Methods to measure impact of eInclusion Actors. Exploratory Study on Methods used to measure the ICT-mediated Social Impact of grassroots organisations.

This report summarises the results of the research project ‘Exploratory Study on Methods used to measure the ICT-mediated Social Impact of grassroots organisations’. This study was commissioned by IPTS to feed into a forthcoming 2-year research project: Measuring the impact of eInclusion actors on Digital Literacy, Skills and Inclusion goals (MIREIA). The report maps and reviews evaluation and impact assessment methods that have been developed and used to understand the social and economic impact of eInclusion actors, with a focus on quantitative approaches and production of measures that relate to policy goals. The first step was the compilation and preliminary profiling of a list of 81 examples of impact assessment approaches, identified through a literature and practice review. Following a process of evaluation, eleven approaches were documented and analysed in more depth. After that, the three ‘most relevant’ approaches were then selected for further analysis with particular reference to their feasibility as inputs to developing the MIREIA framework, and with reference to illustrative case studies of their use by grass roots organisations. Finally this report includes additional case study analysis of examples of the use of impacts assessment methods in real-world ‘grass roots’ interventions based on the results of the validation workshop. The overall conclusion of the study is that the main purpose of the MIRIEA framework and indicators should be to support impacts assessment as a ‘process’ – the process of creating the conditions to enable the embedding and implementation of concepts, methods, tools and practices, and their subsequent adaptation and evolution through use. In other words, the main purpose of the framework and tools is to support ‘praxis’.