Its been a little over 2 months since I started working with TechnoServe. Work itself has been slower than I anticipated, as I’ve mostly been helping out with various projects and haven’t had a chance to really dive deep into any particular one yet. Hopefully that will be changing in the near future, but in the meantime, I’ve gotten a glimpse into TechnoServe’s methodology towards the projects it does.
TechnoServe takes a very business-minded approach towards development. The inputs, outputs, goals and results are usually based on hard data and measured in quantifiable terms. Although every project is different, a majority of them are agricultural based and deal with smallholder farmers as the ultimate end beneficiary. While a for-profit company measures its results and ultimate success through its bottom line, a non-profit developmental organization like TechnoServe measures its success by the ‘impact’ it creates. How can something like ‘impact’ be measured? For TechnoServe, ‘impact’ is typically measured through income growth. Therefore, the ultimate goal of a project will be something along the lines of: “sustainably increase the incomes of X farmers by Y%”.
Sustainability is key here, as what would the impact be if Farmer A increased his income by 50% in Year 1, only to see it drop by 50% the next year? One of the main ways TechnoServe tries to achieve sustainability is by creating behavioral change in the farmers, through introduction of best practice techniques and various other forms of training, sometimes followed by years of support.
Measuring impact through an easily quantifiable measure such as income makes sense to me. For individuals at the bottom of the pyramid, increasing income levels can easily be argued as the main avenue to a better life. However, I can’t help but think that this scope is a bit limited. Giving someone more money doesn’t mean that they’ll know what to do with it, that they’ll use the extra income in a constructive manner. Increased income only guarantees increased buying power but there is no guarantee that that buying power will translate into ‘improved lives’. A fellow VolCon told me a story about how a farmer he met used the increased income he earned to buy more beer and alcohol. Is that the type of impact we are trying to create? Didn’t a great philosopher from Brooklyn once warn us that, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems”?
One of the major reasons I became interested in development in the first place was from learning about micro-finance, through the stories of people like Muhammed Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Grameen Bank, and amazing institutions like Kiva and ACCION, where countless stories are told of aspiring entrepreneurs who bettered their lives through obtaining access to financial capital. The typical story goes something like this: “Tom has a small business selling XYZ. Tom obtains a small loan to buy inputs for his business. With increased inputs, Tom is able to increase outputs and sell more XYZ. Selling more XYZ increases his total income. With the increased income, Tom is able to put his children through school”.
Oh, if it was only that simple.
While TechnoServe is not an MFI (micro-finance institution), and is not in the business of extending loans to its beneficiaries, the thought-process behind its projects are similar to the ideas behind micro-finance. It helps grow businesses by improving the quality and quantity of inputs (i.e., skills training, best practice agricultural techniques, better procurement) which leads to increased outputs (i.e., creating market linkages, improved yields of crops). Ultimately, the end goal is the same, to increase the incomes of the end beneficiaries. But while, this goal may work for driven, ambitious entrepreneurs, who have a clear vision on how to use the increased income to better their livelihoods, the reality is that not all poor people qualify for that description. How can we impact those individuals that aren’t so driven, or would just piss away any additional money they earned, leaving no discernible impact on their wives, children, and family?
A fellow VolCon once asked me after coming back from a field visit, “What do you do if a farmer won’t implement your suggestions because he doesn’t think its possible to be more than what he already is. Can you teach ambition?”
I don’t have the answers to these questions, but while income growth is undeniably important, I do believe that creating lasting, meaningful impact, and not just surface level impact, extends beyond simply increasing one’s income. My guess is that educating a poor illiterate farmer by changing his attitude, thought process and any destructive habits could go a long way in creating an ‘impact’, especially if in conjunction with the aforementioned income growth. Now how you would measure these things? I don’t know.
What are some other ways to create and measure ‘impact’?
Dive & Maximize 