The information collected will not only help to define and negotiate a general goal and purpose (or purposes) for the project, it should help to identify indicators to measure the progress of achieving the goal and purpose.

The project goal, purpose, and related indicators
In the first example below the goal is improving the development of children from birth to age six in urban marginal areas. How can progress toward this goal be measured? In the course of gathering data about the status of children several possible indicators and measures should emerge. One might be improvement in psychosocial development as measured by an instrument currently being applied. Or the indicator might be improvement along several dimensions, as in Jamaica's child status profile. If indicators and instruments are not found, they will need to be created. Coverage indicators are not enough.

Outputs, activities, and assumptions
Gathering the information will also help to define project outputs and even activities. For example, the inventory of projects and programs and the institutional analysis will provide a basis for suggesting models as well as activities needed to make these models work. These suggestions will need to take into account technical considerations (see tabs 3 and 4) and cost considerations (see tab 5).

The information will also help to identify possible risks and external conditions that will affect the project's ability to function as planned. For example, suppose that a project's success will depend on whether or not there is real interest in an ECCD service. If interest is found among only a few stakeholders, the project may need to incorporate an advocacy component at the outset. Or suppose that the original idea for a project was to emphasize the educational preparation of children for school, but children's nutritional status is found to be very poor. The project may need to incorporate a nutrition component rather than assume that participating children will arrive with an adequate nutritional status. Or consider a proposed center-based project in which the planning process finds that parents' practices are antithetical to those proposed for a center, so that what happens in the center will not be supported at home. The program design may need to incorporate parental education.

Examples of goals and purposes
These examples assume that larger problems of poverty and inequity are present and that the goals of poverty alleviation and improved social equity will be served, as suggested in tab 1, by programs directed toward improving the care and development of young children. The path to these greater goals differs in each example.

Example 1.

Problem: Faltering child development linked to lack of attention in urban marginal families; inadequate child care alternatives offered

Goal: Improve the developmental status of children from birth to age six in urban marginal areas.	Indicators: Raise the developmental status of x children by x percent over five years. Measures: health status, nutritional status, psychosocial developmental status (specific measures needed).
Purposes: Improve child rearing practices through family education. Improve system of extrafamilial child care and early education.	Indicators: Increase monitoring visits to local clinics by x percent. Improve feeding practices and diet (specific indicator needed). Reduce physical punishment by x percent (an example of a measure related to psycho-social development).

Example 2.

Problem: Lack of employment options for women living in poverty, linked to child care obligations

Goal: Improve the employment and earnings of poor families.	Indicator:Increase the employment and earnings for x women over five years.
Purposes: Extend and improve system of adequate child care, improving employment options for women.(This would be one purpose in a multipurpose program.)	Indicator: New or improved employment and earnings for x women after children attend child care program.

Example 3.

Problem: High repetition in primary school linked in part to poor preparation of children for entry into primary school

Goal: Improve functioning of the school system by reducing repetition.	Indicator: Reduce repetition by x percent over x years.
Purpose: Improve the preparation of children for primary school.	Indicators: Improved health, nutritional, and psycho-social development status. Improved preliteracy and prenumeracy skills (specific indicators needed).