Deep dives to understand impact performance
The results of a pilot programme run by TGE to generate insights into the impact performance of CDC's portfolio businesses, have been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
The article profiles the “deep dive” approach, which TGE developed as part of the DFID Impact Programme. Deep dives were used to enhance understanding of impact performance beyond standardised metrics and data reporting, with the aim to get a “deeper, bottom-up understanding of how people engaging with portfolio companies were experiencing change.”
TGE’s head of impact services, Matt Ripley, and CDC’s manager of development impact Martina Castro, who co-wrote the piece, said: “Our North Star was to develop a measurement approach that was light-touch but in-depth, and that could generate value for investors, investees, and end-beneficiaries alike.”
They describe the eight principles of the deep dives they undertook into five portfolio companies in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, covering companies operating in the agriculture, energy, and ICT sectors.
Ripley and Castro concluded: “Done well, approaches that help move beyond metrics can help shift our idea of impact measurement from an obligation to meet investor and asset owner requirements, to a strategic opportunity to support companies to improve both their business and impact performance.”
Read the full article on the Stanford Social Innovation Review website here.
