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In Promises & Reality 2026 Citizen’s Review of Year 2 of the NDA-III Government. Coordinated by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, June 20, 2026. pp 94-100.
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Traversing the path with women farmers in their fields and in our reflections/writings, a stark observation was the sheer lack of localized and regional vocabulary and terminology to adequately capture and communicate the understanding of climate change and mitigation strategies, informed by the unique experiences and needs of small and marginal women farmers. This is what propelled our research - to examine how women farmers perceive, express, experience, and respond to climate variability across
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Mapping of changes in confidence in evaluations
I have used the confidence mapping exercise to capture changes in confidence of women as a result of a project/programme in evaluations (described below). Are there other methods of capturing changes in confidence of women and sexual minorities? Please revert.
Mapping of Changes in Confidence
Objectives
- To ascertain changes in confidence of the person during the programme or project period
- To ascertain causality of changes in confidence, if any
Assumption
It is premised on the belief that income and poverty measures need not capture confidence of people. Confidence is best captured through qualitative methods than quantitative ones.
Methodology
Confidence mapping entails mapping of whether people are feeling sad, happy or somewhere
in-between in their lives. The evaluator uses this exercise to capture whether participants have become less or more confident as a consequence of joining the project or programme
Method
- Draw a line signifying a scale of 0 to 100 on confidence levels, with 0 signifying low levels of self-confidence and 100 high levels of self confidence
- Ask participant one by one to move on the confidence line from the point they were in terms of their confidence level when they joined the project/programme to where there level of confidence has reached now.
- If culturally appropriate the participant could be asked to take a lamp or candle and walk on the confidence line
- In case their confidence level has improved ask the participant to state why they are stating that their confidence has improved. Cull out gender specific manifestations of increase/decrease in confidence.
- Ask in what way the project has contributed to increase in confidence. Again identify gender specific reasons.
- In case their confidence has not reached 100%, ask what more the project/programme could be doing to increase their confidence to 100%
- Repeat the process for all the participants.
- Analyse gender, caste, class, race, disability etc based differences in response.
Time required
5-10 minutes per participant
Example of use
This method was used to ascertain impact of giving Fellowship to 25 Dalit women in India and giving them capacity building support and mentorship to address violence against Dalit women in the community and in the family. The confidence mapping exercise revealed that the confidence of the Fellows moved from 20% to 65% on the self-confidence line. The increase in self-confidence was reflected in their ability to travel a long distance on their own, elimination of domestic violence in all the Fellows’ households where it existed (33% of Fellows), increase in status within the household and in the community, and ability of a few of them to contest local government elections. The reasons for increase in self-confidence were cited as inputs received from training, financial independence gained through the Fellowship, support received from spouses, investment in higher education through correspondence, gaining knowledge on how to use computers and (last but not the least) support of other Fellows. Initial resistance on the part of some of the in-laws and husbands was overcome by the system of Fellows taking turn to hold monthly state level Fellow’s meetings in each other’s houses. When the in-laws and husbands saw that their daughters-in-law/wives were not alone in doing such kind of work, as well as the respect they commanded in the eyes of other network members the resistance got mitigated
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Shraddha Chigateri on
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Hello Ranjani
Thank you for initiating this very interesting discussion. Just thinking aloud about what it means to map confidence, and the relation between confidence, happiness and processes of change-
First of all, I think the method of guaging confidence is such a valuable means of assessing the effectiveness of interventions as it captures, as you say, the quality of the intervention, and it provides us with insights on what contributes to change. Moreover, it allows us to assess unintended consequences of interventions, and is also valuable in itself as a marker of change. I also think that all the markers that teh women you talked to, used to reflect on their increase in self-confidence- travelling long distances, elimination of domestic violence, increase in status, participation in political processes- reveal so much of gendered power dynamics.
Thinking through my own limited experience evaluating a youth programme working with dalit youth in Karnataka, I remember the confidence the young men and women derived from community mobilisation and solidarity on issues of caste and gender, and the transgressions of societal norms that those entailed- for instance, revaluing previously denigrated cultural practices- viz., pride in tamate playing (by both young dalit men and women- the women playing the tamate involved so many levels of transgressions), again the confidence gained by their many 'firsts' (many similar to what you indicate)- first time staying out at night, first time reading a newspaper, first one to study in college in the family, first one to travel out of the village, city, state; also, an engagement in politics (again similar to what you say about standing for local elections) but also through an involved engagement in agitations, for instance the arkavathi river campaign, campus agitations.
Just a couple of thoughts though- in this mapping of confidence levels, are we interested really in self-confidence that leads to behavioural change? I suppose the question really is - what is the relationship between self-confidence and behavioural change? Is there something wider than behavioural change that confidence mapping reveals? Also, could changes in political attitudes (awareness), other lifestyle changes (changes in consumption patterns- more ethical sustainbale consumption), etc. be mapped through confidence mapping, or would that be asking too much of this tool?
At another level, another question is whether self-confidence is the same as happiness. Maybe happiness is a marker of confidence and vice versa, but not quite the same thing? Is confidence mapping the same as the happiness index? Is there any use in thinking of the distinctions between the two for the purposes of mapping change 'caused' by interventions?
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Permalink Reply by Ranjani K.Murthy on
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Thanks for this very useful reply. I think happiness is to do with emotional well being, while confidence is to do with how one holds oneself vis a vis the others and outside world. Does this make sense? The two are subtly different, yet related. Ranjani
Shraddha Chigateri said:Hello Ranjani
Thank you for initiating this very interesting discussion. Just thinking aloud about what it means to map confidence, and the relation between confidence, happiness and processes of change-
First of all, I think the method of guaging confidence is such a valuable means of assessing the effectiveness of interventions as it captures, as you say, the quality of the intervention, and it provides us with insights on what contributes to change. Moreover, it allows us to assess unintended consequences of interventions, and is also valuable in itself as a marker of change. I also think that all the markers that teh women you talked to, used to reflect on their increase in self-confidence- travelling long distances, elimination of domestic violence, increase in status, participation in political processes- reveal so much of gendered power dynamics.
Thinking through my own limited experience evaluating a youth programme working with dalit youth in Karnataka, I remember the confidence the young men and women derived from community mobilisation and solidarity on issues of caste and gender, and the transgressions of societal norms that those entailed- for instance, revaluing previously denigrated cultural practices- viz., pride in tamate playing (by both young dalit men and women- the women playing the tamate involved so many levels of transgressions), again the confidence gained by their many 'firsts' (many similar to what you indicate)- first time staying out at night, first time reading a newspaper, first one to study in college in the family, first one to travel out of the village, city, state; also, an engagement in politics (again similar to what you say about standing for local elections) but also through an involved engagement in agitations, for instance the arkavathi river campaign, campus agitations.
Just a couple of thoughts though- in this mapping of confidence levels, are we interested really in self-confidence that leads to behavioural change? I suppose the question really is - what is the relationship between self-confidence and behavioural change? Is there something wider than behavioural change that confidence mapping reveals? Also, could changes in political attitudes (awareness), other lifestyle changes (changes in consumption patterns- more ethical sustainbale consumption), etc. be mapped through confidence mapping, or would that be asking too much of this tool?
At another level, another question is whether self-confidence is the same as happiness. Maybe happiness is a marker of confidence and vice versa, but not quite the same thing? Is confidence mapping the same as the happiness index? Is there any use in thinking of the distinctions between the two for the purposes of mapping change 'caused' by interventions?
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