[PDF] Community Development Toolkit - CommDev

Goal Attainment Scaling20DescriptionGoal Attainment Scaling (GAS) is a toolused to determine different – or changingover time – levels of stakeholder satisfactionwith development activities. Its results canbe used as an easily understood means ofreporting feedback.PurposeGAS allows you to directly track progresstowards an identified goal. GAS can be usedto monitor the outputs of communitydevelopment activities, say every six months,or it can be used to evaluate differentstakeholder perceptions of outcomes ofa program over a longer time period.The results of the surveys can demonstratedifferences between different stakeholders’perceptions of an issue of shared interest.When to use this toolWhenever the views of one or more groupsof stakeholders are required on the progressand achievements of a program. They can berepeated at intervals and among differentgroups. This can be done at any stage frompre-construction to post-closure, with thequestions being asked altered to match theprevailing situation.How to use this toolActivity or program goals are framed askey questions. They form a commonframework for personal consultations,analysis of program performance and reviewof documentation. The key questions leadlogically to a Goal Attainment Scalingframework that enables the facilitator todetermine the degree to which programoutputs or outcomes are being achieved.Table 23 presents an example GAS sheet forthe tracking of community and companyperceptions of an engagement programbeing conducted with communities adjacentto a planned mining project.Using this instrument with differentstakeholder groups can detect areas wherethe perception of the performance of theengagement program differs between theparties. The results can also be used toestablish benchmarks that can be trackedfor change over time.You can see that it is easy to represent theresults in graphic form to make it easier formanagement and stakeholders to analysequickly changing trends in perceptions of thesuccess of the programs being evaluated.MONITORING AND EVALUATION TOOLSThis is best done with a group or team ofpeople involved in the project, and can bedone for each indicator for outputs andoutcomes, as feedback desired.Community Development Toolkit197