Measuring Achievements of Private Sector Development in ... - DCED

Measuring Achievements of Private Sector Development in Conflict-Affected Environments
programmes as a means to build peace and promote stability, these guidelines outline an approach for
reflecting this aim within your results measurement system.
In light of the great diversity among CAEs, readers should use these guidelines as a resource in
developing and implementing their monitoring system, rather than a prescriptive set of rules. Many of
the recommendations are also relevant to PSD programming in humanitarian crises and other
challenging contexts.
These guidelines assume that users have a basic knowledge of the DCED Standard and surrounding
guidance, as described in the next section.
III.
If You Are New to the DCED Standard
The DCED is a forum for bilateral donors and multilateral agencies seeking to improve the effectiveness
of their PSD programming.
The DCED has published a Standard for Measuring Results in Private Sector Development, which
provides a framework for programme managers to monitor their progress and report credible results. It
can be implemented by the programme team and audited by an independent assessor to verify the
credibility of the system. There are eight elements to the Standard, listed below. Follow the hyperlinked
bold text to download further guidance on each:
1. Articulating Results Chains. Results chains visually represents how project activities will create
outputs, outcomes and impact, showing the causal links and relationships between them. The
results chains clearly demonstrate what the project is doing and what changes are expected.
2. Defining indicators of change. An indicator specifies what you will measure in order to see whether
change has occurred. By defining indicators, you clarify exactly how you will monitor your
interventions. Indicators are specified for each expected change outlined in results chains.
3. Measuring changes in indicators. Once the indicators have been defined, they are regularly
monitored to see what has changed to help projects manage accordingly.
4. Estimating attributable changes. Once a change is observed, you need to estimate what can be
attributed to your project. For example, an increase in jobs may be due to your project – or because
of the wider economic environment. Estimating attributable changes helps a project identify which
interventions are working and which are not.
5. Capturing wider changes in the system or market. Many PSD programmes aim to affect entire
market systems. Monitoring these changes gives a project a fuller picture of its impact, helps
identify what is working and revise implementation strategies to maximize results.
6. Tracking programme costs. In order to assess the success of the project it is necessary to know how
much was spent to achieve the results.
7. Reporting results. Findings are communicated clearly to funders, local stakeholders, and to the
wider development community where possible.
8. Managing the system for results measurement. For a monitoring and results measurement system
to be effective, it must be adequately resourced and integrated into all aspects of project
management, informing the implementation and guiding the strategy.
Practical Guidelines for Implementing the DCED Standard. Version 2, July 2013
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