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Outcome Harvesting - Old wine in a new bottle

#outcomeharvest

#monitoringandevaluation

#measuringresults

Far away in a village, a group of farmers was sitting together after day-long hard work. Harvesting season has started, and the purpose of today’s gathering was crop production and the total expenditure they incurred on cultivation and harvesting till the time. The farmer who had poor results was comparing performed activities and efficiency of inputs with the farmer sitting satisfied with the quality and quantity of his crop. While discussing the quality seed, fertilizer, and pesticide, a successful farmer was telling other farmers about his multi-strategy approach. His success was a result of the regular application of process monitoring and vigilance. He took an extraordinary interest in crop management, he learned from a capacity building training that was organized by the agriculture extension department. The training improved his knowledge on the use of advanced agri-technologies including soil testing, quality assurance of seed, fertilizer, and pesticide to make sure no harm to crops. Other present farmers were listening to him with care and regretting inside their hearts.

A young farmer whose crops were destroyed due to attack of locust shared that fertilizer and pesticide making companies have been looting us in the name of credits. Our production is not unsatisfactory but when we compare it with the already obtained loan, it’s worth looks us lesser than the credit amount to be returned. Hence, we get disappointed and regretting our poorly managed activities, quality of seed, and weather conditions. In fact, this is not our problem, our real problem is public policy. For instance, the state decides rates of staple crops and we are bound to sell crops, otherwise, we have to face the music.

All farmers agreed with fruitful discussion. Two farmers were about to leave the meeting when an elderly farmer intervened and asked all farmers to discuss the change they determined by discussing process, inputs, and human resource management - harvesting to cultivation. The present participants mentioned the following changes they feel at the time of harvesting

1. Planning to optimal use of available resources and sharing of good practices with each other.

2. Develop an understanding of outcome harvesting and apply its pre-tested tools.  

Monitoring and sharing of learning with all farmers

3. Write-down the short and long-term outcomes and development plans.

4. Develop a strategy to measure outcomes and compare results with the production of the previous year.  

  

The method "outcome harvesting" is all about the above-narrated story. It is not new but old wine in a new bottle. Moreover, a few years before development practitioners were emphasizing Result Based Management (RBM) or Performance Management Plan (PMP) and were considering these items imperative to measure the results, but what happened then? 

Take terms serious while performing the MER role but don't get confused with terms- all the routes go to the same destination and that is the outcome(s). It is not introduced to strangulate but to do further social experiments required to measure the outcome(s). Learn it, test it, and use it without confusing yourself with RBM, PMP, and OH.