Tool Upgrade: SCOPE Basic 2.0

At SCOPEinsight, client feedback is essential as it helps us optimize our tools and the way our clients experience them. Recently, we took three years of user experiences plus a thorough internal and external review to develop an improved version of the SCOPE Basic Tool: SCOPE Basic 2.0. We are proud to announce these fantastic improvements.

We want you to get as much value out of our tools and services as possible, and improvements to the SCOPE Basic will help provide the best data integrity as well as ease for the assessors. It is important to note that if you’ve already done a baseline assessment with the SCOPE Basic 1.0, reassessments must be done using the same tool to ensure compatibility. If you’re unsure, please contact us.

The key changes

• Improved readability and user-friendliness of the questionnaire: The entire questionnaire has been upgraded. Many questions and answer are rephrased to improve readability. For many questions, the accompanying explanatory text is improved. More explanation of concepts has been added. Sets of sub-questions are reduced and more checkboxes were added to optimize user-friendliness. Furthermore, there is a more logical order of (sub)dimensions and questions.
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• Renamed dimensions and subdimensions: The dimensions Supply and Enablers have been renamed to Production Base and Enabling Environment respectively. The subdimension Membership Oversight & Training has been changed into Extension Services. Also, the names of the subdimensions under Financial Management are slightly adapted. Furthermore, two new subdimension have been added: Membership Management and Financial Services.
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• Subdimension Governance is improved and re-structured: The split between management and board of directors is clearer. The General Assembly question, formerly under Internal Organization, has been included under Governance. Furthermore, a question about a Supervisory Committee was added.
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• Financial Management dimension restructured and more performance oriented: The Financial Management dimension is more performance based, including new topics like financial surpluses, pre-finance, bank loans, and liquidity. Furthermore, the naming of the subdimensions and the order of the questions are improved. To measure the organization’s ability to provide financial services, we added a new sub-dimension called Financial Services.
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• Better aligned with market needs: The questionnaire is more aligned with certification schemes (e.g., UTZ, FLA) and training curricula. More financial performance questions have been included in the questionnaire. On top of that, the financial background tab includes more financial metrics. The tool is well-aligned with the ISO/NEN guideline for professional farmer organizations.
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• Adapted weighting & scoring: The weighting of (sub)dimensions and questions is refined based on the SCOPEinsight Theory of Change and data-analyses. For example, the weight of Financial Management increased and the weights of Sustainability and Enabling Environment have decreased.
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• Restructured and shortened report: The assessment reports are shortened and are reorganized. The chapter with organizational data is moved to the front. A new chapter called Business Performance is added. The detailed assessment results are placed in the annex.
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• Less mistake prone: Both the questionnaire and background tabs are less prone to mistakes. Where possible, difficult calculations were removed or simplified (e.g., gender pay gap). Additionally, assessor explanation (e.g., improved glossary, hover-overs, and extra information) is integrated which will reduce the misinterpretation of questions. More clarity is provided when an assessor can tick ‘Not Relevant’ for a question.
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• Better in tune with the farmer organization’s context: The definitions used are better aligned with the jargon used by farmer organizations and cooperatives. Also, more farmer organization specific topics have been integrated, e.g., supervisory committee and membership management.
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• More diversity and gender indicators: The questionnaire includes more questions exploring the organization’s level of maturity in relation to diversity and gender in its leadership and membership.
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• Completion checks: More completion checks were added to improve data quality. For example, when financial data is not entered in the background tab, the assessor will be notified and must add the data or give a reason why financial data is lacking.
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• Methodology and Score Interpretation guidelines: We developed guidelines to clarify our methodology and the interpretation of SCOPE scores.
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Implication for scoring

The new improvements influence comparability with previous versions. Only for the questions that are unchanged does comparability remain. Baseline and re-assessment in running projects will remain comparable if the same version is used. In general, it is expected that total scores of the upgraded SCOPE Basic will be lower (0.2-0.3), as for some questions and (sub)dimensions it has become more difficult to score high. For example, this is the case in dimensions Financial Management and Enabling Environment. Score variation at dimension level is expected to be higher. Overtime, with new data coming in, SCOPEinsight will analyze the comparability for the purpose of benchmarking and generating business intelligence.

 

Do you want more information?
Get in touch with us.
Phone: +31 (0) 30 227 19 02
Email: info@scopeinsight.com

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