REEEP has been successfully funding and supporting projects in renewable energyRenewable energy is power generated from infinite sources, such as wind or solar power. Conventional energy is generated from finite sources, such as natural gas or fossil oil. and energy efficiencyUsing less energy/electricity to perform the same function. Programs designed to use electricity more efficiently - doing the same with less. for several years now. Valuing and evaluating implemented projects is a crucial success factor when trying to secure further support and to attract funding. While hard outcomes, like CO2 emissionsCarbon dioxide (CO2) is emitted in several ways. Naturally through the carbon cycle and through human activities like the burning of fossil fuels. These human activities have increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution and these high ..., are rather straightforward to measure, soft outcomes, which most REEEPThe Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) is a non-profit, specialist change agent aiming to catalyse the market for renewable energy and energy efficiency, with a primary focus on emerging markets and developing countries. projects produce, are much more difficult to measure and value.

Simon Hearn, a Research Officer at the Overseas Development Institute will be leading this pilot alongside Pearse Cullinane from the REEEP International Secretariat here in Vienna to establish Project Outcome Mapping as part of the REEEP project cycle.

Project Outcome Mapping is the planning, monitoring and evaluating of behavioral and social changes. This type of evaluation is located somewhere between the immediate outputs (of a training for example) and the long-term impacts.

The principles of this type of Project Outcome Mapping are:

1. Contribution to results (rather than attribution)
2. Influence rather than control; how people actually use research or systems is often out of control and depends on other influences
3. The project implementer  is only one of multiple actors where some are in the same domain and some even have opposing agendas
4. Outcomes are defined as changes in behavior of the target audience beyond direct  output but not quite long-term impacts

It is a system to monitor these changes, and make them known to REEEP without adding burden for the implementers. The idea is a word form to be filled out which will later become part of REEEP’s PMIS (Project Management Information System). Pilots of such forms have already been put together.

Triggering behavioral change as an impact of a project requires a new way of thinking. The project planning form is thought to be filled out by project implementers at the beginning of a project translating information from project proposals into a new perspective.

The project planning form consists of separate fields to describe the goals, the approach, the stakeholders and the desired change hoped to be triggered.  It is expected that filling out and considering these points will ensure that the right direction to reach the anticipated goal is taken and possibly some refinements are made early during the project cycle. Goals, approachesCore to livelihoods approaches are a set of principles that underpin best practice in any development intervention: *People-centred *Responsive and participatory *Multi-level *Conducted in partnership * Sustainable *Dynamic, stakeholders and desired changes are all connected and influence each other and by creating the right networks impacts can be amplified and increased.

The desired changes will be developing as gradual steps, by planting seeds into early adopters and opinion leaders. They later spread the word and increase activity and influence. When new roles are established and people are engaged in fulfilling them, a project becomes sustainable.

And at the end of the day, even seemingly “hard outcomes”, like the number of cooking stovesCooking is a basic energy need; in underdevloped parts of the world fulfilling this need often takes up a large chunk og income and/or is very time-consuming. Indoor air pollution is another concern with traditional cook stoves. supplied, have a “soft outcome” component – because people need to actually integrate those stoves into their daily kitchen routine and use them.

Right now several of REEEP’s project partners are involved in the process of developing a sensible way to integrate Project Outcome Mapping into future REEEP project calls.