Overcoming the Courtesy Bias in Constituent Feedback

When I was working for a large NGO, I spent part of my time trying to make the organization more accountable to local partners and beneficiaries. My task was to understand how well our accountability practices were working and to explore how to improve them. Many interesting things came out of our surveys and focus[…]

Keystone publishes its first Technical Note on Constituent Voice methodology

When you look at a list of Keystone clients, you might well ask yourself, “What can these organizations possibly have in common?” They range from the world’s largest commercial carpet manufacturer to the President’s Office in South Africa. Our clients are tackling poverty, reducing environmental impact, enhancing smallholder agriculture, battling disease, fighting crime, creating jobs,[…]

Setting the agenda for development – who has the power?

In a recent blog, Patricia Dorsher comments that “It is a particular feature of aid that people on the ground are often not involved in activities affecting their communities”. Patricia makes the case for not only shifting resources to those with greater need, but also shifting other sources of power, such as agenda setting; “Agenda[…]

Technology – a silver bullet or a rubber bullet?

For anybody interested in feedback, technology offers huge potential; the potential to reach communities, the potential to do so affordably, and the potential to access such feedback in real time. At Keystone we view these three elements as key to effective listening. Aleem Walji, director of the World Bank’s Innovation Labs recently spoke about technology as[…]