Characteristics
This is a one-off observation, which describes the situation of the target group at a specific point in time.
Example
70% of the rural population in Region x live within 15 minutes’ walk of clean drinking water.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| The investment required for data collection is low. | There is no link to the set objectives. It is not known whether and to what degree the organisation has achieved its objectives. |
| The methodological know-how is available. | There is no link to the initial situation. It is not known whether and how the target group’s situation has changed since the beginning of the intervention. |
| It is not known whether and how the target group’s situation would have changed without the project. | |
| No assertions can be made about the effects. | |
| No assertions can be made about the project’s sustainability. |
Suitability
Due to its limited meaningfulness, one-off descriptions are less suitable for organisational steering and learning. In practice, organisations tend to resort to one-off descriptions when no objectives have been defined and data about the initial situation and control groups are lacking, or if these can only be reconstituted at a disproportionately high cost. However, a simple description of a situation is not suitable for an impact assessment.