Inputs

Inputs are what a project puts in before anything happens: the money, the people, the materials and the tools.

The logic model reads as a chain: inputs → activities → outputs → outcomes → impact. Inputs are the first link. They answer a planner's most basic question: what resources do we need for each activity?

Chapter 1's definition is plain: inputs are the resources that go into the project or programme to carry out the activities, including human, financial and material resources such as money, raw material, training material and technology.

Inputs are easy to count, which is exactly why they cannot show impact. A project that spent ₹1 crore has proved that it spent ₹1 crore. Whether anyone's life changed is a question for the later links in the chain.

Three ways the workbook slices inputs:

Pre-project implementation is part of inputs (4.3). The logic model requires a mandatory time gap between listing a project and starting to implement it. This is the t0 year. During it the enterprise selects actual beneficiaries, plans and deploys staff, builds capacity, plans with the community and arranges logistics and infrastructure. The duration and cost of t0 must be documented and built into the design at the pre-listing and listing stages.

Costing inputs for sustainability (4.3.3). The project design should provide for:

1. Listing cost affecting project funding, and who bears which part
2. Pre-project implementation fund
3. Monitoring and evaluation, and knowledge management fund
4. Exit / takeover protocol fund

In the logical framework matrix. Activities produce outputs, "supported by inputs such as funds, personnel and materials". Chapter 4's worked financial-literacy project lists human resources (trainers, financial experts, community facilitators), financial resources, educational materials, infrastructure (training centres, digital platforms), technology (internet, financial apps) and community support (NGOs, banks, self-help groups).

An illustrative project budget, modelled on Chapter 4's financial-literacy case.

Sakhi Arthik Trust plans a 2-year financial-literacy project for rural women in Nashik district and lists it on an SSE.

Check: 18 + 4 + 6 + 5 + 3 + 2 = ₹38 lakh.

The trap in reporting. After a year the trust's newsletter says: "₹19 lakh invested, 40 trainers deployed." Both are inputs. They say nothing yet about workshops held (outputs), women saving more (outcomes) or economic empowerment (impact). An assessor reading the report would ask for the rest of the chain.

The ₹5 lakh t0 line is the one most often missed. Chapter 4 says the t0 year must be costed and discussed at the pre-listing and listing stages.

Chapter 1 (10% weightage) lists inputs among the concepts and terms in social sector interventions (1.5.1). Chapter 4 (10%) covers them in the LFA components (4.2.8), in the logic model flow with pre-project implementation (4.3), and in costing for sustainability (4.3.3). Chapter 4's second sample question asks what "inputs" are in a Logframe (resources needed to implement activities), and Chapter 6's sample questions test the inputs–activities–outputs–outcomes–impact order. Chapter 5 says the Social Project Monitoring Framework details inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impact.

• Inputs are resources, activities are tasks. "Conducting workshops" is an activity. The trainers and money that make it possible are inputs.
• Non-financial resources are inputs too. Human, community, organisational and intellectual resources all count.
• The t0 year belongs to inputs. Pre-project implementation is "an integral part of inputs", and it is a mandatory gap between listing and implementation.
• Spending is not impact. Money deployed is an input, however large.
• Three classifications, no contradiction. Chapter 1 says human, financial and material. Chapter 4's LFA says time, budget and personnel. The logic model says financial and non-financial. They slice the same idea differently.