Qualitative Methods
Julius Nyangaga, MSc, BSc. (he/him/his)
Consultant
Right Track Africa
Nairobi, Kenya
Carmen Wilson-Grau, n/a
Impact Coordinator
Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), United States
Location: Grand Ballroom 2
Abstract Information: This panel illustrates three cases of how storytelling enhanced the quality of Outcome Harvesting evaluations, both during data collection as well as in sensemaking of the data. Dr. Ponge and Noor will explain how participants engaged in an evaluation creatively with storytelling, resulting in richer, more nuanced data, better understanding, and increased insights, as well as increased ownership of the process and evaluation findings. Steff will explain how periodic collective storytelling and listening were used in monitoring and learning processes to discuss the relevance and importance of changes for the program. Julius will share an internal outcome harvesting process where it proved useful in the sensemaking process, to develop stories of multiple outcomes, organized around different types of social actors who changed. This helped to better understand whether the change could be regarded as systemic.
Relevance Statement: Outcome Harvesting, as a participatory monitoring and evaluation methodology, collects evidence of what has changed, and works backwards to determine if and how an intervention contributed to that change. Storytelling is ideal to identify relevant changes in social actors, including unexpected and possibly negative changes. The methodological rigor of outcome harvesting ensures that each of these behavioral changes, or stories, captures the essential elements of who changed what, when and where, how the intervention contributed, and why the change is significant. Outcome harvesting helps to identify and capture mini-stories (outcome statements) that can be organized in multiple ways into bigger stories -also called outcome chains- to tell the “process of change”. The participatory process of distilling and telling these bigger stories greatly enhances ownership and understanding among change agents about the effectiveness of their programme and provides a strong basis for learning and adaptation.
Presenter: Carmen Wilson-Grau, n/a – Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)
Presenter: Julius Nyangaga, MSc, BSc. (he/him/his) – Right Track Africa
Presenter: Awuor C. PONGE, PhD (he/him/his) – African Policy Centre (APC)
Presenter: Noor Muhammad Ansari – Education Above All (EAA) Foundation