Measuring “performance” in the private sector seems easy: reduce cost and increase profit.
We face more challenges in the development sector, or in the wider non-profit world. How do we measure the performance of a development organisation/project? Most will say: “Easy… By measuring our impact”.
Then, the question is “how do we measure our impact”?
How do we design effective measurement tools for the understanding, management and acceleration of impact?
In our next webinar, we are teaming up with GFAR’s partner organisations COSA (Committee on Sustainability Assessment) and GLF (the Global Landscapes Forum) to find the answers.
Working with governments, development agencies and major corporations, COSA has evolved innovative and very pragmatic and science-based approaches that work.
Daniele Giovannucci, President of COSA, will share some of the state of the art solutions developed by COSA, a consortium of institutions fostering effective ways to measure and understand sustainability in the agri-food sector.
He will be joined by other COSA colleagues and representatives from the Government of Mexico, award-winning corporations and a leading international NGO to discuss the pragmatic ways they apply COSA metrics to drive their innovations and sustainability practices.
COSA tools cover a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from impact assessments to performance monitoring, and are suitable for both micro and macro levels of analysis, progressing from the farm household, to the producer organization, and up to the landscape level. For all COSA tools, open access and comparability are regarded as key for intelligent testing and scaling.
The “questions and answers” session with our public audience will be moderated by David Thomas from the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), a multi-faceted and experienced development specialist. As such, this webinar is also part of the series of “GLF Digital Summits” discussing sustainable development in eco-systems, spanning the spectrum across food security, eco-systems and sustainable/integrated landscape development/research. (Check out the first GLF Digital Summit too!)
So, join us in our next webinar!
Join us!
Date: Thursday October 26 – at 15:00 Rome time (13:00 GMT)
Duration: 2 hours
(Use this tool to help you convert “Rome time” to your timezone)
This webinar is a collaborative effort: our panel of experts worked together to share their experiences and approaches, their trials and errors.
We will give ample opportunity for all webinar participants to join into the discussion, either to share their own experiences, hints and tricks, or to ask questions to the speakers, or to the entire group.
Register now!
You can register for this webinar by filling in this simple registration form
(or use the link http://bit.ly/brace-for-the-impact)
We will send you a confirmation email. You will get a reminder with the technical details to join the webinar, one day before the event.
Register fast! Our webinars are limited to 100 participants and the available “seats” are often taken in a matter of days. We encourage participants to actively engage in our webinars with feedback, questions, and sharing of their own experiences.
Speakers
Daniele Giovannucci is the President of COSA and leads its global learning partnerships to improve sustainability practices. His enthusiasm for a pragmatic approach to sustainability and development stems from 15 years as a business executive in food-related firms prior to a decade as Senior Consultant to the World Bank (Markets and Agribusiness Thematic Team) where he was an early advocate of market mechanisms to drive sustainability. Since 1992, he has worked on the sustainability issues of developing nations in more than 30 countries and managed agribusiness projects with cumulative budgets exceeding one billion dollars. Today, he is a passionate advocate for eliminating ignorance in sustainability discussions and the democratization of data (as knowledge). Over the last 15 years, Mr. Giovannucci has led or contributed to the strategies of a number of major development institutions and eleven governments. He chaired the global teams formulating the strategic input on Food and Agriculture for the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development and is a member of the UN Forum on Sustainability Standards. Downloads of his published work rank him in the top 1% annually of the more than quarter million professional authors tracked by the Social Science Research Network.
Jessica Mullan leads diverse aspects of our advanced measurement systems including the work on Performance Monitoring and the development of Indicators among our partners and clients. She has a strong background in agricultural sustainability, working in both large-scale and smallholder systems. Jessica has led several strategic projects including the development of the FAO’s SAFA smallholder survey instruments and the Performance Monitoring systems being used by a number of leading global organizations to assess the sustainability practices in their supply chains.
Her prior work focused on the technical aspects of Agriculture and Climate Change and she helped develop and then pilot a greenhouse gas calculator (The Cool Farm Tool) for farms as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation projects while at the Sustainable Food Lab. She has consulted to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on issues of information and communication technology for development on agriculture, health and gender initiatives. Her own research on sustainability has gone beyond supply chains to include sectors such as the development of technology industries, particularly IT services sector, in Mexico. Jessica holds a B.A. from Boston University in International Relations and an M.S. in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis.
Keith Child, Senior Research Advisor for COSA, is an Impact and Evaluation Specialist with a considerable track record in both research and development. He has extensive experience in team leadership and in the design, establishment and management of monitoring and evaluation systems for CGIAR research programs and for large international NGOs. His experience includes traditional development environments and emergencies. Keith received his Ph.D. in Comparative Politics from Queen’s University specializing in International Relations and Comparative Development. He has 15 years of experience in agricultural development issues in Africa and Central Asia. Most recently he was Principal Scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute and Director of Evaluation, Research and Learning at the Aga Khan Foundation, Afghanistan. Keith has worked as a Professor of political science at several Canadian universities and as a security analyst for the Government of Canada.
Audra Wison-Max is the Communications Manager for the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) and also CEO and Founder of Brand Africa. She shapes COSA’s content and messaging and how best to communicate its work to increase awareness of COSA information and ensure that its material is widely understood. Audra’s diverse background includes nearly a decade as Head of Communications for a leading international financial services institution in the UK. She also has years of experience working around the world with design and communications teams in different sectors and has recently returned to focus on her passion for African development. She contributes her communications expertise to COSA from her base in Zimbabwe. We will be joined by representatives from the Government of Mexico, an award-winning corporation and a leading international NGO. (Profiles to be added)
Our moderator:
David Thomas is a multi-faceted development specialist, entrepreneur and facilitator. He has a MSc in development finance and a BSc in physics & philosophy. For many years, David was a consultant on microfinance and small business development in Africa, working with Save The Children UK, Oxfam, ILRI and others. He is the founder/director of Danaqa World Chic, an innovative ethical market access company with a retail outlet in West London, which provides an access to the world markets for women’s led businesses from developing countries. He is a consultant on multi-stakeholder processes, engagement, knowledge sharing and market access technical assistance. David is also the lead facilitator/engagement specialist for the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF). He will lead this webinar’s Q&A session.
Background
The Global Landscapes Forum puts communities first in addressing landscape-level issues. With science and traditional knowledge at the core, GLF events are designed not only to spark dialogue but also follow-through to impact in addressing some of the most complex and multi-stakeholder problems facing our earth and our communities. Measuring progress towards climate and development goals is on of the five central themes of the Global Landscapes Forum.
About the GLF Digital Summits
Attendance to our Digital Summits is open to all. GLF partners as well as other nonprofit organisations or individuals working in the area of forestry, sustainable development, agriculture, ecosystems, and the non-profit sector are especially encouraged to register.
Our summits are attended a wide variety of landscapes practitioners: there is no barrier for entry beyond a passion for solving complex problems!
We do not ask for a participation fee, but we like all participants to actively engage into the online discussion during the digital summit.
The summits are moderated via BlueJeans, an online tool running within any internet browser. It only requires participants to have a good and reliable Internet connection and a computer/tablet running any browser.
Key questions
- How is measuring sustainability different from other metrics in agriculture?
- Costs for fieldwork and analysis limit good research. I understand that you are making the collection of sustainability data more affordable. How?
- There are so many ways to measure, how do you decide what indicators you should use to measure sustainable practices?
- Companies are increasingly engaged in credible or not so credible sustainability efforts across global supply chains. Why do companies seem to do so poorly and stumble around real sustainability?
- Who are the end users for the sustainability data and analysis you provide?
- How do you account for the differences in agro-ecological zones or regions when you note that indicators are standardized?
- How can a company or development agency integrate sustainability data into its regular operations?
- How do you know if sustainability data is credible and reliable?
If you have any questions on impact measurement and impact tools, before the webinar, then just drop them in, as a comment underneath this blog. We value your input!
