Measuring the Impact of Information on Development

This report published by the International Development Resource Centre (IDRC) documents an initiative that, through its methods and focus, aimed to provide a starting point to understanding the impact of information on development. It consisted of a electronic conference, followed by a post-conference workshop through which ideas about information and evaluation were shared and built upon. The report brings together the input of dozens of information users and providers, policymakers, information scientists, and others from the South and the North, and presents a preliminary assessment framework as a starting point to future work in this area.

According to the report, there has been significant work done to support the development of information infrastructures in developing countries. However, the value of information is often questioned by people in these countries, donors, and other stakeholders in the development process. The challenge for the information science community is to identify meaningful parameters or indicators, qualitative or quantitative, by which the overall socioeconomic impact of information programs and services can be assessed and procedures to allow the gathering of relevant data.

The report proposes that when considering the benefits of information, issues of appropriateness and access must also be considered. One method to analyse the potential of information projects is to conduct a cost benefits analysis.


According to the report in selecting indicators, consideration should be given to the following points:

• data collection and analysis should be as simple as possible;
• interpretation of the indicators should be straightforward;
• indicators should point to benefits that are usually given attention by policy- and decision-makers; and
• indicators should lead to straightforward conclusions, which should be intelligible, if not attractive, to those who are going to act upon them.

Four types of indicators, based on input cost, output, effectiveness, and domain could be considered in relation to information impact on development:

• operational performance indicators, which relate to output (such as productivity, efficiency, cost per output, cost by attribute level, and productivity by attribute level);
• effectiveness indicators, which relate output to use (such as user satisfaction, turnover rate, amount of use by attribute level, satisfaction by attribute level, and amount of use by satisfaction level);
• cost-effectiveness indicators, which relate input to use ratios (such as cost per use, cost per user, cost per capita, and cost by satisfaction level); and
• impact indicators, which relate actual to potential use (such as market penetration, uses per capita, and needs fill rate).

The conclusions of the post-conference workshop form the basis for a preliminary framework for impact assessment. The participants outlined the following as prerequisites to undertaking an impact assessment.

• Define the user community.
• Define the development issue(s) and programme(s) to which the information activity(ies) or project(s) in question are contributing.
• Identify the main patterns of operation of the global information life cycle and the factors that influence its effectiveness for the defined user community and issue.
• Describe potential audiences (those who will use the indicators) for the results of the assessment.
• Describe the information use environments (IUEs) of the user community(ies) and the target audiences (see Chapter 4 for a detailed description of the IUE concept).
• Set up standard guidelines for collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting anecdotes and other data.
• Assemble baseline data.
• After the prerequisites have been met, it is necessary to work collaboratively with representatives of the beneficiary groups (both decision-makers and end-users) to determine the perceived or expected benefits of information activities and products.

Identification of the factors to be included in the framework, from the point of view of the provision of information, should follow these steps:

• Determine which primary objectives are being served (economic, social, political).
• Develop a nested hierarchy of objectives or outcomes; define outputs, establish input requirements, and specify other factors that influence the outcomes.
• At each level of the hierarchy, identify critical factors that are either informational in nature or information-dependent.
• Define the indicators in the framework that would show that the information input is secured and improved.

The report includes appendixes about applying cost-benefit analysis and the assessment framework.