In order to get an exact evaluation of the progress and success of your project, there need to be statistical and analytical benchmarks that enable you to set interim goals, make decisions, and measure their effects at every stage of the project: its launch, implementation, and completion. Benchmarks are determined through a preliminary assessment of basic conditions and indicators, such as market needs, general concepts among target groups, as well as dangers and challenges before the start of the project. On the basis thereof you can measure your project’s progress and the change if effects in target communities during and after implementation.

The data of a preliminary survey may be available from official or local sources, which conveniently limits the task of the researcher to collecting the necessary information, updating, amending, and comparing it regularly.

In some cases, and especially in the absence of official statistics and reliable sources, the preliminary survey is necessary to define the indicators that form the basis of your project evaluation. To that end, there are numerous methodologies you may use to define these indicators, taking into account the temporal, geographical, and financial specifics of the project. The preliminary survey takes place right after the needs assessment and project planning and before implementation.

The outcomes of the preliminary survey differ according to the overall goals of the project. For example, a preliminary survey on women entrepreneurship in the creative industries of the Arab region may require a literature review and the collection of information on percentages of women’s representation in leading entrepreneurial positions in the sector; the types and levels of their jobs compared to men; attitudes and behaviours of concerned parties towards female representation in leadership; circumstances that favour women’s access to leadership and possibilities to standardise them; available and non-available measures to support women’s representation; initiatives that promote women’s presence in entrepreneurial leadership and the extent of their success.

This information fundamentally determines the formulation of a project’s short- and long-term policies, assignment of responsibilities, and attraction of interest of concerned parties in markets where the lack of information is not a main obstacle to successful long-term projects.