Surveys are a pretty common activity in international development programs. It is becoming increasingly easy to undertake online-based surveys (as opposed to paper-based), and there are definitely some benefits to be recognised. It used to be that undertaking online-based surveys was a major production, requiring co-opting a web nerd in …
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Working with orphans and vulnerable children can be extremely challenging in developing countries. There are usually only a small number of staff available to monitor the children’s well-being, and often those staff have limited training and experience. As a result, many programs deliver a standard set of interventions for every …
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Improving people’s quality of life is the ultimate goal for many international development programs, even though it might not be stated as such. Having a high quality of life just means having a full and happy life. For example, programs to increase people’s income or health only do this so those …
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In development, it is essential to measure if programs are having the desired impact. However, intangible goals such as ’empowerment’, ‘leadership skills’ and ‘confidence’ are difficult to measure with normal quantitative monitoring tools. This is particularly true in social change programs where improvements in attitudes, behaviour and beliefs take place …
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I was recently involved in a frustrating debate with a World Bank development economist where qualitative research was dismissed as ‘not reliable and anecdotal’. Thankfully, this view now appears to be in the minority, as international NGOs and UN agencies are increasingly recognising and utilising qualitative research methods such as …
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A Theory of Change describes how and why you think change happens. In simple terms, it’s like completing the sentence “if we do X then Y will change because…”. This is particularly important in international development because people often have underlying assumptions or beliefs about change that may not be accurate. …
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As a follow-up to our previous book review of the Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, I decided to review a facilitation book that was written specifically for an international development audience. Participatory Workshops: A Sourcebook of 21 Sets of Ideas & Activities, by Robert Chambers, is a collection of workshop activities …
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The Atlas of Global Inequalities by Ben Crow and Suresh Lodha is one book in a series of international development atlases published by The University of California Press. The same series includes titles such as The Atlas of Human Rights and The Atlas of Climate Change. The purpose of the atlas is to …
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Everyone likes to have a “participatory” project. Donors like it because it makes them sound like they’re supporting locally led development; international NGOs like it because it makes them feel better about being outsiders; and local NGOs like it because the more participatory a project is the more donors want …
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The $1.25 per day international poverty line is the most commonly used measure of poverty. International agencies use it, donors use it, and many NGOs and microfinance institutions want to make sure their programs are reaching people below this line. Unfortunately, determining whether a family actually lives on less than …
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