SASA! Program Monitoring
Overview
To be able to assess the progress and impact of the SASA! Intervention, rigorous monitoring and documentation is involved. A number of tools have been created to assess both progress and impact of the community mobilization implementation. Indicators developed for each SASA! phase are tracked using these simple yet effective tools and feedback is given to make appropriate adjustments that will improve program quality.
Monitoring methods used to assess progress of the implementation:
- Community asset mapping
This was done before the baseline study in order to monitor circles of influence within the communities, the strengths, assets and connections between stakeholders in order to determine what implication this would have on the implementation of SASA! - SASA! Experiences with Power
This was used in the initial trainings to monitor changes in the perceptions of personal power or lack of power. The questions asked were “when do you feel you have power”? and “when do you feel you lack power”? Click here to see the ‘SASA! Experiences with Power tool. - Free Listing and Ranking
This exercise is done at the start of all SASA! Phases. At the Start and Awareness Phases, the free listing and ranking exercise was done in a training to assess the levels of knowledge and attitudes amongst stakeholders. This involved assessing their knowledge on violence against women and their opinions on the relationship between violence against women and HIV/AIDS. In the Support Phase, the free listing and ranking exercise is used to assess the skills of stakeholders whereas in the Action Phase, this exercise will be done to assess the behavior patterns of stakeholders. This exercise also encourages stakeholders to open up and dialogue freely about key issues pertaining to violence against women by analyzing each type of violence and why it is common in their community. Click here to see the Free Listing and Ranking form. - SASA! Workshop /Process Monitoring Exercise Form
This exercise is done in trainings following the Free Listing and Ranking Exercise. It is conducted with stakeholders at the beginning of each SASA! phase in order to monitor their levels of knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviors before the actual community engagement begins. The SASA! Workshop /Process Monitoring Exercise form is done to get stakeholder opinions on why they agree and/or disagree on certain topics. The questions include “It is embarrassing for a married man to be found at home by his friends washing dishes”. Click here to see the SASA! Workshop/Process Monitoring Exercise form. - Staff activity report form
The staff activity report form is only used by staff whenever they conduct activities with community members, activists, in trainings, advocacy meetings and one on one relationship building or mentoring meetings with stakeholders to document their experiences. It helps the team track progress of staff planned activities in the different communities. Click here to see the Staff Activity Report form. - Community Activity Report Form
This form is used by staff to monitor activities that are facilitated by Community Activists. Here, the staff document the phase, strategy, number of activities completed, number of Community members reached and involved, the types of activities conducted, the geographic spread of these activities, quality of activities, skills of the facilitator/of community activist conducting the activity and successes and challenges, responses received. This report helps track the outcome of activities. Click here to see the Community Activity Report form. - Community Activist Monthly Tracking Form
This form is used by community activists to document the outcome of each activity that they conduct in a given month. It outlines the type of activity implemented, the number of community members reached disaggregated by gender and age. It also requires the community activist to document the successes, challenges, lessons learned and community comments received at each activity. Each Community Activist is required to submit the forms at the end of each month. Click here to see the Community Activist Monthly Tracking form.
Monitoring methods used to assess the Impact of the implementation:
- Sampling Activities
During the Awareness Phase, Community Activists planned and implemented community activities. Some of these activities were selected randomly and monitored. However, it was evident that the sampling technique used during the Awareness Phase, a system of only monitoring those community activists who expressed or seemingly needed the support of a staff member was not being objective and was skewing results. Consequently, a systematic sampling method was implemented whereby the total number of activities in a month is divided by the total target for the month.
For example, in April 2011, 236 activities were planned. This number was divided by 25 (monthly target of activities to be monitored) giving us 9.4. This means that every 9th activity is sampled until a target of twenty five activities is reached. See the latest monthly planner of activities here. - Activity Outcome Tracking
This is done too assess the impact and/or shifts in knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviours of community members participating in community activities. This is done by having a member of staff attend the activity, listen to the discussions raised, and assess the resistance or acceptance of the SASA! Ideas. The information obtained is then entered in a screen and analyzed to provide feedback to the team on a quarterly basis. Click here to see the Activity Outcome Tracking form. - Rapid Assessment Survey
The Rapid Assessment Survey was done during implementation of each SASA! phase as well as the end of every SASA! Phase depending on how long the phase will be. It is done in both Intervention and Control communities and only a small sample of male and female community members are selected from each parish using a simple random sampling method. It is meant to assess whether the levels of knowledge, attitude, skills or behaviour (depending of the phase) are enhanced to a point that makes it possible to move on to the next SASA! Phase. The Rapid assessment survey helps one to get a snapshot of community perceptions within same indicators. In the Start and Awareness phases, focus is placed on knowledge and attitude changes. In the Support phase, focus is placed on Skills and in the Action Phase, focus is placed on behavioural changes. The Rapid Assessment Survey informs programming for appropriate design review. The programmatic move from one SASA! Phase to another is dependent on whether community members are progressive on specific phase indicators.
Positive Stories from Stakeholders
Positive Stories from Stakeholders is an opportunity for the SASA! Study to hear from its stakeholders regarding their experience with SASA! as well identify the impact that the Intervention has created on community members. These stories also assess the changes taking place in individuals and their communities through each SASA! phase. To date, fifteen positive stories have been collected from selected community members, Ssengas, Community Activists and Local Leaders working with SASA!
Read a Positive Story from a Community Activist here
Read a Positive Story from a Ssenga here
Read a Positive Story from a Local Council Leader here
Focus Group Discussions
Focus Group Discussions are a great way of monitoring the impact of community mobilization implementation. For the SASA! Study, these discussions are conducted to assess knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviours of community members on violence against women, HIV/AIDS, community perceptions on VAW/HIV, gender, power relations, at-risk behaviours of individuals and the level of community activism during the SASA! Baseline Study.
Focus group discussions were conducted with 18 different groups during the baseline survey period and the results were assessed for both control and intervention sites. Those who took part in the discussions included health workers, the police, religious leaders, Local leaders, and Ssengas. Ultimately, the group discussions informed SASA! programming by enabling a better understanding of community members perceptions on the link between VAW and HIV with gender, power, at-risk behaviours and community activism. The same group of activists will be surveyed through focus group discussions at the follow-up stage.
Other SASA! links:
