Central question of the debate

When is an indicator really red? Between performance-to-date, logframe assumptions, and adaptive management.

This issue of MEAL Afrique Insights stems from Structured Debate N°008, organized within the MEAL Afrique community. Over several days, experts from different African countries compared their professional experience, theoretical references, and field practices across a range of sectors: health, nutrition, WASH, governance, humanitarian action, community development, protection, and forced displacement management.

The contributions made it possible to address questions rarely discussed in such depth in French-speaking professional spaces:

1. The fundamental difference between an objective and an indicator;
2. The limits of the SMART indicator concept;
3. Indicator quality as a representation of the intended change;
4. Methods for calculating interim milestones;
5. Alert thresholds (green, orange, red) and their contextual interpretation;
6. Monitoring logframe assumptions;
7. Theory of change as a framework for interpreting performance;
8. Organizational learning from successes as much as from shortfalls;
9. The role of dashboards in adaptive management.

This publication captures the main lessons from this collective intelligence while enriching them with a methodological perspective inspired by recent work carried out as part of the Masterclass on performance indicators, notably around the SMART-R² framework, the three cardinal sins of indicators, decision dashboards, and the indicator pyramid.

True to the spirit of MEAL Afrique, this document is not merely a record of the discussion. It aims to become a reference tool for MEAL practitioners, program managers, consultants, public decision-makers, and students seeking to strengthen their understanding of performance measurement systems.