Faith / Community Leaders’ Knowledge and Skills

The indicator measures the number of faith / community leaders who gained the desired knowledge and skills. Not only can this indicator be used for a single activity (e.g. training), but also for the sum of different knowledge and skills-transfer activities (e.g. practical demonstrations, coaching, training, provision of learning materials, etc.).

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

1) Define a limited number of the most important knowledge or/and skills that the faith / community leaders should gain as a result of the provided support. Avoid having unrealistically high or unnecessarily low requirements by verifying the test’s difficulty by pre-testing it with several respondents.

2) Prepare simple tests assessing whether the targeted faith / community leaders have the pre-defined, most important knowledge and/or skills.

3) Decide the minimum result a person needs to reach in order to pass the test (for example, answering correctly at least 7 out of 10 knowledge-related questions and performing correctly at least 3 out of 5 tested skills).

4) Administer the test to a representative sample of the faith / community leaders by using a combination of:

  > a written test (in the case of literate persons) or interview where the data collector asks knowledge-related questions and records whether the respondent provided correct answers (in the case of largely illiterate persons)

  > observations where the faith / community leaders are asked to perform the tested skill and the data collector records whether it was performed correctly

5) Count the number of respondents that reached the minimum required result (see point 2 above).

6) To calculate the indicator’s value, divide the number of faith / community leaders who attained the minimum required knowledge/skills by the total number of tested faith / community leaders and multiply the number by 100. For example, 160 people who passed the test divided by 200 people who took the test multiplied by 100 equals an 80% success rate. 

For the next step, multiply this “success rate” by the total number of targeted faith / community leaders (e.g., 80% multiplied by 500 equals to 400 faith / community leaders who acquired the desired knowledge / skills).

1) Always conduct both a “pre-test” and “post-test” – otherwise you will not know the extent to which the faith / community leaders changed their knowledge and skills.

2) Decide whether to measure the direct effect of a one-off activity (e.g. a workshop) 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 and/or skills which people actually remember and might use). However, the 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 faith / community leaders’ specific knowledge and/or skills.