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Burgess COMMENTARY | |||||||||
Open file on SIAA Working Group on Principles of Social Impact Analysis ... Mapping Exercise (PDF) The text of the PDF follows:
SIAA Working Group on Principles
Principles of Social Impact Analysis Mapping Exercise2 Glossary of terms in paper:
Overview Purpose The proposal for a working group on principles resulted from a breakout debate at the Social Impact Analysts (SIAA) launch conference in December 2011. The general feeling was that there are many current approaches around social impact, evaluation and social investment which encompass similar principles. The group first proposed to participate in a ‘Principles of Social Impact Analysis Mapping Exercise’, the aim being to highlight areas of convergence among existing principle sets within approaches to impact analysis (e.g. SROI Principles), and highlight areas in need of development. A working group first met in January 2012 in central London and met several times through 2012 and 2013. Appendix A details the various participants over the period. Method The working hypothesis was that most principle sets focus on data collection and measurement and how to report on impact to various audiences. Based on this the working group agreed to adopt a systematic method to review different principles sets which took place in three stages. The first stage, led by Kim Bond, comprised secondary cross-sectional research of 24 organisations identified through key word searches in the first quarter of 2012. The search was limited to organisations that publish social impact analysis principles online and are freely accessible to the public. A content analysis was conducted on the disambiguated principles, followed by emergent coding to draw out the themes and ideas. Finally a cluster analysis produced the categories against which the principles were assessed.3 The second stage, led by Philippa Lynch, transferred the principles and categories into a narrative report. Multiple classifications were segregated based upon the intention and context of the principles, therefore avoiding ambiguity and repetition within the report. The subjectivity required to interpret the principles was recorded as an issue for debate, along with other points that would benefit from further consideration by SIAA members and the wider community. The third stage, led by Jeremy Nicholls and the SIAA staff team, was the composition of this final report, summarising the research and interpretation stages, and presenting the results accessibly. Appendix B provides a list of the 24 approaches or principle sets reviewed. Caveats This is not an exhaustive exercise. The principles sets reviewed are just a small selection of those available, but the group felt that they represent some of the most prominent approaches currently used in the UK. Questions, comments and suggestions about all areas addressed are welcome. Findings Understanding of ‘Impact’ There appeared to be two main groupings of principle sets that emerged from the mapping exercise:
The review found three common approaches as follows:
Many more themes were evident in the sets of principles reviewed. Sustainability, while not identified as a specific strand, appears in many of the principles. Unsurprisingly there are examples in the principles for Accounting for Sustainability, AccountAbility and in the OECD principles under stakeholder inclusiveness. In AccountAbility’s case this refers to the need to involve your stakeholders to ensure your operation remains sustainable and responds to their concerns. OECD refers to the need to 5 include donors and partners to ensure a project’s sustainability if key stakeholders leave. GRI also talks about the ‘sustainability’ context – by which it means not organisational sustainability but ecological sustainability. A thematic cluster of leadership, governance and responsibility was clear, as well as importance of having a policy on monitoring and evaluation. Also most of the principle sets imply that organisations are accountable for their performance and impact, but only five of the principle sets directly mention accountability. Organisational review and assessment of the organisation’s capacity to deliver on aims featured in Charting Impact and IIRC principles, but was more widely implicit in the idea of context and completeness. Surprisingly there was little discussion of proportionality. Same terms, different meanings Several terms appear repeatedly across different principle sets but underlying meanings varied.
Conclusions Main areas of agreement The principle sets reviewed can be grouped according to what they say organisations should be accountable for: their objectives, or their wider impact. The principle sets which address the wider impact involve stakeholders differently (more closely) and must evaluate what is relevant to their impact. The principle sets also diverge through their use of language, broadly grouping into those which focus on ‘issues’ and those which focus on ‘outcomes’. Valuation features more prominently in those principles designed to inform choices. There is clearly a set of overarching themes which run through the whole impact cycle.
Following consultation at the Berlin Conference in November 2012 a SIAA thought paper, ‘How can organisations approach the practice of social impact analysis?’ has been produced by SIAA Chairman Jeremy Nicholls. In addition following the most recent working group meeting in February 2013 there was a consensus that SIAA should use this mapping exercise and the follow up thought paper to develop a code of ethics or similar guidelines, around values, behaviour and practice social impact analysts should aspire towards. To help develop this code the SIAA staff team plans to do qualitative interviews, and where possible focus groups, with SIAA members and friends over the period of June-September 2013 to look in more detail at practitioner level experience. We intend for this work to be complementary to other principles and good impact codes, and support SIAA’s work with practicing and aspiring social impact analysts. Questions, comments and suggestions about all areas addressed are welcome via hello@siaassociation.org or on our website www.siaassociation.org. Appendix A – Principles Working Group participants
Appendix B – List of 24 approaches or principles sets reviewed GRI Global Reporting Initiative - GRI G3.1 Guidelines - content and quality https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/G3.1-Guidelines-Incl-Technical-Protocol.pdf ACEVO ACEVO et al Principles of Good Impact Reporting http://www.acevo.org.uk/document.doc?id=1731 CI Charting Impact The 5 Questions http://www.chartingimpact.org/complete-your-report/fivequestions/ SROIn SROI Network Seven Principles http://www.thesroinetwork.org/what-is-sroi IIRC IIRC The IIRC's Proposed International Integrated Reporting Framework http://www.iasplus.com/sustain/sustainability.htm CC Charity Commission Charities and Public Benefit: Summary Guidance for Charity Trustees - principles of public benefit http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/Char ity_essentials/Public_benefit/pbsummary.aspx#4 IR Integrated Reporting Framework Overview http://www.theiirc.org/about/ AA AccountAbility AA1000 AccountAbility Principles http://www.accountability.org/images/content/0/7/074/AA1000APS%202008.pdf ISO ISO Quality management principles http://www.iso.org/iso/qmp AP The Actuarial Profession Governance concepts http://www.actuaries.org.uk/about-us/pages/governancemanual IAIA International Association for Impact Assessment - IAIA Social Impact Assessment - Interntaional Principles: II(b). Principles specific to SIA practice http://www.iaia.org/publicdocuments/specialpublications/SP2.pdf GIIRS Global Impact Investing Reporting System - GIIRS Approach to Impact Assessment http://giirs.org/storage/documents/Assessment_101/GIIRS-ASSESMENT-FINAL-2.pdf SIS Social Impact Soctland Principles of Social Impact Measurement http://www.socialimpactscotland.org.uk/understandingsocial-impact-/what-is-social-impact/principles-.aspx 3ie International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) Principles for Impact Evaluation; five core principles http://www.3ieimpact.org/doc/principles%20for%20impact%20evaluation.pdf8 ICGPSIA The Interorganizational Committee on Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Assessment Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Assessment: Section V Principles for Social Impact Assessment http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/tm/spo/spo16.pdf AS Accounting for Sustainability 10 main elements to embed sustainability http://www.accountingforsustainability.org/embeddingsustainability/10-main-elements-to-embed-sustainability PO GLA Project Oracle - standards of evidence for London for youth interventions Guide to evaluation standards framework and self-assessment process; confidence with your evaluation (standards of evidence) http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Project%20Oracle_FA2.pdf AEA American Evaluation Association Values http://www.eval.org/aboutus/organization/aboutus.asp UKES UK Evaluation Society Guidelines for Good Practice Evaluation; guidelines for evaluators http://www.evaluation.org.uk/resources/guidelines.aspx CES Charities Evaluation Services Values http://www.ces-vol.org.uk/index.cfm?pg=60 OECD OECD Principles for evaluation of development assistance http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/31/12/2755284.pdf UNEG United Nations Evaluation Group Norms for Evaluation in the UN System http://www.uneval.org/papersandpubs/documentdetail.jsp?doc_id=21 IFAD United Nations Evaluation Group IFAD Evaluation Policy (2011) - Evaluation principles and operational policies http://www.uneval.org/papersandpubs/documentdetail.jsp?doc_id=974 UNDP United Nations Development Programme Guidelines for outcome evaluators; guiding principles http://www.undp.org/evaluation/documents/HandBook/OC-guidelines/Guidelines-for-OutcomeEvaluators-2002.pdf |