Impact Assessment (Discussion Transcript)

Summary of the Speakers Corner #14 on "Impact Assessment" that took place on September 26-28, 2006.

Gary Woller, President of Woller & Associates and Project Manager of the Private Sector Development (PSD) Impact Assessment Initiative, hosted this month’s Speaker’s Corner on Impact Assessment from September 26-28, 2006.  PSD programs cover a wide range of development interventions aimed at increasing economic growth and wealth creation in poor communities via, for example, facilitation of MSE linkages to more lucrative and rapidly growing markets and through the provision of an array of supporting services.

Topics covered during the discussion included the definition and role of impact assessment, strategic issues in impact assessment, credible impact assessment methodologies, and the importance of doing assessments. A particular focus of the e-conference was on keeping the discussion at a level appropriate for development practitioners and on demonstrating the practical benefits (including an honest assessment of the tradeoffs) of doing impact assessments.