Outcome Mapping: Planning for Impact in Tanzania

Earlier this month, I joined the WaterAid project team in Tanzania for a workshop to help develop their outcome map for the SHARE Phase II project in Babati. SHARE is using ‘Outcome Mapping’ for all of its projects in Phase II as a means of planning for and tracking research uptake in our key target stakeholders’ policies and programmes in each country.

What is Outcome Mapping?

It is a process which asks participants to determine:

• Outcome challenge: the kind of behaviour change they would like to see in key stakeholders;
• Progress markers: the changes they would expect to see through their engagement work, changes they would like to see and changes they would love to see if the project is very successful; 
• Activities: the RIU activities, tailored to progress markers. that will be undertaken to achieve the outcome challenge.

An inclusive approach

Outcome Mapping is normally a participatory exercise and the WaterAid workshop was a great opportunity to better understand the challenges and the advantages of using a participatory approach. The session was facilitated by an external facilitator from Innovative Solutions/MDF. Eutropia did a great job in ensuring everyone’s voice was heard but also keeping the group on track to produce a finished output.

We started by reflecting on the vision and mission for the project, which the team had developed in Babati earlier that week. This allowed us to be aspirational and ambitious about longer-term impact. It also prompted some interesting debate on terminology especially around including sustainability, equity, and inclusivity in the project from the outset.

Aspirational goals, measurable indicators, and tailored activities

A stakeholder mapping exercise had taken place earlier in the week and this meant the group could easily use the existing stakeholder analysis to define key stakeholders. We split into small groups to develop an outcome challenge for each stakeholder, or group of stakeholders. This process led to much debate and discussion about the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders as well as striking a balance between ambition and practicality. It was important for everyone in the group to share their views and to reach agreement on the outcome challenges together. 

The next day we worked on progress markers in small groups, trying to define what changes we would expect, like and love to see in each stakeholder. These were shared back with the group in a plenary discussion that once again generated diverse viewpoints but we did eventually reach agreement on the wording of progress markers.

Finally, we worked together to suggest activities that could contribute towards reaching the progress markers. After the workshop, I supported two WaterAid colleagues to sense-check the markers and planned activities against outcome challenges and to compile everything into one document. The WaterAid team are now in the process of finalising the document so we can use it for ongoing monitoring and reporting.

My reflections

The workshop provided a fascinating insight into how a participatory methodology can be used to generate outcome maps, progress markers and activities. While the workshop took longer than we had anticipated, it did get everyone on the same page for project kick-off and ensured that everyone involved understood the outcome mapping approach and how their work would contribute towards the project’s goals.

Personally, it helped to build my understanding of the project itself and the work that WaterAid does in Tanzania. I’m very much looking forward to getting updates from WaterAid on their progress with outcome mapping.