Participant surveys
Short, structured interviews by phone or in person, designed for comparability across programmes and over time.
Our Approach
Three lenses for lasting impact
Human, Nature and Future — and a five-step path from listening to action.
The idea
Listen. Measure. Improve.
Our approach is modelled on lean, listening-led impact measurement: ask the people a programme serves, in a way that is fast, respectful and comparable, then put what they say at the centre of decisions. We read every finding through three lenses.
Lens 1
Human
What changed for people?
The Human lens is where most assessments begin. We ask participants directly about the change they experienced, and pair their answers with indicators that can be tracked over time.
Typical indicators
- Health and wellbeing
- Dignity, voice and agency
- Skills, knowledge and confidence
- Inclusion: gender, age, disability, remoteness
- Satisfaction and trust in the service
Lens 2
Nature
What did the programme leave behind in the environment?
Many programmes touch land, water and climate even when that is not their goal. The Nature lens makes those effects visible — positive or negative — so they can be managed.
Typical indicators
- Land use and soil health
- Water access and quality
- Climate resilience and adaptation
- Biodiversity and natural resources
- Waste, energy and emissions where relevant
Lens 3
Future
Will the gains last?
The Future lens asks whether change will outlive the project: whether people, institutions and systems are better prepared for what comes next.
Typical indicators
- Skills and capabilities that persist
- Institutional and system strengthening
- Digital and AI readiness
- Financial and operational sustainability
- Readiness for scale or replication
Methodology
The Pathmarg way, step by step.
A disciplined path — the marg that gives us our name. Each step has a clear output, so you always know where the work stands.
Step 1Listen first
We begin with your goals, your theory of change and the questions you need answered — then speak with the people closest to the change before fixing a single indicator.
Outputs: Scoping call · stakeholder conversations · question list
Step 2Design with care
Short, well-tested instruments in local languages, a sampling plan that fits the budget, and a clear plan for consent, privacy and data ownership.
Outputs: Assessment design · survey instruments · sampling plan · ethics plan
Step 3Go to the ground
Trained local enumerators collect data by phone, in person or through hybrid paper-and-digital methods, with informed consent and quality checks every day.
Outputs: Field or phone data collection · daily quality monitoring
Step 4Analyse with care
Human-led, AI-assisted analysis: what changed, for whom and how much. Limitations are written down, and unwelcome findings are reported as clearly as good ones.
Outputs: Cleaned dataset · analysis · draft findings
Step 5Act on it
A report and debrief built around decisions: what to keep, what to fix, and what to measure next time. Dashboards and scorecards where they help.
Outputs: Final report · debrief workshop · recommendations
Methods toolkit
Methods matched to the question.
Qualitative listening
In-depth interviews and focus groups that explain the “why” behind the numbers.
Before-and-after designs
Baseline and follow-up measurement, with comparison groups where they are feasible and ethical.
Administrative data review
Making careful use of the records a programme already keeps, after checking their quality.
Outcome harvesting
Working backwards from observed changes to understand what contributed to them.
AI-assisted coding
Faster analysis of open-ended responses, always reviewed and interpreted by people.
Principles
How we hold ourselves to account.
Consent and dignity
Every participant knows why we are asking, how answers will be used, and that they can stop at any time.
Independence
Findings are reported as they are. Our fee never depends on the result.
Transparent methods
Sampling, assumptions and limitations are written into every report.
Data ownership
Clear agreements on who owns the data, who can see it and when it is deleted.
Ready to see what your impact really looks like?
Book a free scoping consultation. We will listen first, then propose an assessment that fits your programme, timeline and budget.