The development community, with some notable exceptions, is waking up to the absurdity of measuring only their inputs and outputs like the number of farmers trained or the number of hectares certified as “farmed sustainably”.  In many cases, missing is the measurement that matters most: what positive (or negative) difference did their efforts make for the lives of their intended beneficiaries?  What was their impact?.  Of course, the most thoughtful are indeed measuring well and applying the emerging range of mixed methods to understand impact and impact pathways. However, in a shift that portends a seismic change in how sustainability works, it is the private sector that is increasingly pushing the envelope for many commodities. After all, today firms have to increasingly account for the efficacy of all their investments, even those once considered soft investments in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or sustainability.

We at the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) applaud…