Most logframes are built to satisfy donor requirements, not to guide real decision-making. After conducting dozens of baseline surveys and endline evaluations across East Africa, AfroTech Horizons has identified a consistent pattern: organisations with poorly constructed logframes struggle to demonstrate impact — not because their programmes aren’t working, but because their measurement frameworks weren’t designed to capture what matters.
Here’s what we see most often, and how to fix it.
The Problem: Outputs Masquerading as Outcomes
The most common logframe failure is confusing outputs with outcomes. An output is what your programme produces — training sessions held, beneficiaries reached, materials distributed. An outcome is what changes as a result. Donors increasingly want outcomes. Logframes that stop at outputs leave organisations unable to tell a compelling impact story.
Fix: For every output in your logframe, ask “so what?” What behaviour, condition, or situation changes because of this output? That answer is your outcome indicator.
The Problem: Indicators You Can’t Actually Measure
We regularly encounter logframes with indicators like “improved community resilience” or “strengthened institutional capacity” — with no definition of what these mean or how they will be measured. Vague indicators make baseline surveys impossible and endline comparisons meaningless.
Fix: Every indicator needs a precise definition, a unit of measurement, a data collection method, a frequency, and a responsible person. If you can’t answer all five, the indicator isn’t ready.
The Problem: Baseline Data Collected Too Late
Many organisations conduct their baseline survey months after programme activities have already started. This contaminates the baseline — you’re no longer measuring the situation before the intervention, you’re measuring it mid-intervention.
Fix: Baseline data collection must happen before any programme activities reach target communities. Build this into your project timeline from day one.
AfroTech’s Approach
When AfroTech designs MEL frameworks, we start with the theory of change and work backwards — identifying the minimum set of indicators that will tell the most important parts of the impact story. We prioritise indicators that are measurable with the resources available, meaningful to programme decision-making, and credible to donors and evaluators.
If your logframe isn’t working, it’s not too late to fix it. Contact AfroTech Horizons to discuss how we can strengthen your MEL framework.