Guidelines for Collecting Outcome Indicators

FOR PROTECTION AND PROMOTION THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF EFFECTIVE SAFETY NETS 

Despite its usefulness, safety net programs rarely use one class of intermediate outcome indicators information about the quality of services. Such indicators deal with how well a service was delivered based on characteristics important to consumers of that service (Hatry 1999). The typical service quality characteristics that could usefully be tracked include wait times, staff helpfulness and knowledge, convenience of service (accessibility of location, hours of operation), awareness of program services, condition of facilities used by program beneficiaries, and overall customer satisfaction. 

Performance or Efficiency Indicators. From a managerial perspective, monitoring systems that only track information on inputs, outputs, and outcomes are operating at well below their potential. The same information can be used to develop performance monitoring indicators—indicators that capture the program s overall cost-effectiveness, or the efficiency of a subset of program operations. 

FIGURE 6.4 Framework for Distinguishing among Difforont Types of Performance Indicators 

Every program has a value chain of delivery, from procuring the inputs, through organizing them to deliver transfers or services, and finally realizing the desired impact. Every step in this value chain is important for achieving a good cost-benefit ratio, 

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Table 6.5 presents guidelines for collecting outcome indicators. One difficult tradeoff concerns the number of such indicators. The desire to keep data collection costs low... 

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