Impact monitoring is an important tool to inform the management of a firm on strategic ways to enhance social/environment as well as commercial results of the business. Impact o offers opportunity to change the business to become more impactful. It also helps in reporting to investors and the public on the actual achievement of the company.

For companies impact monitoring to be effective needs to become an intrinsic component of their business and therefore be institutionalized in the business feedback. Hence it has to be designed as a simple, affordable and relevant informative tool so that impact assessment can be repeated annually and result in effective reporting. The standards for impact measurement need to align with the accreditation criteria and benchmarks. 

At sector, thematic and program levels, impact monitoring and reporting helps development partners, governments and support organizations to adjust their program for supporting more results on the ground.

The IB/IGB initiative intends to provide technical assistance  funding for impact assessment and reporting at those 4 levels, namely facilitating impact monitoring 

1. For companies to design appropriate impact monitoring tools (the actual reporting on an annual or bi-annual basis needs to be financed by the company to be sustainable.
2. For sector studies commissioned by the IB/IGB secretariat to accumulate learnings of IB/IGB approaches and help business mentors advocating that learning.
3. For thematic studies commissioned by the IB/IGB secretariat to develop new knowledge on cross-cutting subjects such as for example on (a) how to do women empowerment, (b) how to encourage social enterprises to transform to IB/IG, (c) how to make incentives more effective, (d) how to encourage more green business to transform m into IGB, (e) etc.
4. At program level a consolidated impact assessment should be done all 2-3 years reporting on the progress of the IB/IGB initiative and more importantly making suggestions for changes in the program to become more effective.