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Description

What are you looking for?

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.

AdvantagesDisadvantages
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.