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Regional GEF Indicator System A common set of project-level impact indicators facilitates the demonstration of the global impact of GEF investments in the area of SLM, and will strengthen the identification of project contributions to the achievements of global environmenal benefits (GEBs). It will also enable the transfer of knowledge and experience between projects and allow for the comparison of the effectiveness between different types of interventions. It is to be noted that individual GEF projects will still continue to use their own context-specific indicators in order to track their impact and performance to ensure that they achieve their context-specific expected outcomes.
The project-level indicators should fulfill the internationally recognized SMART criteria as much as possible (Table 1). SMART indicators capture a large number of elements in a complex interactive system while simultaneously showing how the value obtained relates to some ideal or agreed-upon condition. The basic assumption of SMART indicators is that the value of a chosen indicator is a culmination of a number of transactions that must have been operating appropriately to result in the value obtained.
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Criteria
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Meaning
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Specific
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The indicator is described without ambiguities and in a concise form. A common understanding of the indicator should be given.
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Measurable
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The indicator is preferably quantifiable and objectively verifiable. A common understanding of the ways to measure the indicator is needed.
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Achievable
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The required data and information can actually be collected.
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Relevant
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The indicator must provide information that is relevant to the process and its stakeholders.
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Time-bound
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The indicator is time-referenced, thus it is able to reflect changes. It can be reported at the requested time.
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| Table 1. SMART framework for the selection of indicators. |
The following table presents a list of ‘desirable properties’ that was used to aid indicator selection for the KM:Land project (Table 3). It is a non-exhaustive list and, but it is important to keep in mind that the indicators ultimately must provide information useful to project objectives and help guide decisions that key users will need to make.
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Criterion
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Description/Explanation
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Credible
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Scientifically credible
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Robustness
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Be relatively insensitive to expected source of interference
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Space-bound
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Sensitive to changes in space
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Time-bound
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Sensitive to changes within policy timeframes
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Measurable
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Measurable in qualitative or quantitative terms
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Portable and Universal
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Be repeatable and reproducible in different contexts
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Cost-effective
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Benefits should outweigh the costs of usage, resource allocation
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Data requirements
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Manageable data requirements
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Compatible
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Compatible with indicators developed and used elsewhere
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Linked with management
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Linked with specific management practices or interventions
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Scale of applicability
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Provide information at the right spatial and temporal scales
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| Table 2. Key indicator selection criteria proposed for KM:Land. |
Land Cover/Land Use:
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This indicator’s purpose is to measure current land cover, especially the distribution of land cover at greatest risk from land degradation. This has important contextual information for the evaluation of other indicators and allows for monitoring of the changes in land cover within the pre-defined project area.
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This indicator shows the distribution/area coverage of land use systems including SLM practices within the project area. Land use is defined as a sequence of operations carried out with the purpose of obtaining goods and services from the land, and can be characterized by the actual goods and services as well as by the particular management interventions undertaken by the land users.
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Land Productivity:
- Annual Agricultural Production (crop production)
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This indicator measures the annual agricultural production of food, fibre, fuel and fodder, cropland, grazing land and/or forest management. Crop yield per area (amount of crop harvested per amount of land planted) is the commonly used indicator; however, production may need to be expressed in terms of per unit of water used given looming water shortages. The impact of GEF intervention on agricultural and livestock productivity can also be measured, with implications being made in terms of food security.
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- Crop & Livestock Diversity (agro-biodiversity)
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This indicator demonstrates the impact of GEF projects in terms of maintaining or enhancing the diversity of crops and livestock in agricultural systems within the project area. In more detail, crop diversity is the variance in genetic and phenotypic characteristics of plants used in agriculture. Livestock diversity is the number of livestock species used in the village territory and relative share in area or number of animals and plant species and varieties. Monitoring and assessment of crop diversity is also important for ensuring food security as crop diversity provides the source of the world’s food and fibre production.
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Water Resources Availability:
- Proportion of total water resources used (water quantity)
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This indicator measures whether a project has any impact upon the water resources in the project area. This acts as an early warning mechanism for potential problems and is an indication of the effects SLM practices may have on future water supplies. Proportion of total water resources used is defined as the total volume of groundwater and surface water withdrawn from sources for human use (in the agricultural, domestic and industrial sectors), expressed as a percentage of the total volume of water available annually through the hydrological cycle.
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- Percentage of rural population with access to (safe) drinking water
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Human Well-being:
- Rural population below national poverty line
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This indicator’s main purpose is to enable poverty comparisons, as they are required for an overall assessment of impacts of SLM projects on poverty alleviation. The costs of living in urban areas are typically higher than in rural areas, therefore a differentiation between the two groups with separate poverty lines is needed. More specifically, the percentage of the population living below the poverty line captures the prevalence of poverty by measuring the proportion of population for whom consumption (or any similar measure of living standard) is below the poverty line.
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- Proportion of chronically undernourished children under the age of 5 in rural areas
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This indicator’s purpose is to measure long-term nutritional imbalance and malnutrition, as well as current under-nutrition within the project area. It is essentially the prevalence of (moderately and severely) underweight children as the percentage of children aged 0-59 months whose weights for age are less than two standard deviations below the median weight for age of the international reference population. This indicator is one of many used within the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) initiative and is included under MDG 1.
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- Maternal Health (“Maternal mortality ratio (MMR)”)
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This indicator’s purpose is to demonstrate that GEF projects contribute equally to improvement in both women and men. It refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Maternal mortality is given through the ratio of maternal mortality per 100,000 live births. The MMR in developing countries is 450 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births versus 9 in developed countries. Thus, improved maternal health is one of the Millennium Development Goals, where MMR serves as a main indicator.
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Indicators Related to Contextual Information:
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This indicator measures the concentration of the human population in reference to space. It is calculated by dividing the total population size of an area (eg. project intervention area) by its surface area.
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The purpose of this indicator is to provide estimates of the human and economic impacts of disasters and emergencies over time and across project intervention areas in order to measure the trends in population vulnerability. It pertains to events of an extreme nature, such as floods, storms, fires, droughts, etc. It is defined by the number of persons dead and missing as a direct result of a natural disaster; and, the amount of economic and infrastructure losses incurred as a direct result of the natural disaster.
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- Non-natural Extreme Natural Events
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The purpose of this indicator is to provide estimates of the human and economic impacts of non-natural social disasters over time and across project intervention areas in order to measure the trends in population vulnerability. Non-natural extreme events include those such as violent conflicts, in-/out-migration, civil unrest, market crises, etc. which disrupt the ability of people to carry out their daily lives and which have an impact on the security, livelihoods and future prospects of the local population.
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- Trends in Seasonal Participation
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This indicator measures rainfall water availability in project areas (or regional average) subject to drought. It is important to consider this as lack of precipitation, irregular rainfall distribution, non-seasonal rains, etc. are the main climatic factors contributing to land degradation and affecting agricultural productivity. Measurement is achieved by taking the national average (or if possible, project area) of monthly station rainfall and weighting it by the long-term station rainfall average.
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This indicator collects local, national and global prices for key agricultural inputs and outputs. Market prices for agricultural inputs and outputs can strongly influence agricultural production and other indicators, such as human well-being.
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