By Didi Onwu, Head of Storytelling & Advocacy, Anzisha
The politics of Impact
Impact is political. Do you agree?
I have not fully decided yet, but I am leaning toward yes. Perhaps that conclusion is premature, but after several years working in an Entrepreneurial Support Organisation (ESOs) and leading its storytelling arm, I have seen enough to make me curious.
What we choose to measure, and how we choose to measure it, shapes the stories we tell. The kind of data we collect dictates the kind of narrative we are able to share. And data without stories is just numbers with no vision or trajectory.
At the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) Annual Global Conference, one bold question reverberated across the conversations: What is the true definition of impact, and who gets to decide?
At a time when philanthropy has become political and aid has been disrupted, it is impossible to ignore how deeply politics has filtered into the way we define and measure impact. It shapes how we value beneficiaries, how we assess programmes, and even how we congratulate donors. So, the question becomes, how can we do it better? How can we measure what actually matters?
For starters, context is everything. A one-size-fits-all approach to impact storytelling will always fail. Nuance matters. Whether we are looking at age, gender, region, or socio-economic background, these factors influence what impact truly looks like. How do we measure the ripple effect that one young entrepreneur or beneficiary might have on their community? We have to ask better questions, questions that centre the human experience and not only the economic one. Removing that human dimension tells a one-sided story that revolves around inflated numbers and spreadsheets that only capture a fraction of the truth.
The Pressure to Perform: Ticking Boxes
A resounding theme from the conference was that many ESOs feel pressured to collect data that ticks boxes. Job creation. Access to capital. Business survival rates. These are not unimportant metrics, but they are incomplete. Impact cannot be flattened into a set of tidy indicators that overlook the complex ecosystems in which young people build their dreams. Donors and funding partners must allow flexibility and trust the expertise of the practitioners who are embedded in these ecosystems. Co-creation must replace compliance.
Why must we standardise impact through frameworks long dictated by the Global North? Short answer: we shouldn’t. Yet many programmes remain bound by the expectations of aid and reporting structures that tell only one part of the story. We have an opportunity, as a collective, to renegotiate the meaning of impact in ways that centre beneficiaries and local realities. Context should not be a footnote; it should be the foundation.
The Role of Storytelling in Impact Measurement
Philanthropy stands at a crossroads. It can continue to chase data that fits into global templates, or it can choose to measure what truly matters to communities on the ground. We can decide to count what counts. This is not about abandoning numbers, but about giving them meaning.
This is where storytelling becomes crucial. Behind every dataset is a heartbeat. Storytelling allows us to interpret data, to connect the dots between intention and transformation. It is through stories that we see how impact is lived, not just how it is reported.
At Anzisha, we have built a storytelling engine that bridges this gap. Our model combines qualitative storytelling with quantitative data to paint a more complete picture of what entrepreneurial success and youth empowerment look like across Africa. We follow the journeys of young entrepreneurs who are creating jobs, shifting narratives, and redefining what it means to build a livelihood in uncertain economies. Their stories show us that impact is not always linear. It is iterative, contextual, and deeply human.
A moment for collective learning
When we bring together the rigour of data with the depth of human story, we move closer to understanding the true nature of change. We begin to measure not only what is visible, but also what is meaningful.
So here is a challenge, and perhaps a call to action, for all of us in this space: let us stop treating storytelling as a soft add-on to hard data. Let us stop counting impact and start connecting it. Let us design measurement systems that value both the evidence and the experience, both the outcome and the journey.
Because real impact is not just about proving worth. It is about showing change.
