Stories of Most Significant Change

How the introduction of the Standard Days Method® of family planning has impacted lives in five countries

Most Significant Change (MSC) is a qualitative, participatory approach to the monitoring and evaluation of development programs. The process involves the collection of stories of change by people who have been involved in a project and the systematic selection and prioritization of the most significant of these stories by panels of designated stakeholders or staff.

Storytellers are asked to reflect on and answer a simple question: “Since you became involved in X, what is the most signficant change you have experienced?”

In DRC, Guatemala, India, Mali and Rwanda, stakeholders and staff collected MSC stories concerning the introduction and scale-up of the Standard Days Method (SDM)® into the national family planning program, and asked this question of program managers, service providers, and SDM users.

Keywords: Standard Days Method, SDM, CycleBeads, Most Significant Change, MSC, DRC, Guatemala, Rwanda, Mali, India, FAM Project