1) The document discusses building a collaborative aid system using technology to enable communities and decision-makers to work together in decision-making, monitoring, and research. It describes how traditional participatory research has limitations around reliability, speed, and cost. 2) SenseMaker is introduced as a software that can rapidly collect mass data through stories to provide reliable insights without significant investment. It allows for private, anonymous collection and presentation of data in visual patterns to trigger insights for decision-makers. 3) Examples are given of how SenseMaker has been used globally over 200 times, including by organizations like Nike Foundation, UNDP, IFC, and World Bank, to engage communities, monitor changes, and improve project design

1. Building a !
Collaborative Aid System

2. Although “people want not to need international assistance
… the current approach does not accomplish this”1
!
Traditional participatory research limitations:!
Reliability: Insights require validation
Speed: Slow feedback inhibits action
Cost: Labour intensity hinders scaling
20 listening projects (5 years)!
400 team members!
6,000 community voices heard
!2
“Contextually appropriate strategies for pursuing positive
change” require integrating “resources and experiences of
outsiders with the assets and capacities of insiders” 2
1. Time to Listen, Anderson et al . (2012) CDA Collaborative Learning Projects. (p.135)
2. Time to Listen. (p.137)

3. Technology can enable communities and decision-makers
to collaborate in three critical areas
!3
DECISION-MAKING!
!
Combining objective data
with persuasive stories
to trigger insights into
‘how’ to respond
Speed of Action
MONITORING!
!
Continuous capture to
track success in getting
‘more stories like these
and fewer like those’
!
Ongoing Evaluation
RESEARCH!
!
Mass collection of
authentic micro-stories
to reveal the ‘why’
behind local realities
!
Reliable Insights
Story gathering with quantitative analysis software

4. RESEARCH
SenseMaker®
enables rapid collection of mass data!
without significant investment
Development agencies’ perspective:!
✦ Beneficiaries have unrealistic expectations
Beneficiaries’ perspective:!
✦ No two-way communication with agencies
Shared perspective: !
✦ Aid processes are ineffective and foster
reciprocated dependence
!4
Primary aims:!
✓ Engage communities in needs assessment,
while containing expectations!
✓ Seek clear evidence and authentic voices
for funding proposals!
Secondary aims:!
✓ Multi-agency ‘needs assessment’ tool -
minimising repetition and cost!
✓ Develop context-relevant staff orientation
programs to improve awareness

5. !5
People are engaged by sharing the
stories they consider important
Indirect questions place people
in a context they understand
Expectations contained by not
asking for direct opinions
Narratives (micro-stories) are humans’
universal knowledge-sharing mechanism
Stories can be self-collected -
increasing access to remote areas
Collecting mass narratives maps authentic reality, !
without raising expectations
Stories reveal shifting attitudes
and behavioural changes

6. Sharing stories in SenseMaker®
is quick and easy - !
rapidly expanding presence at minimal incremental cost
!6
Unedited stories collected
(written, audio or visual forms)
Recently trained researcher (iPad
on lap) with participant in Rwanda
Guidelines for tapping into
'wisdom of crowds':!
1. Choose right crowds!
✦ Potential beneficiaries !
✦ Wider community (witnesses)!
✦ Local and international experts!
2. Minimise outside influences!
✦ Private anonymous collection !
✦ Researcher scribes (not facilitators)!
3. Trigger interest!
✦ Clarity on how feedback will be used
Direct (or assisted) capture
on Pads/iPhones, website, or
paper (transcribed later)

7. SenseMaker®
instantly provides information!
decision-makers can see and understand, unmediated
Beneficiaries:!
✦ Don’t understand how programs are chosen
✦ Perceive aid as meeting more the needs of aid
agencies and donors
✦ Suggest programs perceived locally as unfair
exacerbate community fault lines
!7
Aims:!
✓ Discover ‘pull-through’ policies that harness
and enhance local capacities!
✓ Trigger abductive reasoning to discover ‘how’
to respond more innovatively !
✓ Help create context-rich communication
strategies that enhance ‘felt fairness’
DECISION-
M
AKING

8. ✦ When did your story take place?!
✦ Whose needs were being met?!
✦ What did the activity achieve/fail in?!
✦ Who benefited most?!
✦ Who most influenced outcomes?!
✦ What role did you play?!
✦ How does the community feel?!
✦ How did it make you feel?
Letting those who understand the context tell you what their
stories mean reduces interpretation bias
Customised (multiple language) questions
capture additional layers of meaning
!8
Exam
ple
Triad
Exam
ple
Questions
Participants answer by positioning a bubble !
in area of triad most appropriate to their story

9. Mass stories are visually presented for direct exploration
of meaningful patterns and discovery of key signals
!9
Original story helps explain
‘why’ and trigger insights into
‘how’ to respond
Example Question: !
Who have results most been influenced by?
Nearly 50% of stories
(595 of 1255) suggest
‘the community itself’

10. Continuous story capture supports real-time monitoring !
and builds powerful advocacy for change
✦ M&E is increasingly ‘over-proceduralised’
✦ Cost of reporting has overtaken its value
✦ Focus is on what was proposed, not what
actually happened
!10
Primary aims:!
✓ Monitor changes in attitudes and behaviours
during on-going programs!
✓ Programs adjusted from feedback makes
community ‘subjects not objects of assistance’!
✓ Allow field workers time for reflection -
focus on information push rather than pull!
Secondary aims:!
✓ Reduce field-reporting burden
M
ONITORING

11. Differences in perspective highlight areas with !
greatest utility for collaboration
Community feedback on
development issues
most important to them
Expert predictions of
most important issues
to local communities
Global Giving SenseMaker® project
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble -
it’s what you think you know for sure that just ain’t so.” !
Mark Twain
!11

12. Real-time community feedback can improve project design
to minimise missed opportunities
MONITOR!
Real-time feedback
DESIGN!
Improvements
ROLL-OUT!
Increasing scale
Monitoring pilot project feedback from community
test groups creates more robust program designs
Iterative
Design
Cycle

13. !
Nike Foundation !
GirlHub (Rwanda, Ethiopia)
Unearthing the Wisdom of Girls
!Global Giving!Project Impacts (Kenya)
Amplifying Local Voices!Storytelling tools!
SenseMaker®
has been globally deployed over 200 times,
increasingly in the development sector
!
UNDP!
Multiple Projects (Various Locations)!
Narrative in the Development Sector!
Collecting Stories at UNDP!
Storytelling versus Traditional Approaches
!
Nike Foundation !
GirlHub (Rwanda, Ethiopia)
Unearthing the Wisdom of Girls
!
Nike Foundation !
GirlHub (Rwanda, Ethiopia)
Unearthing the Wisdom of Girls
!
Nike Foundation !
GirlHub (Rwanda, Ethiopia)
Unearthing the Wisdom of Girls
!
IFC - World Bank !
Water Health Education (Ghana)
Comparative analysis across 2 communities to study the impact of water
health education, provision of clean water supply services, and
understand how to better improve their outreach and sales

14. Amplifying beneficiary voices to empower their advocates !
in the post-2015 global consultations
Traditional survey approaches SenseMaker® approach
Research
Seeks opinions;
raises expectations of response
Captures stories about actual experiences;
increasing engagement and dignity
Direct questions usually expected;
easily gamed
Respondents decide what’s important to share;
eliciting more revealing answers
Decision-
Making
Data comes with little or no context
All data are linked to original stories;
providing clear context during analysis
Require expert interpretation
Visualisation software presents data as patterns,
which decision-makers can directly engage with
Can be dominated by powerful individuals
or agendas
Amplifies weaker voices, which often serve as early
warning signals of emerging opportunities and threats
Monitoring
Assessments come too late to influence action
Respondents become real-time sensors of what’s working;
creating collaborative cross-border teams
Snapshots in time not easily comparable
Trends in attitudes and behaviours tracked;
increasing sensitivity to evolving situations
Cost No cost advantage in scaling
Efficient technology for data collection, storage and
engagement has potential to scale across multiple locations
!14

15. www.narrativeinsights.com!
!
marcus@narrativeinsights.com