When measuring aid, are we measuring the right thing?

In Is Aid Defensible? Eddie Arthur provides a very good analysis not just of aid but of whether “successful aid” is being properly measured. This highlights the whole issue of not just measuring numbers (quantitative) but measuring the right numbers (qualitative). It’s not enough to say that we are providing _x_ amount of aid dollars (or _x_ amount of Bibles, or _x_ amount of audio recordings or _x_ amount of tracts). The question is not how much we are doing, but how much impact we are having.  Given your vision and plausible promise, what is “success”–and is that what you are measuring? Or are you just measuring the number of actions you perform? (The former is measuring purpose, and the latter, busyness.)

Tagged as: measurable milestones