Metrics, impact assessment and impact investing are popular and important topics in development right now.  Much of the work in this area has been done ad hoc, though that is beginning to change with the advent of the Global Impact Investing Network and the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards. (Be sure to comment on the IRIS asap...)

To get an idea of the popularity of metrics and measurement, just take a look at the number of blog posts we've had here on NextBillion about the topic lately: Social Capital Markets09: Metastasizing Metrics, Anecdotes and Analysis: The Microfinance "Bubble", Why Should We Evaluate Social Enterprises? and my recent post NYU: Measuring Impact, Valuing Investment.

So it's not a minor step forward when academic institutions and practitioners are starting to take what they've learned and share it more broadly with the field through workshops and training sessions.  NextBillion ally Ted London will be doing just this, based on his impact assessment framework (which we first reported on back in July: Making Better Investments at the BoP: A Framework for Impact Assessment.)

Ted is organizing a workshop, to be held in February 2010 at the University of Michigan.  More information is available in the attached PDF - be sure to check it out and register early, as space is extremely limited.

WDI_Impact_Assessment_Workshop.pdf

Should be a good workshop - stay tuned to NextBillion for further updates.