Preparing to measure the impact of the HER CHOICE programme

Ever wondered how the impact of the HER CHOICE programme will be measured? The answer is: with the help of our partner Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam! After the baseline study – whose results we published in September 2017 – at the AISSR they are now working hard on the preparations for the midline study, through which we can monitor and assess the programme progress and effectiveness during its implementation.

In these first months of 2018, AISSR’s team has been very busy conducting 5-days workshops to train all HER CHOICE local partners on data collection in their countries for the midline study. With the help of local research coordinators, the workshops took place in Pokhara, Nepal (for HER CHOICE partners in Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh), Cotonou, Benin (for HER CHOICE partners in Burkina Faso and Benin), Tambacounda, Senegal (for HER CHOICE partners in Mali and Senegal) and Debre Birhan, Ethiopia (for HER CHOICE partners in Ethiopia, Uganda and Ghana). Overall, about 70 people attended.

For the midline study they will be collecting data digitally, using the Survey CTO application.  So, during the workshops participants became familiar with the data collection app (see pictures from Benin and Ethiopia – below), tested and adjusted the survey, and piloted it on nearby communities (see picture from Nepal – above). At the end of each workshop participants made action plans for training local data collectors and carrying out of the whole midline data collection process in their own countries.

As two participants said: “we all left with a better understanding of the research process, and enjoyed working with the digital data collection tools. Plus, meeting our HER CHOICE friends from other countries, the participatory nature of the workshop, and the pilots we did in the field, strengthened the feeling of being part of a larger community. And it also created a sense of enthusiasm in us all, while we prepared for what will be a few months of hard, and occasionally tedious, work”.

In some of the countries where the HER CHOICE programme is implemented, our local partners have already finished training local data collectors and are ready to start the data collection. We need at least 8 more months to have the midline study ready, and we can’t wait to read the results!