Impact reporting must be based on best practice

Corporate South Africa’s funding of Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) initiatives is often based on the belief that these programmes will improve the performance of small and growing businesses alongside their socio-economic circumstances.

However, despite the optimism with which corporates have developed and implemented ESD strategies and invested in a range of ESD programmes, there has been less effort devoted to a fully objective analysis of the impact thereof in terms of desired outcomes.

Impact reporting is a crucial component to measure the success of these initiatives and more focus should be given to this element of ESD programmes.

Since the introduction of the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice in 2007, pressure is mounting for corporates to prove that their ESD programmes are making a tangible and quantifiable difference.

It needs to be seen that these programmes have led to increased employment opportunities within Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), improved capacity and capability of these businesses, increased SMME participation in the formal economy, and their enhanced and sustained operational efficiency.

Impact reporting is a metric that can showcase the impact that a company’s ESD programme is having; and this is essentially the missing link.

Some may say that impact reporting is the “so what?” element of an ESD programme, where corporates and their ESD implementation partners are held accountable for what has been achieved. If executed correctly, it enables corporates to showcase the measurable success of the programme.

Good impact reporting should not be treated as a “tick box” exercise and is intended to promote a culture of transparency and accountability. It goes beyond merely setting loosely-defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as it encompasses robust Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), and enables corporates to establish whether their efforts are actually making a quantifiable difference.

To better understand the role of impact reporting, it is important to distinguish between Monitoring & Evaluation.

Monitoring is a continuous task that makes use of the systematic collection of data on specified indicators to provide management and stakeholders with information relating to the implementation status.

Evaluation is a selective exercise that aims to systematically and objectively assess the achievement of the mediumterm results (the outcomes) alongside the long-term results (the impacts).