A novel tool for quality-of-life assessment in the household context

Abstract

This article describes the development and application of an original quality-of-life assessment tool. Part 1 reflects on how the practical challenges the Nova Institute faces working in the low-income context in South Africa inspired us to develop an original quality-of-life assessment tool. Part 2 examines how this endeavour builds on the insights of quality-of-life studies as a sub-discipline of sociology, but specifically also on the conceptual work of Manfred Max-Neef. Part 3 describes the methods used to design a quality-of-life assessment tool and explains how Max-Neef’s concepts are expounded to develop the tool. Part 4 presents an example from the results of a general household survey in more than a thousand households, together with an in-depth quality-of-life assessment in 46 of these households, to illustrate the application of the tool. We conclude that the tool provides a practical way to sensibly combine subjective and objective indicators in quality-of-life analysis.