When introducing new interventions in communities, it’s essential to understand how these affect the daily lives of households. Interventions must show a positive or neutral impact on quality of life to be considered for wider use, ensuring they don’t cause unintended negative consequences that hinder acceptance or success.
Nova’s Quality of Life Assessment (Qola) and Particular Impact on Quality of Life Assessment (Piqola) tools provide a structured, evidence-based approach to assessing the impacts of projects on local communities. Whether you are planning to introduce cleaner energy solutions or improve waste management, these tools will help ensure that your interventions are both effective and beneficial for the people involved.
Before a project: Use Qola to understand the existing quality of life in the community and establish a baseline.
During and after a project: Implement Piqola to measure the specific impacts of your interventions and make adjustments as needed.
Both the Qola and Piqola tools were developed by Nova researchers, drawing on the work of renowned economist Manfred Max-Neef, whose Human Scale Development theory emphasises that quality of life is determined by the ability to satisfy fundamental human needs. Max-Neef’s approach, which rejects a one-size-fits-all model of development, was adapted into a practical framework that Nova uses to assess quality of life in diverse settings.
The development of the tools involved extensive fieldwork and research in communities, particularly in low-income areas, to understand how interventions impact daily life. This research-based approach ensures that both tools are grounded in solid academic theory and tested in real-world environments, making them highly reliable for practical applications.
The Qola tool provides a broad overview of an individual’s quality of life within a household. It uses a set of 250 questions to assess various aspects of life, including food security, safety, emotional well-being, and community participation.
By combining subjective data (how people feel) with objective data (their material conditions), Qola ensures a comprehensive view of quality of life. This makes it valuable for establishing a baseline before launching community projects.
While Qola offers a broad assessment, Piqola is a more focused tool designed to measure the specific impact of new interventions, such as the introduction of cleaner stoves or improved waste management systems. Piqola generates questions based on the intervention being tested, making it adaptable and highly relevant to each situation.
This tool is particularly useful for assessing the “before and after” effects of an intervention, allowing managers to evaluate whether it is achieving the intended results before scaling it up. Piqola also gathers narrative feedback from community members, ensuring their experiences guide decision-making. Developed through detailed case studies, Piqola allows for a deep understanding of how new technologies or practices influence daily life.
By leveraging Qola and Piqola, managers gain a comprehensive understanding of community well-being and the specific impacts of their interventions. With this insight they can ensure that interventions are not only technically effective, but are accepted by the target community, avoiding costly missteps while fostering trust and sustainability.