The real face of effectiveness

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​Last week, I attended a Roundtable Member’s Forum on Effectiveness. 

​What is effectiveness? Effectiveness is one of the major foci of my consulting work. The private sector, governments, civil society, and the individual humanitarian must contend about this element all the time. 

Effectiveness runs through the gamut of all development efforts.

Effectiveness is asking, "have you accomplished what you set out to do?" It means measuring your impact, effect, and the results of your interventions on a continuing and sustainable basis. It means asking the right questions about what exactly has been done versus what exactly are the outcomes of what has been done.

It means being honest about unintended, unanticipated, unexpected, and the negative consequences of actions done. It means understanding that these consequences have to be mitigated and addressed without fearing ostracism and being a failure.

When consequences that are unintended are greater than those that are anticipated, it begets the question of how exactly did it improve the situation or make the situation more worse.  

Effectiveness is looking at your methods, systems, and approaches that bring the full participation of community as a partner, stakeholder, and ultimate owner of the development.

It is effectiveness when it is replicable but oftentimes, being replicable should not be the main goal. It should be sustainable, tenable, where generations can benefit and lead from that change. That people are not dispossessed, uprooted, from their own environment just because somebody said a dam should be erected here and there.

Effectiveness is saying that there is a long way to go to achieve the future state but right now it is making sense already- improvement of quality of life is incrementally being achieved without sacrificing the values and cultures of people and their environments.

Effectiveness means that donors and funders commit to listening what works on the ground and avoid being prescriptive about what approaches, tools, and current flavor of the month should be adopted. Monies are used wisely and that corruption charges or allegations are seriously investigated. That personnel health and well-being are part of the effectiveness discussion. The best asset of the organization is the people, period!

​That effectiveness is a continuing pursuit, like mastery, excellence should be the norm not an aberration. And that organizations and people that have failed should not be shunned but get to share this to everyone that cares to listen and learn. Like everyone attempting to make a difference, failures can lead to massive learning  and success if the positive potential is discovered. Being wise is being able to learn from the mistakes of others.

​These are the real issues about effectiveness. No political correctness should water down the clear prerequisites for an effective organization, effective project, effective management, and effective development efforts.

While insteadof asking development efforts to be methods-oriented, it should be results-oriented and outcomes-oriented.



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