Acquired Knowledge

The indicator measures the learning benefits of any knowledge-transfer activities that aim to contribute to strengthening people’s resilience, such as classroom- or field-based training, counselling, media campaign, demonstrations and awareness-raising sessions. Not only can it be used for a single activity (e.g. training), but also for the sum of different knowledge-transfer activities.

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

1) Define a limited amount of the most important knowledge people should have in order to contribute to strengthening their resilience.

2) Decide the minimum result a person needs to get in order to pass a test (for example, answering at least 7 out of 10 knowledge-related questions correctly).

3) As a next step, prepare simple tests (including clear survey questions) that will help you assess what from the desired knowledge the survey participants have. Avoid having unrealistically high or unnecessarily low requirements by pre-testing the difficulty of the survey questions with at least 10 randomly selected target group members.

4) Administer the test to a representative sample of your target group members by using interviews where the data collector asks knowledge-related questions and records whether the participant provided correct answers.

5) Count the number of participants that reached the minimum required result.

6) To calculate the indicator’s value, divide the number of surveyed participants who attained the minimum required knowledge by the total number of tested participants. Multiply the number by 100 to gain the “success rate” in percentages. For example, 150 participants who passed the test divided by 200 participants who took the test multiplied by 100 equals a 75% success rate. 

For the last step, multiply this “success rate” by the total number of the target group members (e.g. 75% multiplied by 10,000 equals to 7,500 people who acquired the desired knowledge).

Disaggregate the results by gender and other important criteria, depending on your project’s context and focus.

1) Always conduct both a “pre-test” and “post-test” – otherwise you will not know the extent to which the respondents’ knowledge changed.

2) Decide whether to measure the direct effect of a one-off activity (e.g. a demonstration) or the effect of a longer learning process (e.g. series of several trainings over a period of time).

3) If possible, conduct the “post-test” twice – once immediately after the “capacity building” activity is completed (showing you the immediate learning) and then 1-2 months later (showing you the knowledge which people actually remember and might use). However, tlhe tests do not need to relate to a single activity only (e.g. training) – they can be provided during the baseline and endline surveys, assessing the overall change in the target population’s specific knowledge.