A training workshop for members of the board of DCG Sudan and ADRA Sudan took place in Khartoum on March 13th at the ADRA Sudan office.

The workshop looked briefly at different monitoring and evaluation tools, before going more deeply into a tool called “Most Significant Change” (MSC). This M&E method consists in collecting stories that tell the most significant change that individuals or organizations experienced over a certain time period. This method makes it possible to measure the impacts of a project or program especially on a qualitative level and also to measure unexpected results. The MSC guide can be downloaded from the following website: http://www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.htm.

The training workshop was facilitated by two representatives from DCG Norway. The MSC tool was well received by the participants, who were positive to testing it out in their programs. Training of the DCG Sudan board members that were not present at the workshop will be carried out during a DCG Sudan board meeting later this year.

Some of the participants in the workshop travelled to Um Jawasir the following day, and tested the method with the participants in the ongoing ADRA program there. Local staff was also quickly trained in the method and participated in the trial. The conclusions from the trials were that this is a useful tool for complementing the more traditional LFA approach to M&E, and that the possibilities for using it at different levels and in different contexts are many.