Vic Hub Impact Framework supports clearer planning, measurement and reporting

The Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub (Vic Hub) has commissioned an Impact Framework to help better understand and measure its contribution to drought resilience.

This public-facing summary outlines why the Framework was developed, what it found and how it will support clearer planning, measurement and reporting across the Vic Hub.

The Framework provides a practical reference point for the Hub, its Node leads and partners as they continue to deliver locally led, co-designed activities that support drought resilience across Victoria.

 

Why the Framework was developed

 

The Vic Hub works through a distributed, adaptive governance model, with delivery shaped by regional priorities, local knowledge and co-design. (See ‘Explaining key terms’ below.)

This model is valuable because it helps projects respond to real regional needs. However, it can be harder to measure through conventional monitoring and evaluation approaches, particularly when outcomes build over time through relationships, learning, decision-making and systems change.

The Impact Framework was developed to give the Vic Hub a clearer and more consistent way to plan, measure and report its work. Rather than creating a generic toolkit, the Framework provides a context-specific approach suited to the Hub’s operating model.

 

How the Framework was developed

 

Four complementary methods informed the Framework:

• social research into how people understand drought resilience
• literature reviews on co-design and adaptive governance
• iterative co-design with Vic Hub staff and Node lead organisations
• a review of the Hub’s existing monitoring, evaluation and learning arrangements

Together, these inputs shaped a refined Theory of Action (see ‘Explaining key terms’ below), a clearer logic of outcomes, and recommendations for strengthening the way the Vic Hub designs, evaluates and reports its work.

 

What the Framework found

 

The Framework found that the Vic Hub is delivering valuable drought-resilience activity across Victoria.

It also identified opportunities to strengthen impact by creating clearer alignment between how drought resilience is defined, how activities are designed and how outcomes are measured.

A key finding was the need to balance two complementary ways of thinking about impact: adoption logic and management logic. (See ‘Explaining key terms’ below.)

Adoption logic focuses on the uptake of practices, tools or technologies. Management logic focuses on the ongoing decisions, systems and relationships that help people and organisations manage drought risk over time.

Both are important.

However, relying too heavily on adoption measures alone can under-represent the broader work that supports resilience, including capacity building, collaboration, systems thinking and stronger regional decision-making.

 

Strengthening design, evaluation and learning

 

The Framework reinforces the importance of co-design and adaptive governance in making drought-resilience activities locally relevant and responsive.

It also recognises that these ways of working need clear design processes, dedicated evaluation questions and appropriate resourcing. This includes support for design, prototyping, testing, learning and scaling.

The review found that the Hub’s current monitoring, evaluation and learning approach could be strengthened by more clearly separating:

• design quality
• delivered outputs
• short and medium-term outcomes
• longer-term regional impact

This will help the Hub move beyond activity counts and better capture the contribution of its work to decision-making, capacity building, collaboration and systems change.

 

How the Framework is already being used

 

The Framework has already supported Vic Hub reporting processes and informed the development of the Hub-wide strategy.

It provides a common reference point so that strategic priorities can be more consistently reflected in project design, data collection and reporting.

By clarifying the links between strategy, activity and measurement, the Framework will help the Vic Hub demonstrate its contribution to drought resilience while continuing to adapt to local needs.

 

Next steps for the Vic Hub

 

The Vic Hub has begun outlining practical actions to implement the Framework’s recommendations.

These include:

• clarifying and aligning the Hub’s Theory of Action (see ‘Explaining key terms’ below) so the definition of drought resilience is clearly linked to objectives, project design and impact measures
• treating adoption and management approaches as complementary
• reviewing evaluation metrics so they better capture decision-making, capacity building, collaboration and systems thinking
• strengthening monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) processes across design, delivery and reporting
• continuing to embed co-design by involving stakeholders in defining problems, outcomes and indicators

The extent to which these changes can be implemented and sustained will also depend on central systems and program requirements set through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

The Vic Hub will develop detailed recommendations for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to support future Hub governance and program design. These recommendations will focus on how governance can better align with adaptive, co-designed models of delivery.

 

Supporting clearer evidence of impact

 

The Impact Framework positions the Vic Hub to keep supporting locally driven, co-designed activity while being clearer about why that activity matters for drought resilience.

This means building evidence that people, organisations and communities are better able to make decisions, collaborate effectively and manage drought risk as part of everyday business and community life.

The Framework also supports the Vic Hub’s role in testing practical ways to measure impact in distributed, adaptive leadership models. These approaches can be harder to measure, but they are increasingly important to building long-term resilience.

 

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Interested in learning more?

If you’re interested in learning more, please contact info(at)vicdroughthub.org.au

 

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Explaining key terms

 

Logics: Simple ways of thinking about a problem that shape design and measurement. In this Framework, the two main logics are adoption logic and management logic.

Adoption logic: An approach focused on the uptake of practices, tools or technologies.

Management logic: An approach focused on ongoing decision-making, systems management and the conditions that support resilience over time.

Theory of Change: A clear, shared explanation of how activities are expected to lead to medium and long-term outcomes.

Theory of Action: The Hub’s assumptions about how its actions, projects, partnerships and ways of working will achieve the outcomes set out in the Theory of Change.

Co-design: A collaborative process where end users and stakeholders help define problems and design responses, with a focus on shared decision-making.

Adaptive governance: A flexible, decentralised approach to organising and coordinating action. It emphasises learning, localised decision-making and ongoing adjustment as circumstances change.

Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL): The systems and processes used to track activity, assess outcomes and feed learning back into design and delivery.