Most Significant Change
The MSC story
The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique was invented by Rick Davies in an attempt to meet some of the challenges associated with monitoring and evaluating a complex participatory rural development program in Bangladesh, which had diversity in both implementation and outcomes. The large scale and open-ended nature of the program’s activities posed a major problem for the design of any system intended to monitor process and outcome (Davies, 1996). Rick developed the MSC technique in an attempt to address these issues as part of the fieldwork for his PhD on organisational learning in non-government aid organisations (Davies, 1996).
Later, Jessica Dart used a modified version of Davies’ concept on an agricultural extension program in Australia, as part of fieldwork for her PhD on evaluation. Jess’ approach focused on interpretation of meaning from the stories and the judgements that are made when reading the stories and deciding whether they represent the sort of outcomes that are valued (1999). Rick and Jess have since agreed on the name The Most Significant Change Technique and written a comprehensive user guide.
Why use MSC?
MSC appears to address many of the difficulties associated with evaluating participatory projects that have diverse outcomes and multiple stakeholders. It is particularly good at capturing that “hard to capture” data about changes in hearts and minds. MSC also has intrinsic appeal because it challenges people to think differently about program evaluation (Dart, 2004). Numerous international development organisations and Australian public sector organisations now use it. There are currently (as at Feb09) 985 people subscribed to an MSC eGroup.
There are several reasons why a wide range of organisations have found MSC very useful …more
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 can occur throughout the program cycle and provide 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.
Bare Bones of MSC
- Collect stories of change
- Review and select stories
- Feedback and communicate the results
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.
Designated staff are initially involved by ‘searching’ for stories about impact. Once changes have been captured, various people sit down together, read the stories aloud and have 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, learning occurs through discussion and areas for improvement can be identified.
So, in MSC, the stories provide:
1. evidence [data] on impact
2. a basis for discussion about the nature of the impact and what this means for future direction.
The core parts of MSC
MSC is an emerging technique, and is continually evolving. At Clear Horizon our latest thinking about MSC has seen it evolve into three distinct parts: Purpose, Process and Use of stories, see below:
- Identify purpose of using MSC
click here for more information on MSC purpose
- Collect stories
- Review & filter stories regularly (selection)
- Discuss & communicate the results of selection (feedback)
click here for more information on MSC process
- Guide refinements of program in light of learning
- Surface dynamic indicators
- Secondary analysis and meta-monitoring
- Communication and promotion
- Reporting
Click here for more information on MSC Use of Stories
Although the extent to which MSC is implemented varies considerably depending on the context, the steps listed under the ‘process’ heading are considered essential to MSC.
For more information about each of these parts, simply click on the headings or links above.
What Clear Horizon offers in MSC
Clear Horizon has a wealth of expertise in MSC. Jess’ research for her PHd involved adapting and testing MSC and was key in further developing the technique. Together Jess and Rick Davies produced the MSC User guide and moderate the MSC e-group. At Clear Horizon we offer in-house tailored training on MSC and well as mentoring and coaching in the technique. We also run regular public training in MSC, so don’t forget to check out our training page!
