NGO-IDEAs

www.ngo-ideas.net

Tiny Tools
Measuring Change
in Communities and Groups
An Overview
v 1.2.1, January 2012

IMPACT PLUS TEAM:

Bernward Causemann
Eberhard Gohl
Verena Brenner
Planckstrasse 6, D-70184 Stuttgart, Germany
www.impact-plus.de
In Cooperation with
George Cottina
Godofredo Limotlimot
C. Rajathi

NGO-IDEAs

Tiny Tools: Measuring change in communities and groups

Table of Contents
Introduction to the Overview: Tiny Tools .................................................................. 3
A. Analysing trends .................................................................................................................. 4
A.1. Lifeline / Quality of Life Curve ............................................................................................. 4
A.2. Trend Analysis........................................................................................................................ 5
A.3. Road Journey Diagram.......................................................................................................... 6
A.4. Kasese Tool ............................................................................................................................. 6
A.5. Gender Role Transformation ................................................................................................ 7
B. Causes for Change ............................................................................................................. 7
B.1. Activity List ............................................................................................................................. 7
B.2. Influence Matrix ..................................................................................................................... 8
B.3. Causal Diagrams................................................................................................................... 10
C. Narratives .............................................................................................................................. 11
C.1. MSC light .............................................................................................................................. 11
C.2. Tree of Change ..................................................................................................................... 11
C.3. Government and Opposition ............................................................................................... 12
D. Some Consequences ........................................................................................................ 12
D.1 A Combination of Tools: MAPP and others ....................................................................... 12
D.2 Participatory Rural Appraisal Tools ................................................................................... 13
D.3 Words of Caution .................................................................................................................. 13
The NGO-IDEAs Publications .................................................................................................... 14

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Tiny Tools: Measuring change in communities and groups

Introduction to the Overview: Tiny Tools

Why Tiny Tools for assessing change?
Our Vision for the Tiny Tools
Currently, change is mostly assessed by
Communities assess the change that happens around
NGO staff or external experts. The vision
them. Through structured reflection with tools like these,
of this paper is that communities assess
they
and reflect change themselves and make
realise what change happened,
come to understand what led to this change,
use of that reflection with appropriate
become aware of how they can influence developtools. All the tools presented here are relaments, and act on that.
tively quick and easy to learn (therefore
This happens initially with the facilitation from NGOs or
tiny). With Tiny Tools we can assess
other outsiders. This process also provides NGOs with a
change in one session. They can therefore
better understanding of the dynamics and priorities in a
be used where there are not baselines.
community.
They are structured and systematic, and
they are all widely tested: Experience shows that these tools lead to new insights, mobilise enthusiasm and
increase the capacity of communities to bring about further change. The Tiny Tools are in line with what
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) wanted to achieve. Many are slight variations of PRA tools. For a detailed description of concepts, see the NGO-IDEAs Impact Toolbox (www.ngo-ideas.net/impact_toolbox)
and the NGO-IDEAs Manual Self-Effectiveness (www.ngo-ideas.net/monitoring_self_effectiveness).
The tools are designed to visualise change, but also enable communities to reflect on the reasons of change
or verify assessments. They may be implemented once or continuously over time. We know that the time of
community members is precious, and limited. Therefore all Tiny Tools can be performed in a relatively short
session, provided facilitators (it could be field staff or project officers) are experienced and the community
knows and trusts them. The amount of time spent on the application of the tools may however be prolonged
according to the needs of a community or NGO. All of these tools are easy to learn for a facilitator experienced in participatory processes.
Which tool should be introduced to which community? It is typically the decision of a development organisation (or external experts) which tools they want to introduce into a community. The staff need to assess
which tool will lead to learning and action. It could also be that the staff realise aspects of change that they
do not understand well enough. These tools are good for exploring change that we have not planned for and
not anticipated. They are also good for exploring change in a context where we have no prior information.
Communities are the best experts for their situation, but we emphasise that the tools should be used in ways
that benefit and empower the communities
Manuals
or individuals participating. The tool imFor some of these tools, NGO-IDEAs has developed short
plementations should lead to consequences
step-by-step guides how to facilitate the tools in commuon the grassroots as well as the NGO level.
nities. See www.ngo-ideas.net/tiny_tools.
All Tiny Tools can be integrated into PIAR, the Analysis tool in the NGO-IDEAs Impact Toolbox. Also, the
Tiny Tools can help to prepare for the application of the Toolbox tools. They help to make people aware of
changes that can be observed. The following box gives some hints how Tiny Tools relate to the Impact Toolbox tools, and to what extent they help to attribute change to development interventions.
Tool
Lifeline / Quality of Live Curve
Trend Analysis
Road Journey
Kasese Tool
Gender Disaggregation
Activity List
Influence Matrix
Interdependence Matrix
Causal Diagrams/Diagramming
Most Significant Changes light
Tree of Change
Government and Opposition

PWR
----------------------

SAGE
Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
--Preparation
----Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
---

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PAG
Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
--------Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
---

PIAR
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Attribution
+
+

--+
++
++
++

+
+
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This paper is just an appetizer. It only gives a short overview of some tools that are available. It is not a
guide for implementation. Some guidelines are available on www.ngo-ideas.net/tiny_tools. We will be
grateful for suggestions of more tools, for more reference literature and especially for feedback on practical
experience with the tools. Please contact bc@causemann.org or gohl@impact-plus.de.
The Tiny Tools are classified in three categories:
A. Tools to analyse trends
B. Tools to analyse causes of change
C. Narrative tools

Manual
The NGO-IDEAs Guide to Lifeline provides a detailed
description as well as different examples on how to use
Lifeline in different variations (www.ngoideas.net/tiny_tools).
Links
www.intercooperation.ch/offers/download/ic-india/pme1.pdf
Susanne Neubert, Description and Examples of Mapp.
Method for Impact Assessment of Programmes and Projects, DIE, Bonn/Lusaka 2010 (www.ngoideas.net/tiny_tools).
International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Tools Together now!
100 participatory tools to mobilise communities for
HIV/AIDS, Brighton, 2006, p. 74
(http://www.aidsalliance.org/includes/Publication/Tools_
Together_Now_2009.pdf).

A. Analysing trends
A.1. Lifeline / Quality of Life Curve

How has life developed in a community? Lifeline

gives the participants and the facilitators a good
idea of the development in a community. Lifelines
can also show experiences and the history of people, organisations or communities. Community
members are asked in a meeting what time they
can remember in their community. Often a significant event is taken as starting point (a drought, a
bumper harvest, violent clashes, the building of a road etc.). People name those years that have been best and
worst. The best are given 5 point: the highest rating. The worst get 1 point: the lowest rating. Then all other
years are given between 1 and 5 points. A graphic description of developments is created. The rating is what
makes it different from conventional time-lines. The discussion in the community generates much information (and reflection) on what caused the developments. Community members raise their level of awareness
on the situation in the community. The explanations they give are as important to note as the figures themselves.
The following example shows changes in the quality of live in a community. The NGO started working in
the community in 1996. But diseases and poor harvests let the situation decline. Slow recovery through development efforts, the building of a dam in 2002 and better rains led to steep improvement. A fire and a disease led to the poor rating in 2005/6. In conclusion, very poor harvests, calamities and serious diseases are
causes for the worst conditions in certain years, major development investments and very good harvests
make very good years.
Chart Showing Village lifeline and Impact on Quality of Life

Impact (Scale 1-5)

5
4

2
1
1990

95

2000

05 2006

Source: Bernward Causemann/Sachin Mardikar: Impact Study Chetana Vikas, Tbingen 2007
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There are many possible variations. Similar time lines (graphical time trends) can be obtained when asking
for important changes in peoples lives: economic, social, cultural , even with regard to very specific aspects. They can be used to analyse contributions to change (why does the line go up or down?), they can be
differentiated according to social groups (e.g. one line for women, one for men / one for old, one for young
people), and it can be prolonged by some years (e.g. a line that ends in 2012 could be continued into 2015).
This look into the future may help to identify how people see the sustainability of changes.

A.2. Trend Analysis

Members of a community determine the most important criteria of social development, or quality of life in
their community. For each criterion, the participants then rate this criterion for years in the past. That gives
an idea about the trends that the community underwent in various aspects. Notes need to be taken of the explanations that people give for the ratings.
This tool gives a more differentiated, disaggregated view of developments than Lifeline.
It can well be done after a Lifeline. In the
discussion, the various causes of changes and
trends are described. That leads to an increased understanding by the community and
by facilitators. It can help the community to
understand on which activities they will put
their priorities. The future trend can also be
assessed.
Table:

Resources
The NGO-IDEAs Guide to Trend Analysis provides a detailed description as well as different examples on how to
use Trend Analysis in different variations (www.ngoideas.net/tiny_tools).
Links
Susanne Neubert, Description and Examples of Mapp.
Method for Impact Assessment of Programmes and Projects, DIE, Bonn/Lusaka 2010 (www.ngoideas.net/tiny_tools).

Trend analysis for Kal

Year

Criteria
Improvement or impoverishment of
livelihoods
Agricultural yields
Family incomes
Consumer prices of cereals
Health status of children
Access or exclusion from resources
Access to firewood
Access to drinking water
Access to the market
Access to means of transport
Access to productive land
Expansion or reduction of knowledge
School enrolment rate
Knowledge of sustainable land use
Participation in or alienation from
rights
Conflicts between farmers and herdersa
Migrationb
Key:
= very positive
= positive
= fair
= negative
= very negative

1990

Project begins

'91
'92
'93

'94

'95

'96

'97

Trend
'92 - '97

++
+
-++
++
++
++
++

++
++

-++
Remarks
a The higher the number of points, the fewer the conflicts.
b The higher the number of points, the less migration.

Source: Susanne Neubert, MAPP - A New Method for Impact Assessment of Poverty Alleviation Projects, Bonn 1999,
see section C.1 in this paper.

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A.3. Road Journey Diagram

Road journey diagrams are useful for charting a group or individuals aims and to see how original aims
relate to the actual developments in a community. Workshop participants draw a common road map that
describes change over time. The road may be straight or winded, diagonally upwards or downwards. Buildings, bridges or other symbols are drawn to symbolize key events, opportunities, achievements, problems,
obstacles, shocks or support received along the way. It may be necessary at some stage to redraw the map if
ideas change during the discussion. Separate sheets may be drafted to go into further detail regarding the key
symbols on the Road Map.
Forward looking maps can be used for strategic planning, whereas backward looking Road Journey Diagrams may be used for assessing what major changes happened and what successes or failures have been
perceived. They can be qualitatively and quantitatively analysed.
Questions could be:
Do we feel, we have succeeded?
Have we changed along the way?
What were the main achievements and challenges?
Were the original objectives too ambitious or
too limited?
What are implications for the future?

Resources
A Manual on Road Journeys can be found at:
www.lindaswebs.org.uk/Page3_Orglearning/PALS/PALS_Docs/PA
LS_%20RoadJourneys_Draft2005.doc
More pictorial diagrams at:
http://www.lindaswebs.org.uk/Page3_Orglearning/PALS/PALSInt
ro.htm

Enterprise Road Journey,Green Home, Uganda

Source: Linda Mayoux 2005

A.4. Kasese Tool

Group Road Journey, KRC, Uganda

Source: Linda Mayoux 2005

Resources
The experience with the Kasese tool is described in more

The Kasese tool was developed with a group

detail, step-by-step, in a documentation of NGO-IDEAs field
experience (www.ngo-ideas.net/tiny_tools).
of Persons with Disabilities in Kasese, a town
in Western Uganda, who had formed a group
to overcome their discrimination. Each member compared where s/he stood in terms of discrimination at the
groups start and where s/he wanted to get at. Then, s/he assessed on a scale from 1 to 10 where s/he was
now. When all had scored, two questions followed: What have you achieved that makes you be here? and
Why do you say you are not at 10?. This was documented and particularly the obstacles were discussed
which and led to plans for further action. The Kasese Tool is amongst the easiest, tiniest of the Tiny Tools.
It was actually developed as an introduction into group and individual goal setting, which is the focus of the
NGO-IDEAs Impact Toolbox where a similar but more complex procedure is described in detail.

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A.5. Gender Role Transformation

Have the roles of husband and wife
Links
changed over time? We need to ask both
This tool may be combined with the tools Gender Boxes,
woman and man separately, and let them
Gender Role Chart, Gender myths described in:
compare their assessments. This Tiny Tool
http://www.aidsalliance.org/includes/Publication/Tools_Toge
ther_Now_2009.pdf
lists a number of roles and asks how strong
the position of wife and husband in each
role was in the past, and how strong it is now. After conducting this exercise, it is possible to calculate the
overall rate of role transformation. On each item, a scaling is done, like between 0 and 10. Criteria can be
adapted according to context.
Matrix Assessing Gender Role Transformation
Woman
Before

Man
Now

Before

Now

Attitude/Knowledge/Skills
Decision making ability
Conflict resolution ability
Economic
Awareness on credit needs
Increased income
Social
Equal treatment for daughters and sons
Consciousness on self and family health
Political
Participation in village meetings

B. Causes for Change

B.1. Activity List
Community members in a workshop list all project activities and project sponsors that had an influence on
the community. Then they evaluate the importance of each activity for the everyday lives of the target
groups, and identify those parts of the population benefiting from the activity. In the next step community
members discuss and give scores for the
Resources
amount of work that is needed for the imThe NGO-IDEAs Guide Activity List provides a detailed
plementation of these activities. Financial
description as well as examples on how to use an Activity
input could also be rated.
List in different variations (www.ngo-ideas.net/tiny_tools).
In Activity Lists, the community compares different projects in a systematic way in terms of importance, that
is the benefit for their daily lives. Community members can draw conclusions regarding the significance of
the projects. As they tend to give points according to the actual change that comes out of the activities, the
Activity List generates information on how change can be attributed to different activities and actors.
The example below is an Activity List for a village in West Africa where different organisations did a number of different development activities. These have been rated by community members. It can be seen that
the health station and the school were rated highest in importance while other activities had the highest demand on their labour.

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Table:
Activity

Tiny Tools: Measuring change in communities and groups

Activity list for Kal

Organization

Importance for
daily life

Beneficiary groupa

Labour expended

Health station
OOb
M+W
School
OO
M+W
Nature reserves
PGRN
M
Anti-erosion contour
PGRN
M
stone-lines
Composting facilities
PGRN
M
organic manuring
Grain bank
PGRN
M+W
Wether fattening
PGRN
M+W
Village savings bank
OO (?)
M+W
Irrigated rice growing
PGRN
M+W
Irrigation plant
PGRN
W
Pump for well
OO
M+W
Tree plantations
PGRN
M
Bee-keeping
PGRN
M
a Where socio-professional groups are concerned, almost all the users are farmers.
b Other Organizations
Key:
= very important / very considerable expenditure of labour
Women (W), Men (M)
= important / considerable expenditure of labour
= fairly important / medium expenditure of labour
= little importance / little expenditure of labour
= no importance / no expenditure of labour

Source: Susanne Neubert, MAPP - A New Method for Impact Assessment of Poverty Alleviation Projects, Bonn 1999
Resources
The NGO-IDEAs Guide Influence Matrix provides a detailed
description as well as different examples on how to use an
Influence Matrix in different variations (www.ngoideas.net/tiny_tools).
Links
Susanne Neubert, Description and Examples of Mapp.
Method for Impact Assessment of Programmes and Projects,
DIE, Bonn/Lusaka 2010 (www.ngo-ideas.net/tiny_tools

B.2. Influence Matrix

The Tiny Tools described above help to

analyse impact or outcome either from the
perspective of change observed, or from the
perspective of the factors that may have
contributed to change. The influence matrix
combines the two previous perspectives: It
looks both at the change, and at the causes for change, and allows for visualisation and quantification.

Farmers Association in a village in Bangladesh

Interventions

Indicator for change

1 Income
2 Availability of seeds
3 Skills
4 Farmer-farmer relations
5 Food security
Active sum
Total
(What has
positive
influenced?)
Total
negative

Seed
selection
and development
1
1
2
2
2
8

Seed
exchang
e
2
2
1
2
1
8

Vegetables

Organisation

Media
exposure

Microcredit

1
1
1
2
2
7

1
2
2
2
1
8

1
0
1
2
1
5

0
0
0
-2
0
0

Passive sum (What

has been influenced?)
Total
Total
positive
negative
6
6
7
10
-2
7

-2

This example is about a program that introduced local food plant varieties in the village to replace high yield
varieties. Other interventions were also rated. We gain the following insights: Farmer-to-farmer relations
were most influenced by development interventions in this village. Seed selection, seed exchange and selforganisation were the most influential factors1.

There is a methodological discussion if numbers may be added so easily. See the link on weighting in chapter C.
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The influence matrix was designed to attribute observed changes to project activities, and to external influences, and to identify useful and not so useful activities. During a group discussion, the strength of the influence of every project output (or external contribution) on each social criterion is evaluated.
Step 1: Make a list of changes / criteria
Step 2: List important project activities
Step 3: Score the influence on a scale from 0 = no influence to 2 = high influence /positively or negatively
Step 4: Add up the different influences in the lines and in the columns
Step 3 gives important information on the various activities. Communities often find these reflections very
relevant and enlightening. Once all the relevant influences have been included in the matrix, we form active
and passive sums. These reflect how much influence each activity had (the one which reaches the highest
active sum is the most influential), and they show which significant change has been influenced how much
(the ones with the highest passive sums have improved the most). Positive and negative figures are summed
separately. Here again it is important to also note the reasons that people give for their ratings.

Interdependence Matrix

Links
For more information, see: Herweg/Steiner: IMA Toolbox
2002, Part 2,

A variation of the influence matrix is the interhttp://www.cde.unibe.ch/Tools/pdf/imavol2en.pdf

For Social Network Analysis, check Wikipedia, with links
dependence matrix which helps analysing to
to software.
what extent the observed changes have been
2
For an Excel template for the interdependence matrix, go
influencing each other. The interdependence
to www.ngo-ideas.net/tiny_tools.
matrix can be used for further analysis, including graphic descriptions. That has been developed both in Cybernetics and in Social Network Analysis. In
the example below, a study of a watershed project in Costa Rica, participants at a workshop have assessed
which factors have what influence on each other. The factors on the left are the same as on top, the factors on
the left influence those on the top. Here, 0.1 stands for no influence, 0.5 for weak influence, 1 for moderate,
2 for strong influence. Results: Resistance to change (no. 11) with an active sum of 20 has the highest
influence. Contamination of rivers and springs (no. 1) with a passive sum of 16.3 is most influenced.

Source: de Bruin, Annemarieke: Managing a watershed by managing a project, 2005. Erosion Soil & Water Conservation Group, Soil Science Centre, Wageningen University.
2

The matrix is also known as paper computer (Frederic Vester) or as Participatory Systems Analysis (Herweg/Steiner: IMA Toolbox 2002).
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B.3. Causal Diagrams

Causal diagrams (also called cause-effectdiagrams or linkage diagrams) are used to
create a visual idea of the influences that
led to change. Community members agree
an what change they have observed and
discuss reasons for this change. They draw
or write them on paper or on the ground,
and draw arrows: What caused the
change? What were the consequences?
Causal diagrams are more commonly
known in planning and situation analysis.
In a problem tree, the causes and consequences of a problem are analysed in a
chart. It is also possible to describe linked
problems, no need to limit it to one. And it
does not have to go from bottom to top a
chart can have loops, recursive effects and
be divided into sections like in the example from Ethiopia.
One way to create a causal diagram is to
start from the project outputs (the services
Example from Ethiopia in a study conducted by FAKT
or products of a development project, like
new agricultural techniques or a self-help group) and ask a number of questions:
1. What are the important contributions or
Resources
outputs of the project?
The NGO-IDEAs Guide Causal Diagrams provides a de2. How did you make use of these products
tailed description (www.ngo-ideas.net/tiny_tools)
or services? How did you apply the new
Different types of causal diagrams are described in the
NGO-IDEAs Impact Toolbox, p68, and the Manual Moniknowledge or skills?
toring Self-effectiveness, p 19, p 79.
3. What are the changes in your situation
Links
that resulted directly from this use of
http://www.aidsalliance.org/includes/Publication/Tools_Together_
outputs? What were the benefits? What
Now_2009.pdf, p82
were the undesired changes, if any?
4. To which lasting and significant changes in your life and your environment did this outcome contribute?
After answering these questions, community members are asked to give answers to these questions and put
them in a logical sequence of what led to what (cause-effect-relationships). These answers are drawn or written in a diagram.
Usually, changes are caused not only by the use of the projects outputs. There are also significant external
influences. Therefore we need to consider the questions:
a) Which influences have contributed to the observed changes? (from inside and outside the project)
b) Which influences have been obstacles to the observed changes? (from inside and outside the project)
In a next step, leading to action, it can make sense to add the following question:
5. To what extent will it be possible to sustain these changes, or to bring about more positive change?

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C. Narratives
C.1. MSC light
If we ask, people can tell us about many changes in their lives and their communities. With MSC light (Most
Significant Changes in a simplified form, applied only on community level), we ask people to tell stories of
positive and negative change they experienced and considered very significant, i.e. very relevant for their
lives. We ask each person in a group to tell one story. We ask them why this change is so significant. Then
we ask all participants to select one of the stories told by the group as the most significant change, and we
ask to explain why it is so significant. We help the group to understand their different criteria why they regard change as significant.
We can either ask people to talk about
Links
change that they link to the development
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MostSignificantChanges
intervention (project etc.) or just any change
www.petersigsgaard.dk/PDFfiler/doing_away_with_%20pre
they experience. The more general we ask,
determined_indicators.pdf
www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.pdf
the more unexpected changes and changes
http://www.aidsalliance.org/includes/Publication/Tools_Toge
not linked to a project may be shared. It is
ther_Now_2009.pdf
important to also note and reflect on those
stories that are not chosen as the most significant ones. The reasons why stories are regarded to be significant are as important as the stories.
MSC light focuses only on the application in communities. It is a small part of a broader M&E concept of
Most Significant Changes that involves all hierarchies of a development organisation. MSC can be integrated
into the general M&E system of an organisation. It is, however, not recommendable to apply MSC with the
same group too often.

MSC Variation: sub-group level

In a group of 20-30 people, the participants
are divided into sub-groups of about five.
Each person is asked to tell one story of significant change. Each sub-group selects a
story they regard as most significant and
share it with the whole group. The reasons
why stories are regarded to be significant are
as important as the stories. Out of the selected sub-group stories, the whole group
selects the most significant story of change.
The stories that are not selected should not
be forgotten. They might contain very important information.

Example
In Tanzania, a group of mothers of children with disabilities is asked to share stories of change. All mothers with
their children are part of a community rehabilitation programme. The mothers tell stories of their children gaining
skills, of some children going to school, how they gain
confidence to go out into the community with their children. In the end, the group agrees to select the story of
a mother who has been accepted again by her husband
and her in-laws as most significant. Rehabilitation helps
against the harsh discrimination that mothers of children
with disability experience. That was most significant to
this group of mothers.

C.2. Tree of Change

Drawing a Tree of Change can help communities learn about the most significant positive changes in their
village/neighbourhood, as well as who has contributed to them. In a meeting, community members tell each
other about what they perceive to be significant positive changes having occurred during a given period of
time (e.g. the past ten years). The group draws pictures representing each of these significant changes. Then,
the group discusses how important these changes were, and who/how many people benefited from them. The
group decides which of the pictures shows the most significant changes by allocating points/seeds (from 1 to
10) to each of the pictures according to the perceived relevance of the respective change. The group draws a
picture of a tree. The pictures showing the three most significant changes are hung on the development tree
as fruits. Then the group discusses questions, such as: What are the roots of the tree (i.e. causes for change)?
Who waters the tree (i.e. contributors to the change)? Are there birds eating the fruit (i.e. possible risks)? The
tree to which all participants have contributed shows their understanding of most significant changes.
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Gisela Poole of World Vision Germany shared her experiences with this tool. World Vision uses it in transition processes, in which local organisations become independent of World Vision support. The tool helps to
focus the transition planning on sustaining these most significant positive changes because they are perceived as valuable by the communities. Using the tree of change methodology with groups will help all
stakeholders to better understand the current level of capacity and motivation/vision. Local stakeholders are
more likely to take ownership in sustaining changes they consider to be very significant.

C.3. Government and Opposition

This tool is a role play. Staff of an organisation is divided into three groups: one group of observers, one
group of people whose task it is to defend und justify the organisations work and its achievements (the
government) und one group whose task it is to criticise and emphasize short-comings and negative effects
(the opposition). One person takes the role of a neutral speaker, like in parliament, who facilitates the
discussion. In the role play, government and opposition discuss of the organisations work and achievements.
Government emphasises the impact and its own contribution, opposition emphasises the short-comings
and what other contributed to the change that has been observed. In the end, the observers talk about their
impressions, and a general sharing can follow. Main points said during the role play can be analysed and
documented. Observers, or a special person assigned can take notes. Note: The tool requires a high level of
trust amongst the participants. It is advisable to have a leader of the organisation in the opposition group.
We have learned the tool from Gottfried Horneber, a German consultant of FAKT consult who occasionally
uses it in evaluations. He has applied it so far only with staff of development organisations. Would a tool like
this also work with community members? We would be interested in feedback.

D. Some Consequences

PRA and PME-Links

There are more possibilities and more tools

than described in this overview. More tools
will be added later. There are also some
limitations. This section reflects on opportunities and limitations.

www.fao.org/docrep/003/x5996e/x5996e06.htm
wwwwds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/I
B/1996/04/01/000009265_3980624143608/Rendered/PDF/multi
0page.pdf
www.intercooperation.ch/offers/download/ic-india/pme-1.pdf
www.theglobalfund.org/documents/me/M_E_Toolkit.pdf
www.rhrc.org/resources/general_fieldtools/toolkit/protocols.html

D.1 A Combination of Tools: MAPP and others

The Tiny Tools can be combined to further enhance understanding and information. One example for that is
MAPP, a collection of tools developed by Susanne Neubert that has been used to evaluate NGOs, as well as
large government programmes.
MAPP combines the tools Lifeline, Trend
Analysis, Activity List and Influence Matrix,
plus two more tools, in a 2-day workshop with
representatives of a community. It gives a very
thorough understanding on the communitys
perception of change and its causes, including
a number of steps of triangulation and validation. These are not only very informative, they
are also great, elating learning experiences for
the representatives of the community.

Resources
Susanne Neubert, Description and Examples of Mapp.
Method for Impact Assessment of Programmes and Projects, DIE, Bonn/Lusaka 2010 (www.ngoideas.net/tiny_tools/)
Links
A comment on MAPP by Robert Chambers can be found in his article A Revolution Whose Time Has Come? The Win-Win of Quantitative Participatory Approaches and Methods, IDS Bulletin 41/6,
Nov 2010, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.17595436.2010.00181.x/abstract

Another combination of such tools is PALSA: Participatory Livelihood Systems Analysis. PALSA starts
with participatory assessment of the livelihood situation. Furthermore, the livelihood system is analysed.
Thirdly, the methodology assesses the effects, certain projects or project interventions have on the changes of
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the livelihood situation. PALSA allows for the

comparison of different project interventions
and their effectiveness and efficiency in triggering positive changes. The method was developed by the FAO and tested in eight villages in
Cambodia.

Links
Martin Strele, Kristin Hltge, Markus Fiebiger, Jaqueline Were,
Anke Schulmeister: Participatory Livelihoods Monitoring: Linking
Programmes and Poor Peopless Interests to Policies, Experiences
from Cambodia, LSP Working Paper 21, Rome, FAO, 2006
(ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/ah455e/ah455e00.pdf)

Yet another combination is PADEV. Instead of looking at programmes and projects of only one external
actor, the changes in a region over the past twenty to thirty years are assessed. The aim is to find out which
interventions contributed to which changes (www.padev.nl).

Tools for visualising results of other tools:

There are various good practices to visualise
change. These have been adapted for the development work in PRA: Maps and transects, diagrams, seasonal calendars, flow diagrams and
venn diagrams can be used. Two of these tools
are particularly useful to visualise change: Spider Web and Scoring List, see box.

Resources
More guidance on Spider Web and Scoring List can be found
in Herweg/Steiner: IMA Toolbox 2002, Parts 1 and 2.
http://www.cde.unibe.ch/Tools/pdf/imavol1en.pdf
http://www.cde.unibe.ch/Tools/pdf/imavol2en.pdf
These are also available in languages other than English.
Further sources:
http://www.kstoolkit.org/Spider+Diagrams

D.2 Participatory Rural Appraisal Tools

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Participatory Rapid Appraisal, Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) or Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) offer lots of participatory and tiny tools for analysing situations in
the past and in the present. Therefore, all the tools are appropriate for monitoring and for analysing outcome
and impact. The following tools can be used for monitoring outcome and impact:
Maps and transects
Diagrams
Seasonal calendars
Flow diagrams
Venn diagrams
All these tools in most of the cases graphs for visualising change have to be combined with an adequate
approach of working with the group or the individuals, and with an adequate set of questions to find out precise information on the change and of the factors that contributed to this change. Only then can we obtain
reliable information on outcome and impact. Many of the Tiny Tools, and all MAPP tools, come from PRA.

D.3 Words of Caution

These Tiny Tools do not try to solve all problems that we experience in monitoring and evaluation, or in
learning about development. A few points need to be noted:
Reliability and validity are limited, as with all tools. The reflection of the communities on the results of the tools will generate information that helps to put the data into perspective. If tools are applied by sub-groups at the same time (women/men, migrants/indigenous, adult/youth etc.), and the
participants then compare the different results, even more insights will be generated and reliability of
information increase. Like all tools in social research, these tools will not generate absolute, valid
truth but show very relevant perspectives that need to be triangulated with other perspectives. Very
helpful will be here the views of professionals working in the community, including field staff of
NGOs. These tools cannot substitute interviews with such professionals, but tremendously complement and enrich their perspectives.
Figures and Narratives: Many Tiny Tools generate figures. But these can only be interpreted together with the reasons that people give for their rating, the narratives. The figures alone can be misleading.
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Aggregation: The data generated can be aggregated, for each tool in a specific way. Describing how
to do that, and the limitations, would take this paper too far and needs to be described elsewhere.
Weighting: Some tools compile a number of different indicators and add them. But indicators might
have a different weight: some are more important than others. A good reflection on weighting with
lots of resources can be found on www.mande.co.uk.
Quantification of Reach: An important question in assessing development efforts is: How many
people benefited? These tools do not answer that question. NGOs should have data on how many
people took part in the efforts, or live in a specific community. Different sources of information need
to be combined to come to an assessment of the numbers of people whose lives changed.
Participation: No tool is participatory in itself. But all tools in this paper can be used in a participatory manner. They can all be facilitated so that they empower communities. Much depends on the
style of facilitation, the selection of participants and the general set-up. NGO-IDEAs encourages a
more participatory application, giving the groups or communities much ownership over the process
and focussing on their concerns. It is part of the NGO-IDEAs participation guidelines that each application of a tool should be concluded with two questions that should be put to participants:
1) Did you benefit from this tool? How?
2) What are the consequences? What do you want to do to improve the situation?

The NGO-IDEAs Publications

The NGO-IDEAs publications deal with different aspects of Participatory Impact Monitoring, involving
grassroots perspectives. They are all available on www.ngo-ideas.net/publications
NGO-IDEAs Impact Toolbox
The Impact Toolbox describes simple tools for participatory planning and monitoring of grassroots
projects. It is designed to enable NGOs, groups and group members to steer a project to enhance
positive outcomes or impacts, and reduce negative ones. (VENRO and NGO-IDEAs)
How do they do it? Civil Society Monitoring Self-effectiveness: An NGO-IDEAs documentation of field experience
The publication presents descriptions of examples of outcome and impact analysis, which illustrate
to staff of development organisations how outcome and impact assessment can be implemented and
used in different ways. (VENRO and NGO-IDEAs)
Monitoring Self-Effectiveness: A Manual to Strengthen Outcome and Impact Oriented Project Management
The Manual intends to support an organisation to focus its planning, monitoring and evaluation procedures towards increased outcome and impact orientation. (VENRO and NGO-IDEAs)
NGO-IDEAs GrafStat Guide
GrafStat is a simple and helpful software which can be used by development organisations to prepare
their monitoring data for analysis. This guide focuses on applications and examples of GrafStat relevant for NGO-IDEAs.
NGO-IDEAs Tiny Tools for Impact Assessment
The NGO-IDEAs Tiny Tools of Impact Assessment present easily applicable tools, which help to
assess changes (outcomes and impacts) and its causes with only one single application. They can be
used for external evaluation as well as for self-assessment of projects.

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