Refining Collective Impact Measurement to Maximize Efficiencies in Humanitarian Efforts: an Exploration of Global Population Participation in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

This thesis seeks to make a policy statement, a recommendation for greater efficiency in global collective impact. It examines the non-profit organization, Unify, as a case study and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the current standard for a global system of measuring progress in overcoming humanity’s greatest challenges. It addresses inefficiencies in the collective of humanitarian efforts within a global system that lacks consistent and effective standards as well as best practices of impact measurement, the percentage of the population actively engaging in bringing about solutions, and how the expanding reach of accessibility to increasingly evolved technology stands to affect both population engagement and impact measurement. This is not to say that humanitarian efforts are without any efficiency whatsoever. Certainly, some individuals and organizations display extraordinary efficiency in their efforts. The focus of this paper is not meant to exacerbate the lack within the scope of global humanitarian efforts in comparison with all of the good that truly is being done in the world. The whole is only the sum of its parts and, as such, any efforts at all towards solutions are significant. Rather, this paper will address the possibilities of how efficiencies within humanitarian efforts might be realized on a global scale. This will be done by reviewing the relatively recent acknowledgement of global challenges at a state level and by the international community, looking at how progress within the identified goals is currently being measured, examining factors that could promote engagement of a greater number of individuals in humanitarian efforts globally, borrowing proven functionality from known international business models for systems of impact measurement, and looking at scalability and reach through the lens of technology.