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.

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.

Make sure everyone understand the approach.

Secondary analysis and meta-monitoring.

Feeding back the results of the selection process.

Selecting the most significant of the stories.

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. MSC has gone by several names since it was conceived, each emphasising a different quality. When the technique is successfully implemented, whole teams of people begin to focus their attention on programme 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. The designated staff and stakeholders are initially involved by ‘searching’ for project impact.

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.

Building community ownership through participatory evaluation.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. It is a form of monitoring because it occurs throughout the program cycle and provides information to help people manage the program. It is participatory because many project stakeholders are involved both in deciding the sorts of change to be recorded and in analysing the data. The most significant change (MSC) technique is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation. Brief Description:From: by Rick Davies and Jess Dart

Pelican monitoring and evaluation