In practice, the terms ‘objective’ and ‘indicator’ are often defined and used in different ways. At bottom, we can distinguish between three variants, and these are presented in an example in the table below. All three variants are expedient, yet they should not be mixed up.
We shall use Variant 1 in these guidelines.
Variant 1 (e.g. EU)
| Objective | Indicator | |
| Impact level | Less children in x die from diarrhoea | Child mortality in x <5% (by 2015) |
| Outcome level | Improved access to drinking water | Walk to next well <15 min for 90% of households in x (by 2015) |
| Output level | Build wells | 100 wells operational |
Variant 2 (e.g. World Bank)
| Objective | Indicator | Target | |
| Impact level | Less children in x die from diarrhoea | Child mortality in x | <5% (by 2015) |
| Outcome level | Improved access to drinking water | % of households in x with <15 min walk to next well (by 2015) | 90% (by 2015) |
| Output level | Build wells | Number of wells operational | 100 |
Variant 3
| Objective | Indicator | |
| Impact level | By 2015 child mortality < 15% | Child mortality |
| Outcome level | 90% of households in x have good access to drinking water (by 2015) | % of households in x with walk to next well < 15 min |
| Output level | Build 100 wells | Number of operational wells |