Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

The following text is drawn from World Bank (2004).

What are they?
Rapid appraisal methods are quick, low-cost ways to gather the views and feedback of
beneficiaries and other stakeholders, in order to respond to decision-makers’ needs for
information.

What can we use them for?

• Providing rapid information for management decision-making, especially at the

project or program level.

• Providing qualitative understanding of complex socioeconomic changes, highly

interactive social situations, or people’s values, motivations, and reactions.

• Providing context and interpretation for quantitative data collected by more formal

methods.

Advantages:

• Low cost.
• Can be conducted quickly.
• Provides flexibility to explore new ideas.

Disavantages:

• Findings usually relate to specific communities or localities—thus difficult to

generalize from findings.

• Less valid, reliable, and credible than formal surveys.

Cost:
Low to medium, depending on the scale of methods adopted.

Skills required:
Non-directive interviewing, group facilitation, field observation, note-taking, and basic
statistical skills.

Time required:
Four to six weeks, depending on the size and location of the population interviewed
and the number of sites observed.

Source: World Bank (2004). Monitoring and Evaluation: Some Tools, Methods & Approaches. Washington DC, The World Bank. http://lnweb90.worldbank.org/oed/oeddoclib.nsf/b57456d58aba40e585256ad400736404/a5efbb5d776b67d285256b1e0079c9a3/$FILE/MandE_tools_methods_approaches.pdf

For more information:

• USAID. Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Tips, #s 2, 4, 5, 10: http://www.usaid.gov/pubs/usaid_eval/#02

• K. Kumar (1993). Rapid Appraisal Methods. The World Bank, Washington, D.C.