Changes in the Quality of Life of PLHA in Ethiopia : Evidences From the Application of the Most Significant Change Technique to the USAID Funded Project Strengthening Communities Responses to HIV/AIDS

Background: The Strengthening Communities’ Responses to HIV/AIDS (SCRHA) project is being implemented by PATH in eight regions of Ethiopia in partnership with 210 Civil Society Organizations. The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique, commonly known as Monitoring without indicators, is used to measure improvements seen in the quality of lives of beneficiaries.

Objective: To evaluate outcomes of the SCRHA project not captured by quantitative indicators through verifiable stories.

Method: Three domains of changes pertinent to the SCRHA project were identified as palliative care, economic strengthening and Volunteer provision service. The MSC tool from the Rick Davies guide and protocol was adopted, pretested and finalized. Six trained teams of 12 people went to the grassroots level, collected 120 SC stories. Then 18 stories were selected by a panel of individuals drawn from key stakeholders as MSC.

Result: Though we did create a domain of “negative” change and prompted for this, no cases were obtained. We found MSC as an excellent technique to identify otherwise unmeasurable changes, important values within the project and in delivering the rich picture of what is really happening on the ground.

Following are extracts from the stories that reveal the impact of the project

 

“Had I not been provided with the spiritual support, my fate would have been nothing except anxiety and desperation for the entire of my life” Beneficiary palliative care support, Woreta town   “I was left helpless, but now there are so many people around me to lean on” Beneficiary of Economic Strengthening Support, Diredewa     “When I am approaching people as a volunteer, I always present myself as a good reference for having unbeaten life with HIV”       Volunteer Provider of SCRHA supported CSO, Ziway

Recommendation: The tool is useful for all community based projects which have aim to improve the quality of lives of community.

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