This egroup was formed to promote discussion about the use of an innovative method of monitoring, called the "Most Significant Changes" approach. It has already been applied in developed and less developed economies, in partipatory rural development projects, agricultural extension projects, educational settings and mainstream human services delivery. Through discussion we hope to promote the wider use of the method, and further innovation and development in the method itself.

Most Significant Changes monitoring is different from common monitoring practice in at least four respects: (a) The focus is on the unexpected, (b) Information about those events is documented using text rather than numbers, (c) Analysis of that information is through the use of explicit value judgements, (d) Aggregation of information and analysis takes place through a structured social process.

This egroup will act both as a repository of information about people's experiences with the MSC method to date, and as a nursery for ideas of how to take the method further- into new environments, where there are new opportunities and constraints.

ESSENTIAL READING: Rick Davies and Jess Dart's (2005) "The Most Significant Changes (MSC) Technique: A Guide to its Use" . For versions in other languages than English see the MSC Guide translations blog

For more information about other approaches to monitoring and evaluation go to Monitoring and Evaluation NEWS at www.mande.co.uk

If you are thinking of joining the MSC mailing list you may also want to read "Being a good MSC egroup member