Especially when budgets are limited, it is crucial for KM practitioners to show the value – i.e., the impact or outcomes –that KM activities bring to their respective organizations. In the field of global health and development, outcomes may relate to knowledge, skills, attitudes, behavior, health condition, or health status. For example, KM might contribute to better health outcomes through increased service utilization or improved health behaviors.

Measuring KM outcomes is often beyond the scope of health and development projects, due to the high resource investment required and the difficulty of attributing such outcomes directly to KM programs. However, measurement of KM impact should be considered from the onset of developing a KM strategy. 

In this section, you will find manuals, tools, and articles related to measuring the impact of KM initiatives. You can also refer to the section on KM models, which will provide information to help you to think through your monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan and your expected outcomes. KM models can help you understand your organization’s baseline performance before implementing KM efforts.