journalistiek over mondiale samenwerking

Last Friday, the debate ‘Measuring what Matters -Decolonising Monitoring &Evaluation’ took place in a packed hall in The Hague.  Vice Versa Global editor-in-chief Eunice Mwaura attended and wrote this blog about the discussion. ‘What if communities were involved in defining their own indicators of impact?’

At friday’s Measuring What Matters event, a critical question came to mind: Who truly holds the power to define impact—and are we comfortable with that answer?

For many organizations, particularly those on the front lines, this isn’t a mere dilemma but a daily challenge. We operate within rigid frameworks and indicators, meticulously designed far from the realities of the communities we serve, pressured to align our missions within these constraints—all in the name of “accountability.” But whose accountability are we really serving? Are we measuring genuine impact, or merely conforming to an externally defined version of success?

The hard truth is this: every metric is a choice about what—and more crucially, who—matters. Yet, rarely do we ask communities themselves what success looks like to them. Instead, we’re caught in cycles of data extraction, diverting resources from genuine impact to satisfy reporting mandates. And when it comes to the data we collect—where does it go? Does it circle back to communities in meaningful ways? Are we truly empowering, or simply monitoring?

Outcomes and indicators are essential, but does our fixation on them overshadow true impact?For many Indigenous and African communities, success isn’t just a set of data points; it’s also about resilience, cultural continuity, and collective well-being—values that don’t conform to conventional metrics.

Yet we persist in enforcing external frameworks that prioritize numbers over lived experiences, reinforcing systems that marginalize local knowledge.

Imagine if we redefined success to honor these deeper measures of value. What if communities were involved in defining their own indicators of impact? What if our frameworks prioritized local relevance over distant approval?

From a youth perspective, we have inherited systems that no longer fully meet the needs of our evolving realities. Do we perpetuate these cycles, or do we take the initiative to critically examine and reshape them?  So let’s be honest with ourselves: Who is measuring what matters? And to whom does it actually matter?

Eunice Mwaura is editor-in-chief and co-founder of Vice Versa Global, a media organisation run by young African journalists, which aims to produce solution-oriented stories, with an emphasis on inspiring stories from communities See www.viceversaglobal.com