Question #4: Tools for measuring social inclusion
Laura Courbois, MarketShare Associates (MSA)
What are some of the measurement tools and approaches that the private sector can use to measure the impact of their inclusive business practices on women’s empowerment and social inclusion?
Looking forward to the conversation!
Yaquta Fatehi, William Davidson Institute
Hi everyone
I love this question's focus on "how to conduct measurement" because we often leave the conversation on the benefits and challenges of social impact measurement!
I use various methods, tools, and approaches to measure WEE and social inclusion, as determined by the research questions, stakeholders' (often the funders) needs for contribution versus attribution of outcomes, and budget. It includes discussions on whether we should use qualitative or quantitative approaches (ideally, use both if resources permit). One tip to determine your way forward is to work with your key stakeholders to deeply understand the data and insights that will help the company in decision-making (this may mean that you want to sketch out a rough analysis plan in advance as well).
Because measurement is not only for accounting and reporting purposes but also for continuous improvement, here is the range I've used so far:
1. Theory of change (the foundation of my measurement strategies),
2. Value stream mapping and process mapping (key for continuous improvement of gender-inclusive operations); One way I think through measuring sustainability in company supply chains for products and services is the plan, source, make, deliver (and return) SCOR framework (lay your process mapping and indicators along this model).
3. Developmental evaluation (particularly important for learning and/or when you can't hold a business process constant),
4. Quasi-experimental designs and experimental design (can be tricky when you need a business to co-determine a comparison group or hold operations constant for a set duration for study fidelity),
5. Retrospective research (used in G-SEARCh; here's our technical note),
6. Most significant change (a participatory approach that ensures you speak to all key stakeholders of the impacts) and
7. Outcome harvesting (when you dont know how impact occurs).
These approaches can be found on better evaluation - one of my favourite measurement resources. I've heard my colleagues use SROI, case studies, success case method, A/B testing, rapid feedback loops, etc. Additionally, a tool I like but have yet to use is WEP. And speaking of tools, we documented our G-SEARCh investors' tools used with their portfolio companies, such as the gender diagnostic tool (page 46) and the Gender Equality Scorecard in this guide.
Another quick tip: consciously apply a gender lens over the selected approaches, methods, and tools and consider whether you are truly including women's voices; for example, if you are conducting phone-based surveys, consider how you will get the man to give the mobile phone over to his wife because this is often a shared asset but mainly controlled by the man (true story; happened to us in Sierra Leone but a common feature in so many low- and middle-income countries where we work).
To close, there is so much creativity in measurement approaches and an absolute explosion in tools. Even after a decade, I'm still learning new methods; case in point, contribution analysis on a new project to measure the ROI of gender-inclusive approaches with three companies with my Market Share Associates colleagues. This is also why I love participating in these learning exchanges to hear from other folks about their methods and discuss their pros and cons.
I hope this provides some new food for thought, and I look forward to learning about other approaches!
Best
Yaquta
