Tweet [1]
This section of the website focuses on a small number of methods that I have been trying to develop over the years. When reading these please bear in mind two points: (a) My approach to M&E is not limited to these methods, (b) I am not pushing, or believing in any single school of evaluation – I am in favor of pluralism and creative combination of methods
- Most Significant Change (MSC) [2]: A participatory method of monitoring and evaluating change without the use of indicators
- Hierarchical Card Sorting (HCS) [3]: A simple method of eliciting and documenting people’s informal and tacit / informal knowledge. Useful for managing and evaluating portfolios of projects/partners, stakeholder analysis, and scenario planning.
- The Basic Necessities Survey (BNS) [4]: A democratic and rights-based approach to the measurement of poverty. Simple and easy to use.
- Weighted checklists [5]: A participatory means of measuring complex change. In place of simplistic use of single indicators.
- Evaluation Questions Checklists [6]
- EvalC3- [7]for building and testing complex predictive models of outcomes of interest). EvalC3 is an Excel app that combines a QCA perspective on causality and causal analysis, with the use of predictive analytics search algorithms, plus other features not provided by either
- ParEvo (previously Evolving Storylines) [8]: A participatory method of developing multiple alternative views of the future, or interpretations of the past.
- Network models [9]: An alternative approach to representing theories of change (and what is actually happening), especially as captured by the Logical Framework
- Participatory aggregation of qualitative information [10]: How to use network visualisation software to aggregate and explore categories-in-use by multiple participants (found via pile/card sorting exercises). And how to build up a collective Theory-of-Change from the individual perspectives of multiple stakeholders
The “Rick on the Road [11]” blog also contains many other postings on new methods and approaches, some of which have been developed more than others.
See also my 1998 PhD Thesis: Order and Diversity: Representing and Assisting Organisational Learning in Non-Government Aid Organisations [12]based on field work in Bangladesh between 1992 and 1995