June 5, 2026
The challenge with measuring development aid is in what is the end result supposed to be compared to what was actually delivered and are the intended beneficiaries satisfied with the result. This is the first thing.
As you can appreciate, what was promised is not necessarily what may end up being delivered. And what is delivered may be better than what was planned. So, the standard needs to be changed to suit the impact on the beneficiaries and the metrics need to be adjusted post-ante to suit the target. This can become problematic quite obviously. Because it could lead development institutions to change the goal posts to suit their own purposes.
A second thing is that how do you measure intangible issues like satisfaction and happiness? These things don’t show up in bank accounts and neither do they show up in a photo-op in front of a completed building or piece of infrastructure.
This is the core challenge because who is to say who is satisfied and/or happy with an intervention by a development institution? What must a development institution do in this situation?
You see how tricky this can become? There is no formula or cookie cutter metric that can capture the impact of development interventions, particularly social interventions in things like education or social cohesion and things that don’t require the construction of a building or edifice.