What is an indicator?

An indicator is a defined, measurable variable used as evidence that a specific result (usually an output or an outcome from the Results Framework) is occurring. An indicator is not the result itself — "farmer incomes improved" is a result; "median monthly farm income among registered participants (TZS)" is the indicator that provides evidence for it.

Output indicators measure what the programme itself delivered and directly controls — counts of trainings held, people reached, forms distributed. Outcome indicators measure change in the people or systems the programme targets — adoption rates, changed practices, improved conditions — and are harder to move, slower to show change, and usually more valuable evidence of real impact. A programme reporting only output indicators can look busy while never proving it changed anything.

Quantitative indicators are expressed as a number — a count, a percentage, a rate, an average. Qualitative indicators capture something not naturally numeric — a description of the extent or nature of a change, a categorical judgement, a documented case story — and still need a defined, consistent way of being recorded so different reporting periods can genuinely be compared.

A good indicator has several concrete characteristics: a stated unit (percentage, count, ratio — not just a name), a clear level in the Results Framework (output or outcome), a defined data source or means of verification (where does this number actually come from, and how would someone check it), a set frequency (monthly, quarterly, annually) and a named responsible party for reporting it. An indicator missing any of these is a phrase, not yet a measurable indicator — "improved livelihoods" is not an indicator until it has a unit, a source, a frequency and an owner.

Means of verification matters more than it first appears: a number with no stated source is unfalsifiable, and a number whose source changes between reporting periods (a different survey method, a different sampling frame) is not genuinely comparable across those periods even if both numbers look precise.

An indicator in METRA GET is defined once with a unit, a level, an assigned reporting frequency, and — where it applies — a disaggregation scheme, then attached to the Results Framework item it provides evidence for. Indicators can be manual (a number a user enters each period, with the means of verification recorded as a note) or computed directly from a linked form or dataset, so the same indicator never has two different, silently diverging calculation paths inside one project.