Open AccessChris Roche. Social Impact Assessment for Development Agencies: Learning to Value Change. UK: Oxfam, 1999. £ 9.95. 308 pages.
Author(s) -
Jasmin Mirza
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v38i3pp.309-311
Subject(s) - social impact assessment , social impact , impact assessment , social change , social sector , political science , action (physics) , value (mathematics) , scale (ratio) , economic growth , management , sociology , public administration , geography , economics , population , computer science , law , physics , demography , cartography , quantum mechanics , machine learning
Chris Roche defines impact assessment as “the systematicanalysis of the lasting or significant changes—positive or negative,intended or not—in people’s lives brought about by a given action orseries of actions” (p. 21). Consequently, the book intends to provideguidelines for ex-post assessments of the “impacts” development or othersocial sector projects have had on people’s lives. The reader learnsabout the various social impact assessment approaches and methods mainlythrough 11 case studies, which form the backbone of the book. Thesesocial impact assessments were carried out for ten development projectsin developing countries—five of these are located in South Asia,including Pakistan—, and one social sector project in Europe. Theseprojects vary considerably in scale, objectives, and the target groupthey purport to work for; and they were at different stages of theproject cycle at the time the impact assessment wasundertaken.