Why is Social Impact Assessment Important in India?

The amended Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Rules, 2021 require that corporations now view CSR activities in a more scientific way and invest in impact assessment studies of their CSR projects for enhanced social impact. This showcases a positive approach to moving beyond philanthropy and integrating the idea of ‘shared value creation’ among businesses in India.

Social Impact Assessment is used to determine and address the negative impacts and identify opportunities to enhance benefits for local communities through efforts. There are several reasons why social impact assessment is particularly important for community-based projects. Social impact assessment research spells out the means to generate and use the information and results at multiple levels and for multiple purposes, including accountability, communication, direction, and learning.

Why Social Impact Assessment is Particularly Important for Community-Based Projects

1. To drive accountability: When you win funding from an organisation, donors will usually make it compulsory to report back on what you are doing and what you are spending their money on. You might have predetermined targets with them such as the number of people your project will reach within a given time. You will need to monitor your project regularly to collect this information.
2. To secure future funding: Funding bodies will want to see concrete evidence of the social impact your organisation has to help them decide whether to give you additional funding and to decipher the type of support. Ongoing monitoring and evaluating can provide evidence of what a project has achieved and what might be achieved as project implementation continues in the future.
3. To check the project’s progress against your original plans: It can be easy to lose sight of the original aims you had for your project. Monitoring it on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis and checking whether you are still on course to achieve your goals will prevent this. A social impact assessment process also helps you keep an eye on whether you are adhering to your stipulated timelines and budgets.
4. To learn from your experience: Appropriate monitoring and evaluation of your project means you can see what has worked well and what has not. You can subsequently use this information to improve future projects or funding applications. Social impact assessment tools enable organisations to collect data that track successes and failures and helps to build strong data management systems.
5. To motivate staff and volunteers: Showing your volunteers and staff real and concrete evidence of their impact, will make them feel great. Environmental and social impact assessment can also encourage them to continue working with your organisation and involve them in future endeavours of the change journey of your organisation.

4^th Wheel Social Impact focuses on creating an ‘evaluative culture’ among organisations by building impact assessment into programme design, developing results-chains and monitoring frameworks, and undertaking impact assessment studies.