Future Plans

The Qualitative Information System

Making sure every voice counts

Introduction

We now know that participatory methods can empower local people to plan new services and make existing services more sustainable and equitable. Participatory methods, however, take time and often generate only qualitative information - which can be difficult to analyse and compare over time and space, especially in large development projects and programmes.

· Do you want to listen to and have a true dialogue with the poorest segments of the society? · Are you concerned about the effectiveness and sustainability of your project interventions? · Do you want to know how gender and poverty sensitive your programme really is?· Do you want to use qualitative information to plan new services and to monitor existing ones? A simple QIS might help…

Building on its long experience with participatory approaches, IRC’s Participatory Management Tools Focus Area concentrates on developing and using various assessment methods that build on the advantages of participatory approaches but also allow results to be quantified and analysed statistically.

Methodology for Participatory Assessment

The Methodology for Participatory Assessment (MPA), a ground-breaking methodology which quantifies qualitative data, was originally designed for a global study carried out by WSP, IRC, their partners and the women and men of 88 rural communities in 15 countries.[1] The study aimed to test whether communities with more participatory, demand responsive and gender- and poverty sensitive projects also have better sustained and used water services. The results showed that that this was indeed so. Also, the study found that at least three management conditions were associated with better results:

· Projects with better sustained services had local planning and management that was more gender and poverty sensitive.

· Projects that provided more demand-responsive services had higher participation in local design and planning decisions as well as in responsive management structures.

· Projects with better results also had expert teams comprising both technical and social staff and were supported by management armed with agency policies on gender and poverty, support for more participatory-, gender- and poverty- sensitive project approaches and more comprehensive staff training.

Developing the MPA

Although the MPA was designed for one-off studies and evaluations of water supply services, experiences in Indonesia Kenya and other countries, indicated that, when adapted to suit local situations and needs, the MPA could be used to plan new services and to make existing services more sustainable and equitable. The methodology was adapted for use in different sectors in India (by AJ James and called the Quantified Participatory Assessment (QPA)) and modified for conditions in Nepal (by NEWAH and called the NEWAH Participatory Assessment (NPA)). Based on these experiences, IRC together with Pragmatix in India, expanded the methodology into a Qualitative Information System (QIS) to capture and manage qualitative information in (large) development projects and programmes[2]

Qualitative Information System

QIS is a new system to quantify people’s perceptions for the effective and efficient planning of new services and for the monitoring of existing ones, at both community and district levels.

It consists of:

· Qualitative Information Appraisal: comprising a QPA at community level, multi stakeholder meetings to discussQPA findings, and identify corrective actions for an Action Planning Report

· Computerised database: to store information, to facilitate repeated data collection and analysis, and to streamline data collection needs

· Village information system: to enable communities to store information, monitor progress and plan corrective actions

· Adaptive management: to trigger speedy and appropriate responses from management and communities to implementation problems.

The QIS is a flexible system for project management and communities· to capture and manage qualitative information;· which can be tailored to suit local conditions and needs;· and yet generate uniform and comparable qualitative information;· that can link assessment and action.

QIS: making sure every voice counts

Since QIS facilitates systematic feedback from the field, over time, and connects such feedback with corrective action, QIS can be a powerful monitoring tool for both management and communities by providing a continuous view of project progress - in contrast to disjointed baseline, mid-term and end line surveys. But perhaps more importantly, the QIS helps monitor whether or not everyone - especially the poorest - are fully and equitably involved in implementation. It gives a voice to all stakeholders, and involves them in a purposeful dialogue for effective project management – and, ultimately, sustainability.

QIS: for participatory management

District level staff: QIS can helpthem set up a simple, yet comparable and gender-and poverty-sensitive database on how well- sustained and used completed systems are and on the nature of their planning and training processes. They can use the database for customised upward reporting as well as support for planning by communities.

Local communities: QIS can helpthem plan and manage their local services in a participatory way, and also generate data which are accessible and valuable for their situation analysis and problem solving.

Aim

IRC aims to work with partners to consolidate a package of participatory management tools (including the QIS), guidelines and analytical frameworks, for use at national, district and community levels.

Ways forward

· Develop and apply QIS with interested partners: by holding workshops, supporting applications by interested agencies

· Set up a community of practice, to share the lessons learnt during workshops and via internet

Join our effort

To know more about these initiatives please contact:

§ Deirdre Casella (casella@irc.nl) at IRC International Water & Sanitation Centre, Delft, Netherlands

§ AJ James (ajjames@pragmatix.co.in) at Pragmatix, Delhi, India

§ Palitha Jayaweera (palitha.jayaweera@cosi.org.lk) at COSI Foundation, Kandy, Sri Lanka

Corrective action

[1] Gross, Bruce, Christine van Wijk and Nilanjana Mukherjee (2001) Linking sustainability with demand, gender and poverty: a study in community-managed water supply projects in 15 countries.World Bank Water and Sanitation Program, USA. [Acrobat copy available from: http://www.worldbank.org/gender/resources/briefing/watersanitation.pdf]

[2] James, AJ. Leonie Postma, and Corine Otte, ‘Qualitative Information Appraisal: using people’s perceptions in large development projects’, forthcoming.