ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the goals and objectives of the Participatory Impact Assessment (PIA). It describes how a participatory approach can be used to measure the real impact of a project using indicators of impact defined by project participants. The chapter also describes how participator tools can be used to produce representative results on project impact in the absence of any meaningful baseline data. It focuses on the use of PIA in Zimbabwe under this project. The chapter explains why Zimbabwe was viewed as a humanitarian crisis, and the approach and lessons learned from the PIA process. It reviews experiences from a PIA the Gokwe Integrated Recovery Action Project, a drought recovery and famine mitigation intervention implemented by Africare in four wards of Gokwe-South district in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. The chapter demonstrates how a numerical value can be assigned to an impact indicator allowing it to be easily measured.
