ABSTRACT
The chapter presents an approach to gauge progress towards impacts in environmental programmes utilizing a Theory of Change methodological approach. This field-based Review of Outcomes to Impacts (ROtI) takes into account the lengthy time span of environmental change and the complexity of impact pathways, which complicate evaluation of environmental programmes. The approach has benefited from practical application in the impact evaluation programme of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The chapter introduces the application of the field-based ROtI methodology in biodiversity and natural resources management as well the climate change arena, drawing upon concrete examples from projects in the Seychelles and Jamaica.
In the development community, there has been substantial debate and heightened interest in strengthening approaches to assessing the impacts of international assistance. 1 The major focus of these activities has concerned effects on poverty reduction. The environmental sector has been somewhat less engaged in demonstrating the impacts it has helped generate, focusing instead on assessing the outcomes of activities at the immediate end of project funding. The primary reasons given for this focus are the long time span of environmental change and the complexity of cause and effect chains in this sector. Whereas a project may be supported for five years, the timescale for environmental change may be decades. In an effort to address this knowledge gap, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Evaluation Office undertook a series of impact evaluation reviews, based on a ‘Theory of Change’ methodological approach. 2 This chapter presents an overview of one of these reviews and shows in some detail how progress towards impacts has been assessed at the field level.
