Monitoring and Evaluation NEWS

Most Significant Change (MSC)

What is MSC, in a nutshell?

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.

Essentially, the process involves the collection of significant change (SC) stories emanating
from the field level, and the systematic selection of the most significant of these stories
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 these reported changes. When the technique is implemented
successfully, whole teams of people begin to focus their attention on program impact.

The MSC story

MSC was originally developed as part of Rick Davies’ PhD field work in Bangladesh in 1992-1995 (See his thesis). Jess Dart did further work on MSC with her own PhD thesis in the late 1990s and since then been a major promoter, trainer and adapter of the MSC technique in Australasia.

An MSC email list was established in 2000, and now has a global membership of more than 850 people interested in and or using MSC. The email list (hosted by Yahoo) also has a file repository, with 45+ folders of documents dating back to 1993, and up to 2008

In 2004 Rick Davies and Jess Dart wrote The ‘Most Significant Change’ (MSC) Technique: A Guide to Its Use, to explain how the technique works and to draw lessons from different uses of MSC

• Download a free digital copy of The ‘Most Significant Change’ (MSC) Technique: A Guide to Its Use

• Hard copies of the MSC Guide can be bought directly from Rick Davies, using the PayPal botton below (be patient, it can be slow). Price: £9.95 plus postage (£2.00)

Over the few years the MSC Guide has been translated into a number of different languages. The MSC Translations blog is now the central repository for information on translations into other languages, including Spanish, French, Sinhala, Hindi, Bahasa Indonesian, and Bangla so far.

What next?

Recently an initiative has been started to promote a “peer production process” which will allow people to take existing Power Point slides used in Rick Davies’ MSC training events and adapt them to the different contexts where they will be training people in the use of MSC. You can find out how this process works, and how to take part, here.

Now under consideration: Design of process of free review of MSC plans and reports in return for public sharing of those documents and critique (via the MSC email list)

Also under development: Zahmoo, an online tool for collating and sharing MSC stories in a given project, being developed by Shawn Callahan of Anecdote

And, see also a continuing series of MSC training events, organised by Jess Dart and her team at Clear Horizon.

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