moments+of+most+of+significant+change

Most Significant Change

Brief Description:
From: [] by Rick Davies and Jess Dart The most significant change (MSC) technique is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation. It is participatory because many project stakeholders are involved both in deciding the sorts of change to be recorded and in analysing the data. It is a form of monitoring because it occurs throughout the program cycle and provides information to help people manage the program. It contributes to evaluation because it provides data on impact and outcomes that can be used to help assess the performance of the program as a whole.

When to use:

 * Program evaluation.
 * Organizational review and evaluation.
 * Building community ownership through participatory evaluation.

How to use:
The process involves the collection of significant change (SC) stories from the field level, and the systematic selection of the most important of these by panels of designated stakeholders or staff. The designated staff and stakeholders are initially involved by ‘searching’ for project impact. Once changes have been captured, various people sit down together, read the stories aloud and have regular and often in-depth discussions about the value of the reported changes. When the technique is successfully implemented, whole teams of people begin to focus their attention on programme impact.

MSC has gone by several names since it was conceived, each emphasising a different quality. It is an emerging technique and has already acquired many adaptations, discussed in Davies and Dart (2005).Examples are: ‘Monitoring-without-indicators’ – MSC does not make use of predefined indicators, especially ones which have to be counted and measured; or the ‘story approach’ – the answers to the central question about change are often in the form of stories of who did what, when and why, and the reasons the event was important.

These ten steps are usually included: • Raising interest at the start. • Defining the domains of change. • Defining the reporting period. • Collecting SC stories. • Selecting the most significant of the stories. • Feeding back the results of the selection process. • Verifying the stories. • Quantification. • Secondary analysis and meta-monitoring. • Revising the system.

Tips and Lessons Learnt

 * Make sure everyone understand the approach
 * It is also necessary to make sure everyone understands and 'buys-in' to why this approach is being used and what purpose it will serve. If people are going to put time, energy and knowledge into it they should know why, what it contributes to and what will be done with their stories.
 * Try to make it a team/group effort--something which 'we' will do together--rather than a top-down effort in which people have to comply and produce something (not much different from reporting!)
 * Need to be very clear about the domain of change and how it is defined. The question you ask is really important for the stories you will get. Make sure the question is clear and to the point of what you want to find out. May be good to test it out on someone to make sure what you are asking is what you want and that it is understood by others the same way.
 * Sometimes good to have an example to share with others to give them a kick-start; but beware-you may also get replicas of your example with certain details changed. It is up to you to decide what will work with the group you are working with.
 * You need to handle the selection of 'best stories' process carefully. Everyone who has written and shared a Most Significant Change story will feel very attached to their story and their effort and story should always be respected. It is necessary to understand your group and find a way to instill a team feeling about choosing the change stories which are 'best' for the project/program/activity etc. Sometimes all stories can be used also for certain things, with the selected ones being used for other purposes.
 * Stories can still go through a process of discussion, revision and refinement before being finalised-both before submission and even after selection. The process can help to make an even better story around a key change identified. After all we aren't all good at storytelling and writing and there may be differences in capacity, literacy and language which must be taken into account.
 * While MSC is associated with and used for monitoring, review and evaluation processes, you can get alot more out of it if you link MSC and the stories produced to other parts of a project, activity, program or initiative. MSC and the stories produced can be linked to communication, dissemination, media, and future planning activities to name a few.

Who can tell me more?
Sign in and add your name if you are using this method and are willing to share your tips.

Nadia Manning (IWMI/ICT-KM)- n.manning@cgiar.org

Related Methods/Tools/Practices:

 * Storytelling
 * Critical Moments

More Information/References/Related Resources:

 * [] The ‘Most Significant Change’ (MSC) Technique: A Guide to Its Use" by Rick Davies and Jess Dart (2005). 104 pages. PDF format - 1.236 KB
 * There is now a two-part Spanish translation of the 2005 MSC Guide (pages 1-71, and 71-104), by Eva Camacho  LWR funded the first half of the translation.
 * [] This egroup was formed to promote discussion about the use of an innovative method of monitoring, called the "Most Significant Changes" approach.


 * [|SDC’s Guide to Using Story and Narrative Tools in Development Co-operation, Practitioner’s Version]; Thematic Service Knowledge and Research in Collaboration with Sparknow Ltd., London
 * [|Building bridges using narratives techniques] This guide, developed by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation - [|SDC], was applied like one of the tools used for capture experiences inside of a interesting initiative called [|Water, Land and People: Voices and insights from three continents, A learning initiative implemented in Bolivia, Mali and India], which is available in three languages: English, French and Spanish.
 * [|Anecdote: Putting stories together]