A Guide to Participatory Outcome-Focused Monitoring with Most Significant Change, Outcome Harvesting, and Outcome Mapping

Audience This guidance is primarily aimed at development and humanitarian professionals who design or manage monitoring and evaluation processes to support design and implementation of qualitative monitoring using Most Significant Change (MSC), Outcome Harvesting (OH), or Outcome Mapping (OM), which are participatory, outcome-focused qualitative methods. Purpose This guidance is a resource to strengthen qualitative monitoring, specifically addressing commonplace gaps or weakness in the monitoring of complex development and humanitarian projects. Importantly, these gaps include: 1. Lack of evidence about unexpected, as well as expected, changes or outcomes, especially during project implementation. 2. Limited documentation about whether and how a project contributed to change. Such information is vital to learning about what worked and how to build on successes. 3. Limited data to inform the review of theories of change, which limits their function and relevance. Addressing these monitoring gaps has the potential to contribute to more informed and effective adaptive management and learning. This guidance can be used to support the design and implementation of monitoring exercises using MSC, OH, and OM. Specifically, it supports users in choosing among MSC, OH, and OM or blending elements from these approaches. Additionally, it provides practical tips and examples - including expertise gained during the two pilot qualitative monitoring activities conducted in Niger and Bangladesh - as well as other publicly available materials. 1. Relevant CARE guidance and tools include: 1. Qualitative Methods Guidance Note for Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) at CARE; 2. Outcome Mapping Manual: Development of a monitoring system for the Right to Food project using Outcome Mapping, CARE Nepal; 3. Tipping Point MEL Methods Brief: Outcome Mapping; 4. The Rolling Profile Tool.