10 Chapter MONITORING AND EVALUATION TOOLS TOOL NO 6: MEASURING ‘ETHNIC DISTANCE’ The Ethnic Distance survey is a tool used by several UNDP COs. The existence of minorities in society can be perceived either as a source of tension or as something that enriches the society. One of the ways to study attitudes towards other ethnic, religious or linguistic groups is by measuring “social distance” (or, in this case, specifically “ethnic social distance”). Social distance mean the degree of understanding and intimacy between members of social groups, which is manifested in readiness to establish more or less close social relationships with members of this group, or lack thereof. The Human Development Report (HDR) for Serbia, ‘Strengths of Diversity’ (2005), conducted a survey of social distance focusing on ethnic distance between minority communities in Serbia, through four potential social relationships.56 The findings were presented in the HDR, which highlighted the multiple identities people had and focused both on majority and minority groups together. The government was supportive of the publication of this information; ethnic distance measuring has long been a feature of social policy in the former Yugoslavia. Below is a sample table drawn from the HDR: Using this tool: Ethnic distance surveys are useful for assessing the impact of project interventions by making comparative surveys before, after and during the project intervention. Ethnic distance surveys are also used to monitor for early warning indicators of increasing/declining tensions and possible conflict. The sample size need not be large and the tool can be used for very localized populations affected by particular projects, or on a larger scale. The tool would benefit particularly from an advisory role of minority CSOs to help determine the questions asked. Some examples are provided here on how various UNDP COs have used ethnic distance surveys. The Human development report for Serbia 2005 illustrates (pp. 33-44) what indicators are used to conduct a survey and analyses the results, available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/nationalreports/europethecis/serbia/name,3304,en.html (accessed 9 August 2009). 56 Chapter 10: Monitoring and Evaluation Tools 139