Constituent Voice
Constituent Voice (CV) is a lithe and low-cost method developed by Keystone Accountability for collecting quantified qualitative feedback from different stakeholder groups on the perceived ‘quality/relevance’, ‘empowering value’ and ‘immediate benefits/outcomes’ of interventions and service delivery mechanisms. It combines dialogue and anonymous scoring around a quasi-standardized set of open-ended questions that allows for crosschecking of different stakeholder perspectives and viewpoints. For the analysis, it uses standardized metrics similar to customer satisfaction surveys that, with a representative and large enough sample of participants, can produce statistics and visual data reports. Participatory Sensemaking discussions on the evidence are organized around key points of interaction between stakeholders.
Although designed for monitoring constituent experience and relationships, CV is also used in PIALA-based outcome and impact evaluations to assess the immediate outcomes and empowering value of the various mechanisms put in place or initiated by a programme leading up to impact. Combined with other methods it helps assess causal pathways from project or programme uptake to impact. A PIALA-based design facilitates the linking and crosschecking of the data produced by these different methods in ways that enable people to engage with the analysis and learn about system change.
