In 2006, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) began developing a framework to measure the contribution of business to development in collaboration with over 20 companies.
Since the launch of the WBCSD Measuring Impact Framework in 2008, the SNV-WBCSD Alliance has been utilising it to help businesses understand how their actions impact on the well-being of the communities where their projects are being implemented and identify opportunities for improving these impacts. Over the past couple of years, several businesses in Latin America, with support from SNV, have measured the impacts of their projects and programmes – reaching the conclusion that you can only improve what you measure.
The ‘Measuring Impact Framework’ methodology helps businesses better understand the impacts stemming from their actions and assess their contribution to society to:
• make better operational and investment decisions
• have more informed conversations with stakeholders
Benefits include:
• Knowledge about the communities where the company works: Improving ties with the communities by means of more effective and better informed communication of their needs and aspirations makes it possible to have an open dialogue with the stakeholders of a project to reach a better consensus.
• New business opportunities: Finding new markets, innovative distribution processes, adaptations in the value chain, development and innovation in products and services that the company provides for the purpose of achieving better returns and, at the same time, better focusing their impacts on society.
• Ties with local government and regulatory agencies: Creating a platform for discussing issues related to the development of the communities where the company operates, facilitating the implementation of projects with regulatory agencies and indirect players.
• Risk management: Anticipating and adapting to social conditions and changing needs using a flexible and effective model.
Methodology
• make better operational and investment decisions
• have more informed conversations with stakeholders
Benefits include:
• Knowledge about the communities where the company works: Improving ties with the communities by means of more effective and better informed communication of their needs and aspirations makes it possible to have an open dialogue with the stakeholders of a project to reach a better consensus.
• New business opportunities: Finding new markets, innovative distribution processes, adaptations in the value chain, development and innovation in products and services that the company provides for the purpose of achieving better returns and, at the same time, better focusing their impacts on society.
• Ties with local government and regulatory agencies: Creating a platform for discussing issues related to the development of the communities where the company operates, facilitating the implementation of projects with regulatory agencies and indirect players.
• Risk management: Anticipating and adapting to social conditions and changing needs using a flexible and effective model.
The methodology is aimed at bringing together two perspectives: a business perspective based on what a business generates and a societal perspective based on the key development issues identified by stakeholders who interact with the business.
The basic concept proposed by the methodology is as follows: What is measured can be improved.
Through this concept, business gains awareness of the actions which impact on people and how the sum of both the direct and indirect impacts leads to a tangible contribution to development.
Click here to access all information about the WBCSD Measuring Impact Framework.
The basic concept proposed by the methodology is as follows: What is measured can be improved.
Through this concept, business gains awareness of the actions which impact on people and how the sum of both the direct and indirect impacts leads to a tangible contribution to development.
Click here to access all information about the WBCSD Measuring Impact Framework.