What happens when we look beyond end-of-project reports and measure what truly lasts?
World Vision presents Beyond Metrics: Unveiling Hidden Mechanisms of Local Systems Change as part of the Global Evaluation Initiative’s gLocal Evaluation Week. This session will highlight findings from an ex-post evaluation of education programming in the Dominican Republic, supported by the U.S. government and the World Bank, which offers new insights into how systems evolve long after projects close.
The evaluation reveals that enduring change does not come from one intervention or funding cycle. Instead, it grows through the layering of locally led initiatives—citizen voice and accountability, adaptive leadership, community empowerment, and relational trust — that strengthen governance and service delivery over time. These elements, when intentionally combined, continue to fuel reform well beyond the project’s end.
Speakers Lauren Van Enk (World Vision Locally Led Development Technical Advisor), Donald Mogeni (World Vision Social Accountability Technical Director), and evaluation authors M. Florencia Guerzovich and Tom Aston will share how communities, educators, and government leaders co-created reforms that endure today. Among the most notable outcomes is a Social Accountability Protocol that remains in use across the Dominican Republic, demonstrating the staying power of citizen-driven accountability mechanisms.
This event illustrates a larger truth: lasting systems change cannot be captured by short-term metrics alone. By adopting a systems-aware lens, evaluations uncover the hidden mechanisms—relationships, trust, and collaboration—that allow local actors to sustain and scale impact. For donors, practitioners, and governments, it signals a necessary shift: measuring what matters is not only about outcomes achieved, but about the resilience and adaptability of systems to continue delivering long after external support ends.
