Welfare Impact Assessment Methodology

Rigorous welfare impact assessment enables comparison of different interventions and policies to identify which actions deliver the greatest welfare improvement per unit of resource.

Key Facts

Welfare impact assessment adapts environmental impact assessment frameworks to quantify suffering and wellbeing change
Key components include identifying affected populations, severity and duration of welfare impacts, and probability of harm
CIWF has developed corporate welfare benchmarking tools used in the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare
Welfare impact calculations often involve significant uncertainty requiring sensitivity analysis and scenario modelling
The field is rapidly developing with increasing use of quantitative welfare science metrics

Welfare Considerations

Welfare impact assessment is a critical tool for ensuring that limited welfare advocacy and policy resources are directed where they can achieve the most good. Without systematic impact assessment, resources may be concentrated on high-profile or emotionally salient welfare issues rather than those causing the greatest total suffering. As the field matures, welfare impact assessment will increasingly enable evidence-based prioritisation of welfare interventions across species, sectors and geographies.

What You Can Do

Support development of standardised welfare impact assessment methodologies
Engage with the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare to understand corporate welfare commitments
Advocate for welfare impact assessments to be required for major agricultural policy changes
Support academic research that develops and validates welfare impact measurement tools
Use welfare impact thinking when making personal decisions about charitable giving and food choices