CHSCM 3.0 - Unit 1 - SCM in the Humanitarian World

By answering these questions, the mission statement guides managers in their strategic decisionmaking
process.
While mission statements provide direction, they tend be general. Goals are an attempt to make
mission statements more concrete. Goals are typically at a high level and, consequently, they may
not be quantifiable. They tend reflect longer-term, desired results, and are usually applied at an
organization or program level.
Objectives are more likely to be quantified. They represent the operational definitions of goals, and
detail in more precise terms what needs to be accomplished in order to reach the goals. Usually,
they can be measured and a timeframe is provided. They will often be established at the sector
level.
Outputs provide yet another level
of detail, supplying the defined
deliverables which enable
objectives to be achieved.
Notice that the descriptions of
each term are based upon a
process of decomposition. The
overall hierarchy of this language
can be seen in the diagram to the
right.
In the context of planning, impact is a useful tool for referring to the overall result of a strategy,
operation, or activity. It is related to goals and objectives in that it describes the desired result and,
in some cases, it is used synonymously with them. The concept of impact is particularly useful in the
design stage because it reminds of us of the importance of value for money, i.e. getting the greatest
possible impact, the best possible results, within the constraints of the available resources. In this
material, we take impact to mean: the change, positive or negative, that is the result of an activity,
project, operation, or strategy.
An activity is a specific action, or series of actions, which provides the means for achieving an
objective. Activities can be broken down into tasks and sub-tasks as part of the implementation
planning process.
An input is a human, financial, or material requirement for carrying out an activity.