Putting respondents' voices at the heart of evaluation
Championing a new benchmark for evidence of social impact
Welcome to Bath SDR, curators of the QuIP – Qualitative Impact Protocol. All organisations aiming to have social impact face the same quandary: how do you know whether or how you contributed to an observed social change? The QuIP is an approach to evaluation, originally researched and developed at the University of Bath, UK to tackle the attribution challenge using respondents’ own testimonies. This is a non-experimental, goal free approach which challenges approaches to sampling, tackles bias in data collection, adds rigour to the analysis of qualitative data, and encourages real engagement with findings through the use of innovative interactive data visualisations. Please scroll down to see more and a short animation on the QuIP.
Bath SDR is a non-profit research organisation set up by the authors of the QuIP; we are passionate about doing business differently and disrupting the status quo in research and evaluation. Our aims are to:
If you are an evaluator interested in learning more about the QuIP, or a funder interested in helping us fund new action research or capacity building in your sector please get in touch.
The QuIP is a simple and cost-effective way to gather, analyse and present feedback from intended beneficiaries about significant drivers of change in their lives. This groundbreaking approach is promoted by Bath SDR, a small values-led consultancy founded by the authors of the QuIP.
STEP 1: Field research
The QuIP uses intended beneficiaries’ own perceptions of change as its source of data, collected in individual interviews and focus group discussions. All fieldwork is carried out by local researchers who are ‘blindfolded’ – they are told nothing about the organisation and project whose impact is being assessed. This reduces potential for conscious or unconscious pro-project bias on the part of respondents.
STEP 2: Recording responses
Respondents are asked open-ended questions about changes in selected aspects of their lives and livelihoods over a specified period of time. These questions allow the conversation to be led by respondents, but they are followed by closed questions to allow them to make their own assessment of how each area of their life has changed overall.
STEP 3: Analysis
The raw field data is sent to the analyst who – having been briefed about details of the project – identifies and codes cause-and-effect statements in the data using the QuIP coding system. This is a fast and straightforward way of making the data more accessible, and gets to the heart of the attribution question.
STEP 4: Reporting
Analysed data can be displayed in a variety of ways to demonstrate the key positive and negative drivers of change, and potential links between project activities and incidental/external drivers of change. The result is an easy to read report, with transparent links to all the source data – putting the beneficiary at the heart of the assessment.