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How did they participate in the decision-making process?
How did the levels of interest and involvement change throughout the process?
How did age affect the level of participation?
How did they convey their views and priorities throughout the process? Did they discuss issues
openly with men or only with other women?
Did they adapt their daily schedules or routines in order to participate more?
How has their involvement in the process affected their identity or social standing in the broader
community?
How has their involvement affected individual relationships and dynamics within their household or
immediate family?
Overall, do women feel more empowered or satisfied about their role in the community?
Overall, do women feel that certain issues identified by the community protocol have improved,
stayed the same, or worsened?
What lessons have they learned or insights could they share with the rest of the community?
What have the facilitators learned about how to appropriately involve women?
Box 50: Guiding questions and the roles and involvement of women in the protocol process
COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE:
Using Most Significant Change Stories in Sri Lanka to Understand Community Wellbeing
Resource: Adapted from The ‘Most Significant Change’ Technique: A Guide to its Use (Davies and Dart,
2005) and material provided by Future In Our Hands, Sri Lanka
COMPAS partners in Sri Lanka knew that
conventional planning tools that focus primarily
on quantitative indicators were not sufficient to
measure wellbeing (the holistic development of a
community’s material, social, and spiritual
dimensions). They tested and developed Most
Significant Change stories as a way to better
understand people’s realities and perceptions of
wellbeing and endogenous development.
The
technique
involved
systematic
documentation of stories from a select number of
community members. Twenty-four people were
Figure 26: Gnanawathie from Therela village in
identified from the same community in which
Moneragal district said that becoming a trainer of
quantitative data was collected about COMPAS
traditional cultivation practices was the most significant
projects and interventions. In order to ensure
change in her life (Courtesy: Future In Our Hands)
representation across gender and generations,
the group included four each of grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons.
Each person was asked to explain the most significant change that occurred in their lives throughout the
previous two to three years of project interventions. He or she was also asked to justify why that
particular change was most significant. This process provided the space for community members to
narrate their own experiences and express their views in an informal and open-ended manner.
The stories were read and discussed in detail by the field staff and management in order to understand
individual perceptions of wellbeing. COMPAS partners also strove to understand the individual stories in
relation to the broader worldview of the whole community. They engaged in lengthy discussions and
actively learned more about the community’s belief system and village history. This process elicited rich
insights into people’s perceptions of wellbeing, particularly spiritual dimensions that cannot easily be
measured with quantitative indicators.