Most Significant Change
Contents |
Strengths:
- Significant results without baseline,for comparison with impact findings
- Shows to what extent the changes (positive and negative) have been derived from the community medium
- Is story-based and therefore usable in less literate communities
- Interviewee puts changes in a coherent local context, providing a researcher with a fuller picture of the impact caused by the change
- Easily understood and handled, also by ordinary people
- Can be used rigorously, when a set of simple rules is respected
- Aspects of MSC can be used if impact data is quickly needed for documentation purposes
- Relatively cheap to carry out
Weaknesses:
- Care needs to be taken to avoid any kind of skewing of information by the researchers.
Limitations:
- A facilitator is needed the first couple of times an MSC exercise is carried out
- Method has to be used very systematically to ensure the value of results
Short description:
Most Significant Change (MSC) is a story-based impact assessment tool, systematized by Rick Davies and Jessica Dart (2005). MSC has been further elaborated by the Communication for Social Change Consortium. It builds upon the strong oral traditions that often prevail in communities with low levels of literacy. Most participatory evaluation and impact assessment methods require comparison with baseline study or other earlier research findings. Often, this information does not exist. The Most Significant Change method has been developed to meet exactly these situations. Most Significant Change is a tool that is easy for community groups to use. A well described and tested methodology, presenting step-by-step ways forward.
Used to:
MSC is used to document community change derived from the work by and around the community radio. It can, naturally, be used to document other kinds of change as well. While institutional, content and audience research does not necessarily bring forth the final, actual change in the community to which the community has contributed, MSC - when properly applied - does that.
How to put into practice:
For impact assessment, the most important question will be: What is the most significant change that has taken place in your life – or in the life of the community – since the advent of the community radio station? Through structured interviews with carefully identified interest groups a series of “significant changes” are registered. These are rigorously categorized and grouped, and at meetings, community members vote to develop a hierarchy of significant change. In this way, the community decides what is the most significant change.
Examples:
Summary of the East Africa Community Media Project EAMP, coordinated by Econews Nairobi, which used MSC to assess the impact of three community radio stations in East Africa. Coupled with the MSC based is an information and communication audit and a sustainability assessment. The report includes three national reports and one regional summary report.
Country reports: Kenya: Tanzania: Uganda:
Online resources:
The ‘Most Significant Change’ (MSC) Technique: A Guide to Its Use The original description of methodology developed by Rick Davies and Jessica Dart (2005)
Who Measures Change? An Introduction to Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation of Communication for Social Change. Further elaboration of original methodology by Communication for Social Change Consortium.
Author(s):
Birgitte Jallov
Contributions from:
