ABSTRACT
The frequent discontinuity between intermediate outcomes and final outcomes has implications for whether development efforts succeed. Aligning measures of intermediate and final goals is crucial to get a picture of development results. Unlike the earlier discussion of the urgent versus the important, consider here how efforts to meet intermediate objectives may not lead to achieving final goals. Money can buy inputs and outputs, but to achieve development outcomes, policy must induce behavioral change. Controlling and measuring the inputs and immediate outputs of a program—for instance, how much money is spent and how many textbooks are distributed in schools—are important but not enough to achieve the desired outcome. This chapter discusses output-based and outcome-based aid, their potential, constraints, and pitfalls. The relevance and impact of health impact evaluations could be enhanced by collecting data on service delivery, demand-side behavioral outcomes, and implementation processes to better understand the causal chain and its weak part.
