ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several dimensions of community indicators. It examines definitions and functions of indicators, their relationship to monitoring and evaluation and the challenges of monitoring and evaluation for community planning practice. The chapter explores the implications of these concepts and issues for practice. It discusses issues related to the role of indicators in practice, establishing causality, participation in indicators development, and issues in choosing indicators and managing data. Indicators can greatly enhance decision-making at the policy-making and implementation levels. Indicators are either derived from data, or representative of larger sets of data. Indicators become powerful only when they are used and when decision-makers come to anticipate and depend upon them. Validation of indicators depends on analysis, judgment, intuition, professionally acquired understandings and skills, and feedback from applications and social processes. A wide range of organizations and government agencies have explored and applied indicators using a variety of approaches.
