of
progress and selection of projects and activities
3Duties of State Rural Development
Councilsaccording to Sec. 6021, sec. 378, 6,
subsection d, 3 of the Farm Security and Rural
Development Act of 2002
- A. Facilitate collaboration among Federal, State,
local, and tribal governments and the private and
nonprofit sectors in the planning and
implementation of programs and polities that
have an impact on the rural area of the state - B. Monitor, report, and comment on policies and
programs that address or fail to address, the
needs of the rural areas of the State - C. As part of the Partnernship, in conjunction
with the Coordinating Committee, facilitate the
development of strategies to reduce or eliminate
conflicting or duplicative administrative or
regulatory requirements of Federal, State, local
and tribal governments - D.
- i. Provide to the Coordinating Committee an
annual plan with goals and performance measure
and - ii. Submit to the Coordinating Committee an
annual report on the progress of the State rural
development council in meeting goals and measures
4Key outcome Improve Program Policy
Effectiveness
SRDC Provides Strong Networking and Collaboration
Opportunities
SRDC Sets Short-Term and Long-Term Goals through
Strategic Planning
SRDC Structures in Place
5The NRDP Cycle
Rural Investment Act
Other stakeholders
Stakeholder Resources
Assessment of Rural Needs and Identification of
Polices and Programs in Place
to Address Them
Stakeholder satisfaction
Goals and Objectives Through Strategic Plan
Clear Presentation Of Accomplishments Related to
Goals and Objectives
Action through Partnership
Measure of Progress
6Need for Demonstrable Results
- State and local needs
- Base line data that indicate the conditions to be
improved - Analysis of what are alternative ways to improve
those conditions - Make clear what the causal chain is
- Measure outputs and outcomes
- Relate to activities and inputs
7The Conundrum of Causality
- Time Order
- Co variation
- Elimination of Rival Causal Factors
8The Morass of Systemic Change
- Systems are not linear
- Everything is connected to everything else
- Major changes can come from outside the system
- Many small changes in policy, resource
allocation, rules and regulations are needed for
change within a system
9Local conditions
Economic development
Quality jobs (, benefits, working conditions)
Arrive regularly on time Get along with fellow
workers Take instruction
Mentoring
Affordable housing
Access to healthy food
Health care
Childcare
Transportation
Must care for kids
No car, car breaks down
Illness Chronic conditions
Low energy Hunger
Move a lot
Community solutions
Individual situations
People with appropriate skills
Education and training
People who want to work
10Monitoring and evaluation is only useful when the
long term goal is clear. We shift from
monitoring activities and outputs to monitor
progress toward multiple outcomes.
11Process Framework for Identifying Indicators
- Inputs Resources applied to meet process
objectives - Activities What we do (such as meetings,
identifying key actors, design a web site, etc.) - Outputs Immediate direct results
- Outcomes Longer term results mediated through
process outputs and other systems activities
12Outcomes
- The larger goals of rural investment
- The implementation of policies and projects that
improve the standard of living and quality of
life in rural America as determined by local
people - What we expect to happen as a result of our
activities - We cannot totally control it
- The most important reasons we do what we do.
13What you think is important to measure is based
on your goals and objectives
- You need to be clear on where you are going
collectively before you can measure your progress
in getting there - Mental models of what causes what may mean lead
to very different alternatives and strategies - Is is easier to focus on strategies and
activities than make explicit our goals and our
mental models.
14Output
- The immediate product
- A policy drafted
- A project implemented
- Income generated
- Something we can control
- Means to achieve the outcomes
15ActivitiesWhat we do to achieve the outputs
- Meetings
- Communications
- Technical Assistance
- Training
- Project design and implementation
16Inputs
-
- People/Time
- Space
- Technology
- Communications technology
- Organization
17Measuring success
- What is happening?
- Identify rural problems and their current
indicators and a target change in the indicator - Analyze their causes
- Enumerate existing attempts to resolve them
- Identify explicit gaps to be filled
- Do not confuse the absence of something with a
problem - What did we do?
- Identify policies that cause the gaps
- Design a strategy to change those policies
- Monitor to see if policy changes and what can be
done to help it change - Identify resources to fill the gaps
- See which entities, public and private, have
political, cultural, human, social, natural or
financial resources that can contribute to
addressing the problem or issue - Mobilize those resources effectively
18Accountability
- Planning
- Progress
- Performance Results Measurement
- Potential (Appropriate Time Frame)
19Accountability Includes
- Goals
- Baseline measures
- Annual performance results
20Accountability facilitates
- Continuous improvement
- Creation of learning communities
- Building strong partnerships
21To whom is your State Rural Development Council
accountable?
22Accountability
- Adminstratively
- Federal critical State RD director is the
first line of direct communication to OMB - State
- Local
- Legislatively
- Congress
- State
- Local
- Moral ownership
- Rural peoples of the nation
- Rural peoples of the state
- Tribal and local governments
- Private sector
- Federal and state officials in the state
- Non-profit organizations
23Measures should
- Give us data we trust
- Mean something to the various stakeholders
- Give strategic signals
24Measurement is Feared because of their experience
- Information can be used to take things away
- They will pick the wrong indicator or the wrong
measure - There is so much we cannot control that it is a
waste of time to measure outcomes - We dont know who will use the data for what
purpose
25Barriers to Measuring outcomes
- We get excited about activities and strategies
- We may have differences with our collaborators on
the desired futures we seek - We may have very different mental causal models
on how to reach our objectives. - We want to look good and so we measure what we
do, not what happens when we do it. - Being busy does not necessarily mean being
productive in terms of moving toward better
futures.
26Purpose of Indicators
- Show progress toward achieving identifiable goals
- Enable key participants to improve the system
from their own level - Support communication of effectiveness and
performance - Indicators should NOT divert us from our work
27Common Pitfalls in Selecting Indicators
- Unclear relationships between outcomes and
process activities - Default to readily available information
- Selecting unmeasurable as indicators
- Irrelevant to goals and activities
- Demanding to be comprehensive
28More pitfalls
- Complexity and multi-dimensional outcomes can be
an excuse for fuzzy thinking and not measuring - In the past, projects have gathered lots of data
with little information carefully pick what you
are going to measure
29Mapping Outcomes
- Who are the partners?
- What are the shared goals/outcomes?
- What are the inputs of each partner?
- What are the activities/processes involved in
bringing together the inputs? - What were the outputs?
- What outcomes were achieved?
30Efficiency Ratio
- The proportion of resources we leverage in
achieving our outcomes
31Criteria for Measures
- Likely to change because of what we do
- Responsive to what we do
- Resistant to noise
- Easy to measure at different points in time
32Negotiation of Evidence
- What is meaningful in terms of where the Council
wants to go (understanding lack of consensus in
any group)? - What is meaningful in terms of Congress and the
Administration? - The role of the Council is to work on measures
that are meaningful to a variety of stakeholders
that show both short term successes and long-term
progress toward goals.