The Balance between Measurement and Sustainability

When we put effort toward a task, a project, a cause, we want to see results. Those results usually include numbers. Hopefully, positive ones. Graphs with arrows pointing 'up' signifying things are improving. Pictures from frowns to smiles. Green lights rather than yellow or red ones. 

How do you quantify transformation?

How do you measure empowerment? 

How do you graph reduction in stigma of someone who just found out they are HIV positive? 

That is the challenge and opportunity we are given. At Blood:Water our goal is to see lives change below the surface - beyond the outputs of a 'well' or beyond the number of people visiting a clinic. We want to see someone trained so they can train others. We want a school to get safe water not only for safe water sake, but to improve school attendance, training in hygiene & sanitation and the health of the entire family.

We say often that 'change has to start deeper.' In order for that to happen, it takes time. That might mean we have to slow down to really ensure understanding or ownership. It might mean we have to back up and try a different approach. What that doesn't mean is that we've failed or the community has failed. 

Listening the finance portion of the news, its obvious we have equated success into a metric. A number that increases month over month, year over year. Or a percentage that shows 'health of an organization." I believe we have confused health with positive numbers and upward motion. Yet, in the recent economic recovery of the last few years, we have seen numbers decrease on many levels: housing, jobs, growth. Even a successful company like Starbucks had to go backwards to go forwards-and they weren't alone. Individuals, like companies, also saw numbers decrease-their 401(K)-and increase their debt. Does that make those companies or individuals failures? Does that make them unsuccessful or unhealthy? On the contrary, it makes them successful because they took those difficult, painful, but necessary steps to correct things for the long run. It makes them stronger. 

The same approach can be transferred to community development. Concentrating on today makes tomorrow possible. Concentrating on the sustainability of today's projects makes tomorrow's projects successful. It might mean working with a community a little longer to ensure they feel empowered. It might mean repeating a training or doing it differently to resonate with the local needs. Either way, it's about the lives we touch-and the lives that touch us-that make the time and investment worth it. Just ask a community that now has safe water after previous attempts have failed, or the person who has a clinic in their community after other family members died before they could benefit from it. It's hard to measure the impact-its hard to quantify change-but when you see it, and hears it stories of hope, you know that to them, it was worth the wait.

~ Mike Lenda, US Programs Director