1. Results Based Accountability
A disciplined way of thinking and taking action that can be used to improve outcomes for communities and agencies
Mark Friedman

2. What is Results Based Accountability (RBA)?
RBA is made up of 2 sets of questions 1. Used by organisations and communities to improve wellbeing of whole populations (POPULATION ACCOUNTABILITY) 2. Used by individual agencies to improve wellbeing of customer populations (PERFORMANCE ACCOUNTABILITY) One of the key differences between the two is who is accountable (i.e. one organisation is accountable versus whole community sharing responsibility for population results)

3. RBA in a nutshell… 2, 3, 7 2 kinds of accountability
3 kinds of performance measures
7 questions to get from ends to means

4. The 7 Population Accountability Questions
What are the quality of life outcomes we want for the children, adults and families who live in our community?
What would these conditions look like if we could see them?
How can we measure these conditions?
How are we doing on the most important of these measures?
Who are the partners that have a role to play in doing better?
What works to do better, including no cost and low cost ideas?
What do we propose to do?

5. ONE PAGE Turn the Curve Report: Population
Result: _______________
Indicator (Lay Definition)
Indicator Baseline
Story behind the baseline (List as many as needed)
Partners (List as many as needed)
Group report out format for the population turn the curve exercise.
Three Best Ideas – What Works No-cost / low-cost
Off the Wall

6. Key concepts Use population indicators that: Access regularly
Speak to a wide range of audience
Have proxy power

7. The 7 Performance Accountability Questions
Who are our customers? (identify)
How can we measure if our customers are better off? (correlates to quadrant)
How can we measure if we are delivering services well? (correlates to quadrant)
How are we doing on the most important of these measures? (analysis)
Who are the partners that have a role to play in doing better? (analysis)
What works to do better, including no-cost and low cost ideas? (analysis)
Who do we propose to do? (recommendations)

8. How much did we do? How well did we do it? Is anyone better off?
3 Important Questions
How much did we do? How well did we do it? Is anyone better off?

9. Youth Hub How well do we do it? How much did we do?
% of young people who say they were treated well
How much did we do?
# of young people engaging in Brightside
Is anyone better off?
% of young people who continued to engage in regular exercise after completing the Brightside program
Or an even simpler construction: How much did we do? How well did we do it? Is anyone better off?

10. Brightside Baseline data % of clients continued to engage in regular exercise after completing the Brightside program

11. Performance Measure:
30% of young people say they have built positive connections due to participation in the youth hub.
Story behind the baseline (List as many as needed)
Partners (List as many as needed)
Group report out format for the population turn the curve exercise.
Three Best Ideas – What Works No-cost / low-cost
Off the Wall

12. Key concepts
Start with outcome No one organization is responsible for community wellbeing

13. THE LINKAGE Between POPULATION and PERFORMANCE
POPULATION ACCOUNTABILITY
Healthy Births Rate of low birth-weight babies Stable Families Rate of child abuse and neglect Children Ready for School Percent fully ready per K-entry assessment
POPULATION RESULTS
Contribution relationship
PERFORMANCE ACCOUNTABILITY
Alignment of measures
Pre-natal Nutrition Program
# of women served
Rate of attendance
The relationship is a “contribution” relationship, not a cause and effect relationship. What we do for our customers is our contribution to what we and our partners are trying to do across the community.
Often the only difference between a population indicator and a lower right (Is anyone better off?) performance measure is the difference in scale between a client population and the total population.
This allows us to think about how our work is aligned with what we are trying to accomplish across the community. It allows us to think about how the measures we use at the program level relate to those at the population level. And it allows us to avoid the trap of holding programs responsible for population level change. We can hold program responsible for what they do for their clients. We must hold ourselves, across the community, responsible for the well being of the population.
Appropriate responsibility
% with low-birthweight births
# with low-birthweight births
CUSTOMER RESULTS