Assessing Changes in Social Capacity: Experience with the 'Most Significant Change' Technique
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This paper reports on recent experience with the Most Significant Change technique. We used the technique on a farm forestry extension project to assess what changes in practice had occurred. The Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement framework, developed by Dr Jessica Dart, enabled us to develop 'program logic' for our extension project. This helped us to clarify the changes we anticipated would occur as a result of project activities. We used the Most Significant Change technique to collect qualitative evidence of changes in social capacity. The Most Significant Change technique involved interviewing farmers and Landcare officers (also known as Natural Resource Management officers) who had interacted with the extension project. Their stories were examples of how the project really touched them. Our experience led to five key learnings: - The Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement framework helped us to identify the expected intermediate outcomes of our extension project. - The Most Significant Change technique was effective for assessing changes in social capacity. - The Most Significant Change technique provided opportunities for the project team to discuss what the project was trying to achieve and how it could be improved. - The Most Significant Change technique can be time consuming and needs to be budgeted for. - The Most Significant Change technique provided evidence that one-on-one support to farmers was an effective strategy in bringing about changes in practice.