#IRIS+ is a system developed by the Global Impact Investing Network to help investors measure and manage impact.
Think of it as a catalog of standardized metrics that investors can use across sectors. Examples in global health might include:
Number of patients served
Number of health facilities supported
Access to affordable care
Jobs created in health services
How is it different from DALYs?
DALYs try to answer “how much health did we improve?”, while #IRIS+ tries to answer: “what did this investment actually do, and can we track it consistently?”
The Disability-Adjusted Life Year focuses on outcomes (health gained, life years saved) and relies on complex modeling and assumptions.
The IRIS+, on the other hand, focuses on outputs and #indicators (what happened, what was delivered) and standardized, trackable metrics across investments. This makes it a no-brainer for investors with portfolios across multiple cause areas. But it is not without a tradeoff. More on that later.
