Conversations about measurement and evaluation in impact investing

In response to the enduring social, economic and environmental challenges facing the African continent and its population, development interventions are evolving to embrace new approaches, new partnerships and new means of achieving impact. One such area of heightened innovation and growing activity is impact investing. Impact investing is defined as investments made with the intention of generating both financial return and social or environmental impact. As this momentum in impact investing grows, a complementary area of activity has started to put down roots in Africa – social impact measurement. Genesis Analytics curated and managed the Innovations in Evaluation strand at the recent African Evaluation Association Conference, convened in Uganda in March 2017. This strand was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and aimed to ignite conversations between impact investment stakeholders and evaluators focused on the African experience with social impact measurement. This article presents themes emerging from the presentations and conversations within the Innovations in Evaluation strand. The article begins with a brief explanation of the rise of impact investing, globally and within Africa, and then goes on to explain the structure of the Innovations in Evaluation strand. This strand included small group discussions and a think tank, which enabled sharing of ideas and experiences between strand participants. The article, therefore, documents the issues emerging during these discussions, including exploration of the concept of impact measurement and how this understanding differs across stakeholders, the currency of impact measurement and emerging practice. The article concludes with presenting what stakeholders and evaluators need to jointly explore to ensure that the African experience is well represented as the impact measurement movement continues to gain momentum globally