Ask the Expert Session#1: Jeremy Nicholls

[Siddharth Chatterjee]

Dear Jeremy,

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! Here is a question I had:

1. Goodhart’s Law, an idea from the economist Charles Goodhart, suggests that “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”. The idea is that once we identify a metric which reflects the health of a larger system and try to improve on that metric, we tend to start optimizing for the metric in ways that no longer improve the system that we intended to benefit in the first place. What is the risk of Goodhart’s Law in impact measurement and how do we avoid it? How can we keep the bigger picture of impact in mind while simplifying impact measurement into metrics that are actually measurable?

[Siddharth Chatterjee]

2. The SDGs are intended to be achieved by 2030, and even if the timeline is extended by a few years, it appears that the SDGs will eventually be replaced by other goals. Does this mean that the SDG impact standards will also be replaced, say by the year 2035?

[Priyanka Jashnani]

I second Siddharth on this one. He raises a relevant question here. We went from MDGs to SDGs and may look at further revisions to the framework. So how do we continue to account for development against SDG targets and indicators which will very well extend beyond 2030 for various countries?

[Eugenia Lo]

Dear Jeremy

Thank you also for your time in advance. This may not be your typical question, but I am interested in hearing your experience in getting the SDG Impact Standards adopted (or adapted) in North Asia locations (eg where SDGs or related concepts/benchmarks related to SDGs are still nascent or not mainstream). Would it be possible to share successful or not so successful case studies in those locations?

Regards

Eugenia

[Lin Lin]

Dear Jeremy,

Thank you in advance for taking time to answer our questions. I would like to hear your thoughts on <font face=”inherit”>what </font>factors<font face=”inherit”> to consider when developing climate change impact metrics for agricultural sector and how to align to SDG impact standards. Any relevant stories or experiences would be also helpful.</font>

[Cornelius Agung B]

Dear Jeremy, thank you for the opportunity. What are the challenges you find in working to accelerate private sector contributions towards the achievement of the SDGs by 2030? And how did you manage to overcome those challenges? Regarding the private sector effort to measure their impact to SDGs achievement, namely through CSR programs, what are the rule of thumbs for them to accurately do that?

[Uyen Dang]

Dear Jeremy,

We’re a not-for-profit social enterprise directly impacting the SDG 4 and SDG 8. We are looking for ways to integrate SDGs into our impact measurement and management framework.

I have two questions regarding:

1. What to measure?

Aside from the SDG indicators found here (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/Global%20Indicator%20Framework%20after%20refinement_Eng.pdf), can we have access to a broader library of metrics elsewhere, especially those that are relevant in the regional context? Our current set of metrics is mainly at the Outputs and a few metrics are at the Outcomes stage. We are refining our metrics at the end of this year.

2. How to measure our progress?

We’d like to understand whether our impact is contributing to the SDGs. When I look at some tracking sites (e.g. https://sdg-tracker.org/quality-education), I’m wondering how we as an organization can report on relevant impact performance and learn from other similar organizations.

Thanks so much for your time. I’m still a learner in this field so any suggestion/advice is much appreciated.

[Jaya Myler]

Hi Jeremy,

I’d like to know your thoughts on how we report progress against SDGs and organisational metrics to supporters and investors in a way that allows them to see the impact their individual contribution is making. When reporting against metrics at such a large scale, how do we best make it relevant to one supporter or investor?

Thank you in advance,

Jaya

[Suvimali Suraweera]

This is a good question. Look forward to the answers.

[Wan Nurul Hanani]

Hi Jeremy,

Appreciate if you can provide a few case studies of how impact and financial theses are integrated well to serve a development goal in rural areas. I am interested to know also how investors move from output-based metrices to outcome and impact based, as output is easier to measure and some organizations do stuck in this “comfort zone” of reporting outputs to their stakeholders.

Thank you

[JingJing Gan]

Dear Jeremy,

In the measurement of impact, do you see benchmarks / standards for attribution of impact? Additionally, when setting metrics to measure intended impact, what are your thoughts on to what extent should we stop measuring, taking materiality and practicality into account given that measurement can be infinite?

Thanks!

Best,

JingJing Gan

[Genevieve Heng]

Hi Jeremy

I am helping a small family office which is doing impact investing. One of the challenges we face is measuring impact. Most of the data we obtain is from co-investors and it has been challenging obtaining primary data from the investees. Given it is a small team, what would you recommend as an optimal approach to start managing and measuring impact?

[Myat Mon Naung]

Dear Jermy,

Thank you for your opportunities to studying IMM lesson. We are still looking for ways to service for climate change to rural farmers. So, I’d like to know how to integrate SDGs into our impact measurement and management framework. How do we best make it?

with thanks,

Myat Mon

[Enning Hwa]

Hello Jeremy, would you be able to provide some examples of truly innovative ways of measuring impact across any social sector that you have seen in the past two years? What are some of your key guiding principles when looking to craft impact indicators? Thanks!

[Sumadi Wijaya]

Hi Jeremy,

We’re a not-for-profit organization starting to interest working on climate change issues and green recovery approach to expect impacting the SDGs. We are looking for ways to integrate SDGs into our impact measurement and management framework.

[Choirunnisa Nur]

Dear Jeremy,

Thank you for the opportunity to going through on pre-read materials. I’d like to know your perspective: because of the availability of so many different metrics, how we set-up wellbeing goals and select suitable indicators to measure business impact to sustainability of the firm? What is the challenges and how to cope with it?

Thank you in advance

Best regards,

Choirunnisa

[Ryane Kristianto]

Dear Jeremy,

I’d like to know, what do you think about efforts shall be made by the corporations to collect and manage their CSR data in measuring the impact they make to the achievement of SDGs?

Thank you in advance.

[Ashwini Sonar]

Even i have the same question. Addition to this, as 2 years we have covid 19 pandemic and SDGs has focused on the Quality Education, how do we ensure now or modify ourselves/ teaching pedadogy to achieve the SDG

[Jana Thuaud]

HI Jeremy,

Our organization uses outcome reporting and harvesting. How do we make the jump to impact monitoring and measurement?

Thanks!

[Suvimali Suraweera]

I’m also interested in Jana’s question. And how a project can operationalize these concepts in a practical sense, ad develop a monitoring system from scratch.