Impact

Impact is one of five evaluation criteria used by the Organisation of Economic Development Cooperation (OECD). The other four are coherence, efficiency, sustainability, relevance, and effectiveness. The OECD Development Assistance Committee Network on Development Evaluation defines impact as “the extent to which the intervention has generated or is expected to generate significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, higher-level effects.”. In simpler terms, the main question under impact is “what difference does the intervention make?”.

Definition adapted from OECD/DAC Network on Development Evaluation (2019):“Better Criteria for Better Evaluations. Revised Evaluation Criteria. Definitions and Principles for Use”.