The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique was developed by Rick Davies and Jess Dart in the early 1990s. It’s a participatory technique for gathering qualitative data from direct beneficiaries. An abiding problem with trying to get beneficiary feedback in Africa is that there’s a massive courtesy bias- so people just tell you what you want to hear (it’s even worse than in Ireland).
The great thing about MSC is that you ask people what the most important impact has been for them. Instead of just being able to say that everything was great, they have to pick out one change over everything else. With the Camara schools we take it even further and ask the kids to explain why some changes are more important than others. It’s proven a great way of getting a deeper and more personalised insight into the core of what Camara’s about, and makes for really interesting reading.
Most Significant Change Stories
Most Significant Change Stories
The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique was developed by Rick Davies and Jess Dart in the early 1990s. It’s a participatory technique for gathering qualitative data from direct beneficiaries. An abiding problem with trying to get beneficiary feedback in Africa is that there’s a massive courtesy bias- so people just tell you what you want to hear (it’s even worse than in Ireland).
The great thing about MSC is that you ask people what the most important impact has been for them. Instead of just being able to say that everything was great, they have to pick out one change over everything else. With the Camara schools we take it even further and ask the kids to explain why some changes are more important than others. It’s proven a great way of getting a deeper and more personalised insight into the core of what Camara’s about, and makes for really interesting reading.
MSC Stories [.pdf, 109KB]
For more on the MSC technique check www.mande.co.uk