Measuring the contributions of an ODA project to SDGs : The case of a rural development project in Bolivia

Abstract

In the past, various ways to measure performance of most rural development projects were used inconsistently and project results were not reliable enough that it was very difficult to generalize outcomes adopting the indicators of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This paper proposes a definition of the outcomes derived from development projects and describes how to measure the contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by applying SDG indicators based on a survey. It also aims to find out how to utilize SDG indicators in the field of agriculture and rural development cooperation in accordance with the paradigm shift to Post-2015 SDGs. From the survey, existing SDG indicators that can be applied to agricultural and rural areas were identified and used to analyze the case of an integrated rural development project in Bolivia. It also suggested a way on how to quantify the contributions of the project outcomes to SDGs. This study concludes that it is necessary to apply SDG's global indicators to development cooperation projects in a generalized and quantified way by using contribution rate.