TOOL 1 - RESOURCE MAP
Description: The Village Resource Map is a tool that helps us to learn about a community and its resource base. The primary concern is not to develop an accurate map but to get useful information and start a discussion about how local people perceive their resource base. These perceptions may differ between men and women, the poor and the better off, young and old, etc. The participants should develop the content of the map according to what is important to them.
Objectives: To learn about the villagers’ perception of what natural resources are found in the community, how and by whom they are used.
With whom: Depending on the local situation, you may opt to use separate female and male focus groups. Other ways of grouping people may also be used.
Time needed: 2 hours
Examples of Key Questions:
1. What resources are abundant?
2. What resources are scarce?
3. Does everyone have equal access to land?
4. Do women have access to land?
5. Do the poor have access to land?
6. Who makes decision about land allocation?
7. Where do people go to collect water?
8. Who collects water?
9. Where do people go to collect firewood?
10. Who collects firewood?
11. Where grazes the livestock?
12. What kind of development activities do you carry out as a community? Where?
13. What resource do you have most problems with?
How to facilitate: The Village Resource Map is a good tool to start the appraisal with. It is easy and fun for the villagers to do. It helps initiate discussion among the community and with the PRA team. All team members should observe the mapping exercise because it provides an overall orientation to the features of the community and its resources.
The map may be developed with separate groups of men and women in the village or other groups. This is because women and men may use different resources, as do the poor and better off, etc. The women will map the resources they think are important (like water sources, firewood sources, etc). The men will map the resources they think are important (like grazing land, infrastructure, etc). Maps may include: infrastructure (roads, houses, buildings, bridges, etc); water sites and sources; agricultural lands (crop varieties and locations); soils, slopes, elevations; forest lands; grazing areas; shops, markets; health clinics, schools, churches; special places (sacred sites, cemeteries, bus stops, shrines, etc)
The steps involved in resource mapping include:
1. Find a large open place to work.
2. Start by placing a rock or leaf to represent a central and important landmark.
3. Ask the participants to draw the boundaries of the village.
4. Ask the participants to draw other things on the map that are important. Don’t interrupt the participants unless they stop drawing.
5. Once they stop, you can ask whether there is anything else of importance that should be added.
6. When the map is completed, facilitators should ask the participants to describe it. Ask questions about anything that is unclear.
Use the key questions to guide a discussion about resources in the village. One or more facilitators should ask the questions, another should take notes on what is said.
Be sure to copy the map on a piece of paper. Be sure that the final map includes direction indicators (North, South, East and West).
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet, this tool sheet and paper for copying the map. If drawing on the ground, use soft ground, sticks and local material for symbols, like sticks, pebbles, leaves, sawdust, flour, dung or any other local material. If drawing on a paper, you will need a big sheet of paper, pencils and markers.
TOOL 2 - SOCIAL MAP
Description: A social map is drawn by the residents of a village or area and shows the social structures and institutions found in an area. It helps to learn about social and economic differences between the households.
Objectives:
1. To learn about the social structures in the village and differences among households by ethnicity, religion, wealth, etc.
2. To learn about whom is living where.
3. To learn about the social institutions and the different views local people might have regarding those institutions.
With whom: Depending on the local situation, you may opt to use separate female and male focus groups. Other ways of grouping people may also be used.
Time needed: 1.5 to 2 hours
Examples of key questions:
1. What are the approximate boundaries of the village with regard to social interaction and social services?
2. How many households are found in the village and where are they located?
3. Is the number of households growing or shrinking?
4. What are the social structures and institutions found in the village?
5. What religious groups are found in the village? Where are the different religious groups living?
6. What ethnic groups are found in the village? Where are the different ethnic groups living?
7. Which are the female headed households and where are they located?
How to facilitate:
As with resource mapping, social mapping is best carried out at the beginning of the appraisal. A social map will provide you with the information you may need for carrying out for example nutrition mapping and wealth ranking. Knowing who the poor and nutritionally vulnerable is important when one wishes to carry out household interviews. Knowing which households are better off and those that do not have nutrition problems may also be useful to understand the reasons behind their apparent success (positive deviance technique).
The exercise may be carried out with separate male and female groups if this is more opportune for equitable participation. Given that poverty and disease may go hand in hand with social stigma, the poor may resist being classified as poor. In such a case you may wish to restrict the participants to key informants from the village. However, one should always be cautious not to be biased towards one or another group. For example, it is highly likely that key informants belong to the better off groups. They may be reluctant to classify themselves as such fearing that they will be left out from possible aid. Hence, it is advisable to do social mapping with different groups depending on the local situation, and later compare the results.
The steps involved in social mapping include:
1. Ask the participants to draw a map of the village, showing all households. For orientation it will be helpful to draw roads and significant spots of the village into the map.
2. Discuss whether the total number of households has increased or shrunk during recent years. If there were any changes ask why the number has changed and whether this has caused any problem for certain families or for the community at large.
3. Ask the group to also show institutions, buildings and places that offer some kind of social service or which are popular spots to meet and discuss. Example: schools, churches, health service, traditional healers, community administration, community leaders, local shop, kindergarten, places where people frequently meet, water point etc.)
4. Encourage the group to discuss and show on the map which different ethnic groups are living. Using a common symbol, mark those households in which the minority ethnic groups live.
5. Encourage the group to discuss and show on the map which different religious groups are living in the village. Using a common symbol, mark those households in which the minority religious groups live.
6. Ask the group to indicate with a symbol on the map all households that are female-headed. Make sure that everybody has the same understanding of what the characteristics of a female-headed household are!
7. If time and the situation allows you should integrate the wealth-ranking tool at this point which is described on a separate tool sheet!
8. Make sure that your copy of the map has a key explaining the different items and symbols used on the map.
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet, this tool sheet, and paper for copying the map. If drawing on the ground, use soft ground, sticks and local material for symbols. When drawing on a paper, use a big sheet of paper, pencils and colour markers.
Hints:
If people find it difficult to understand this tool, it will be helpful to draw a simple example for them.
During the whole process, take care that once somebody has given a statement, you ask the others whether they agree, disagree or want to add something.
The note taker must ensure that all the important points of the discussion and also other information are documented.
The purpose of the social map must be very clear to all participants, make sure that the participants do not have wrong expectations. For example people may think that the poor households will after the exercise receive food donations.
Unlike resource mapping, social maps need good and well-prepared facilitation. Be aware that some of the issues that might be discussed could be sensitive.
Make sure that the objective of having all households shown on the map will be achieved.
TOOL 3 - WEALTH RANKING
Description: Wealth ranking is a tool that allows for the identification of different wealth groups in a community. It provides a means to characterise these groups and start a discussion on what factors are important determinants of poverty as well as wellbeing. Wealth ranking is best carried out immediately following social mapping so as to be able to physically locate specific households and link socio-economic criteria to the wealth categories.
Objectives:
1. To investigate perceptions of wealth differences and inequalities in a community.
2. To identify and understand local indicators and criteria of wealth and wellbeing.
3. To map the relative position of households in a community.
With whom: Carry out the exercise with a few key informants who know the community well.
Examples of key questions:
1. What are local perceptions of wealth, wellbeing and inequality?
2. What socio-economic groupings are there in the community and who belongs in what group?
How to facilitate:
Given that poverty and disease may go hand in hand with social stigma, the poor may resist being classified as poor. It is therefore best that key informants from the village carry out the exercise. However, one should always be cautious not to be biased towards one or another group. For example, it is likely that key informants belong to the better off groups. They may be reluctant to classify themselves as being better off in the belief that better off households will not receive aid. It is therefore to clearly spell out the true purpose of the exercise and to find ways of avoiding bias in either direction by having people from the various groups participate together or separately.
The steps involved in wealth ranking include:
1. A numbered list is made of all the households in the community (see social map) and the name each household head and the household number is written on a separate card.
2. A number of key informants who know the village and its inhabitants very well are asked to sort the cards in as many piles as there are wealth categories in the community, using their own criteria.
3. After sorting, ask the informants for the wealth criteria for each pile and differences between the piles. Assure the informants of confidentiality and do not discuss the ranks of individual families, so as not to cause bad feelings within the community.
4. List local criteria and indicators derived from the ranking discussion.
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet, this tool sheet, the social map and coloured cards for listing the names of the community members.
TOOL 4 - LOCAL PERCEPTIONS OF MALNUTRITION AND MAPPING OF HOUSEHOLDS AFFECTED BY MALNUTRITION
Description: The purpose of this tool is to reach a better understanding about who is affected by malnutrition and why. While the tool could be expanded to look into other nutrition related issues, it is important that the identification of who is nutritionally vulnerable is carried out as early as possible during the appraisal. The information will permit the team to prepare for group discussions on causes and opportunities for addressing these problems. Knowing whom is affected is also be essential to select households for more in-depth case studies.
Objectives:
1. To identify various forms of malnutrition prevalent in the community.
2. To understand the local perceptions of malnutrition.
3. To map nutritionally vulnerable households
With whom: Carry out the interview with one or more key informants. Below, possible key informants are listed:
1. Community Health Worker
2. Traditional Birth Attendant
3. Rural Health Centre Worker
4. Home Agent
5. Traditional Healer
6. Primary School Teacher
Time needed: 2 hours
Examples of key questions:
1. What are the most important health problems and how important are nutrition problems?
2. What do local people see as the causes of their health and in particular nutrition problems?
3. What is the local treatment for specific health and nutrition problems?
4. Who is (more) affected by what health/nutrition problems and why?
5. What age groups, gender, socio-economic groups, etc. are more affected and why?
How to facilitate:
An appointment is made with key informants, either individually or in a group. The informants are asked to:
1. Describe the commonly seen health problems in the community? What problems are specific for children, adults and women.
2. Rank for each group (children, adults and women) the health problems according to their importance? Ten marks are given to the most important problem and one mark to the least important problem. A mark between 1 and 10 is given to the remaining problems.
3. Explain why more importance was given to one problem than to another? (e.g. higher incidence, more severe, etc.)
4. Identify those problems that are important for nutrition (i.e. marasmus or the fact that a child’s weight is significantly low for its age; kwashiorkor or protein malnutrition with symptoms like potbelly, oedema, dry skin and discoloration of the hair; night blindness; diarrhoea; anaemia, etc.)?
5. Describe for each of these nutrition-related problems, what local people see as the causes?
6. Explain what local people in general do to treat these problems? (Draw a matrix with the problems, their perceived causes, and how they are treated)
7. Identify on the village map those households that have frequently such nutrition-related problems and for each of these households mark with a symbol the type of nutrition-related problems they suffer from?
8. For each of the households that were marked, explain the reasons why these households are having the nutrition-related problems that were mentioned?
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet, this tool sheet, the social map and a list of the households or cards with the names of the head of the household together with the codes through which to locate the households on the social map.
TOOL 5 - INSTITUTIONAL VENN DIAGRAM
Description: The Institutional Venn Diagram is a tool that is used to visualises and discuss the relationships among institutions, organisations, groups and important individuals found in a village. In addition, the diagram allows villagers to attach a value to each institution in relation to its relative importance within and for the community. The diagram may also show who participates in each institution in terms of gender, socio-economic class, ethnicity, religion, etc.
Objectives:
1. To identify and characterise external and internal organisations, groups, important persons that have a relationship, whether direct or indirect, with the community.
2. To identify whom participates in local organisations, institutions and groups, by gender, wealth and other criteria as appropriate.
3. To find out how the different organisations, groups and people relate to one another in terms of contact, co-operation, flow of information, provision of services, etc.
With whom: The Institutional Venn Diagram should be developed with a broad cross-section of the community. If need be, the exercise may be done with separate groups of men and women, poor and better off, etc. so as to better catch differences in perceptions among these groups. When separate groups are used, the results should always be shared among these groups at the end of the exercise so as to stimulate discussion and clarify eventual discrepancies.
Time needed: 1,5 - 2 hours
Examples of key questions:
Which organisations, institutions, groups and important persons are working in or with the community?
What is their relative importance in the eyes of the villagers and why?
What groups address household food security and nutrition issues?
Which organisations work together?
What groups are solely for women or men?
What are the particular groups or kind of people that are excluded from being members of or receiving services from certain institutions?
How to facilitate:
If time allows it is good to form separate focus groups for women and men. Make sure that also the poorest and most disadvantaged join the groups.
To facilitate the preparation of an institutional venn diagram, follow the steps below:
1. Identify those organisations, institutions, groups and important people that are found within the village and those that have come from outside and are working with the community. Make sure not to neglect the small informal groups (e.g. a neighbourhood health committee or a water user group).
2. Explore the ways in which people assist one another. What local groups are working on environmental issues (e.g. water, grazing, arable land), economic issues (e.g. saving, credit, agriculture, livestock), social issues (e.g. health, literacy, religion, tradition, education, sport). Are their political groups? Who makes or participates in making important decisions in the village?
3. Write down all the institutions that are mentioned and assign to each organisation a symbol that everyone understands.
4. Draw a big circle, representing the people themselves, in the centre of the paper or on the ground.
5. Discuss how important each organisation is for the community and why. The most important ones are then drawn as a big circle and the less important ones as smaller circles.
6. Compare the sizes of the circles and adjust them so that the size of a circle corresponds to the relative importance of the institution, organisation, group or individual.
7. Mark each organisation, group and individual with its own name or symbol.
8. Discuss on how the community and different groups of people benefit from each organisation.
9. Show the degree of contact and co-operation among the community, the organisations, institutions, groups and important individuals. The distance between the circles shows the level of contact and interaction. External institutions with which people do not have much contact are located outside and far away from the main circle that represents the community. Institutions that are within the community are drawn inside the main circle. The contact among institutions is shown by the distance between the circles on the diagram:
- Large distance between circles shows no or little contact or co-operation.
- Circles that are close to each other show loose contacts.
- Touching circles indicate institutions that have some co-operation.
- Overlapping circles are for institutions that are in close co-operation.10. Identify those institutions that only accept women or men as members. What institutions provide services to only men or women and mark those with a common symbol for men or women.
11. Identify those organisations in which poor people do not participate. What are the services provided by certain organisations from which the poorer people are usually excluded? Mark these institutions on the diagram with a symbol for poor. You might also ask if there are other groups of people that usually are excluded from some of these institutions or services.
12. Identify those institutions and groups that address household food security and nutrition issues. In what way are they addressing these issues? Mark the mentioned institutions with a common symbol.
13. Only if time and the motivation of the participants allow, the group may discuss the strengths and weaknesses of those institutions that were reported as most important.
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet for the Institutional Venn Diagram, this tool sheet, and paper for copying the diagram. When drawing on the ground, use soft ground, sticks and local material for symbols, When drawing on paper, use big sheets of paper, pencils and markers.
Hints: If people find it difficult to understand this tool, it will be helpful to draw a simple example for them.
TOOL 6 - RESOURCE PICTURE CARDS
Description: Resource Picture Cards are a useful visualisation technique that can be used to facilitate a discussion about who uses and controls resources. It is fun and non-threatening way of identifying differences in the resource base of men and women and discussing their specific priorities and resource needs.
Objective: To learn about differences between men and women in their use of and control over resources.
With whom: A mixed group of men and women, preferably taken from the same groups that prepared the resource map.
Time needed: 1.5 hours
Examples of key questions:
1. What are the resources that women use?
2. What are the resources that men use?
3. What resource do both use?
4. Who controls the use of these resources?
5. Who makes decisions about how resources are used?
How to facilitate:
You can use either pre-prepared cards with pictures or use local material to create symbols for this exercise.
1. Explain to the group that you want to learn about resource use and control.
2. Place three large drawings, one of a man, one of a woman, and one of both, on the ground in a row with adequate space in between them.
3. Ask the participants to think about the resources they named while doing the resource map and any others they have, use and/or think are important.
4. If you want to use local materials, then ask the participants to develop symbols for these resources (leaves or twigs could represent forest and firewood, cow dung or horns can represent cattle, etc). Or you can use the pre-made Resource Cards.
5. If using the Resource Cards, ask them to draw pictures on cards to represent resources not on the cards.
6. Ask the participants to place the symbols or pictures under the symbol of the man, woman or both, depending on whom uses the resource.
7. Ask the participants to explain why they made the choices they did.
8. Make another row of the three large drawings, the man, the woman, and both, on the ground underneath the other picture.
9. Repeat the exercise, but this time focus on who has control, ownership or decision-making power over each resource.
10. Ask the participants to compare the way they have arranged the symbols or picture cards in both of the drawings.
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet for the Resource Pictures Cards, this tool sheet, and paper for copying the results. Two sets of Resource Picture Cards, including the figures. Or sticks, pebbles, leaves, sawdust, flour, dung or any other local material.
Hints:
1. There will be a lot of discussion about where to place the symbols, under the drawing of the man, the woman or of both. Explain that only the resources that are used and/or controlled half by men and half by women should be placed under the column for both. They should place the symbols or pictures under either the woman or the man to indicate who uses and/or controls them most.
2. Be sure to have blank cards ready to draw resources that you have not made pictures for.
TOOL 7 - SEASONAL CALENDAR
Description: A seasonal calendar is a participatory tool to explore the effects of seasonal factors on livelihood aspects, including workload, diseases, income, expenditure, food availability, access to potable water, etc. In situations where people have few reserves, seasonal food shortages may be a major reason for malnutrition. In such situations, people may revert to unsustainable means of meeting their most basic livelihood needs, e.g. illegal logging, over-grazing of communal land, etc. However, not everyone in a community may be equally affected. It is therefore important that seasonal calendars be applied separately for men and women in order to bring out differences in how men and women and women perceive and are affected and cope with seasonal stress. The same is applicable for different wealth groups, etc.
Objectives: To learn about how seasonal factors affect people’s livelihoods, and in particular those of poor and disadvantaged, through for example periodic changes in agricultural and non agricultural workload, food availability, incidence of diseases, income and expenditure, access to water, forage, etc.
With whom: Mixed or separate groups of women and men.
Time needed: 2 hours
Examples of key questions:
1. What are the busiest months of the year?
2. At what time of the year is food scarce?
3. How does income vary over the year for men and women?
4. How does expenditure vary over the year for men and women?
5. How does rainfall vary over the year?
6. How does the availability of potable water vary over the year?
7. How does availability of livestock forage vary over the year?
8. How does availability of credit vary over the year?
9. At what time of the year are which holidays?
10. When do women carry out most of the agricultural work carried and what work is done when?
11. When do men carry out most of the agricultural and what work is done when?
12. What non-agricultural work do women carry out and when?
13. What non-agricultural work do men carry out and when?
14. What is the most appropriate season for additional activities for men and women? What time constraints exist and for what reason?
How to facilitate:
1. Find a large open space for the group. The calendar can be drawn on the ground or large sheets of paper.
2. Ask the participants to draw a matrix, giving a symbol to each month in the top row and a symbol for the factors that you will look at in the first column.
3. It usually easiest to start the calendar by asking about rainfall patterns. Place the symbol for rain in the first cell of the row that will be used to illustrate the rainfall pattern. Ask the group to put stones under each month of the calendar to represent relative amounts of rainfall (more stones meaning more rainfall).
4. Move to the next topic and ask people during which months food is usually scarce. Discuss the reasons for this scarcity. Make sure to capture the different kinds of food donations that people may receive and reflect this on the calendar.
5. Continue the exercise going through all the topics you wanted to discuss, including for example:
(1) Rainfall
(2) Food scarcity (many stones means less food available, indicate during which time people receive food donations (e.g. food for work))
(3) Income (cask and kind) for women
(4) Income (cash and kind) for men
(5) Expenditure (men and women separate)
(6) Potable water
(7) Livestock forage
(8) Credit and savings
(9) Holiday periods
(10) Agricultural work load (women and men separate)
(11) Non-agricultural work load (women and men separate)
6. After the calendar is finished ask the group what the relationship is between the patterns that can be seen in the different calendars, e.g. between rainfall and agricultural production or incidence of diseases. Encourage the group to discuss freely what they see on the calendar.
7. Make sure to copy the seasonal calendar as well as the legend explaining the different items and symbols.
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet for the Seasonal Calendars, this tool sheet, and paper for copying the calendars. When drawing on the ground, use soft ground, stones, sticks and other available material to produce symbols, or when drawing on a paper, use a big sheet of paper, pencils, and colour markers.
Hints: When presenting the list of topics, one should always first check with the participants if there are any other topics they feel are important and need to be explored. These should be added to the matrix.
Apart from gender, the nature of the location and community may require or the participants may wish to include other factors of differentiation, including socio-economic groups, agro-ecological zones, etc.
TOOL 8 - INCOME AND EXPENDITURE MATRIX
Description: The Income and Expenditure Matrix is a tool for the qualification and quantification of different sources of income and expenditure. Understanding where people derive their income from and how it is spent is important for understanding livelihoods and food security. People within a community as well as within a household may have different ways of deriving income and spending. It is therefore useful to apply this tool separately for these different groups of people, e.g. separate for men and women, the poor and better off, etc. This will help in identifying those affected by ‘income poverty’. Together with the information from the social map, it may be possible to quantify and qualify the income poor. When combined with the nutrition map, the link between income and nutrition can be explored. Knowing how men and women spend differently is important to understand factors within the household that affect malnutrition. E.g., who spends how much on basic livelihood needs, including food, water, clothing, shelter, health care, education, etc.? Who saves or spends what proportion of income on investments in income generating activities?
Objective: To learn about sources of income (cash and kind) and what proportion of income is spent by whom, e.g. by gender and wealth groups.
With whom: Two mixed focus groups (men and women), one looking at gender differences, the other at wealth differences.
Time needed: 2 hours
Examples of key questions:
Income matrix:
1. What are the most important sources of income in the community, both in cash and in kind?
2. Who has only a few sources of income?
3. Who has many sources of income?
4. How compares the income of the poor with that of the better off?
5. How do women’s sources of income compare with those of men?
Expenditure matrix:
1. How are expenditures spread out over the year?
2. Which expenditures are common to almost every one?
3. For each social group, what proportion of income is spent to meet basic needs like food, clothing, housing, health care and education?
4. Who saves?
5. Who buys equipment, tools, agricultural inputs or other investment goods?
6. How do women’s expenditures compare to those of men?
How to facilitate:
For the group looking at wealth differences:
1. Explain to the group that you want to learn about where their income comes from and how they spend it. Reassure them that you don’t want to know how much they make but are only interested in learning about where the money comes from.
2. Ask the group to list their sources of income. Be sure to prompt them to include both cash sources and payments in kind or by barter.
3. Start drawing the matrix on the ground or a large piece of paper.
4. Put the sources of income in the horizontal axis. The group may want to use symbols to represent the various sources.
5. Collect 50 small stones (ask the children for help). Explain that these stones represent the total income for the whole community for the year.
6. Ask the participants to divide the 50 stones between the wealth groups that were identified during the social mapping, e.g. the poor, middle and rich.
7. Ask the group to select a representative for each of the wealth groups, and give these representatives the portion of the stones the group decided they should have.
8. Ask the representative to stand along the vertical axis with the stones.
9. Ask the representative to take turns placing their stones in the matrix to indicate their sources of income. Carry this out until all the stones are divided.
10. Record the matrix, counting all the stones for each source of income for each socio-economic group.
11. Repeat the same process for expenditures. Create a new matrix, using local symbols if desired, asking the group to list all of their expenditures, including savings.
12. Ask the representatives to collect back their stones and to redistribute them according to how they spend their money.
For the gender group
1. The process is almost the same. Put two columns on the horizontal matrix - men and women. Again let the group list their sources of income.
2. Again collect 50 stones. Divide them equally among the men and the women (25 each). Select a representative and start the distribution as above.
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet for the Income and Expenditures Matrix, this tool sheet, and paper for copying the matrices. You will also need local materials to create symbols and stones.
Hints: Discussing incomes and expenditures can be highly sensitive. People may be reluctant to talk about these issues in public. Be sure to reassure the participants that you do not want to know about amounts, but will only be talking about relative proportions for each group. There will be a sensitive moment when you ask the group to agree on how to divide the stones among the rich, middle and poor groups. Be sure that you limit the total number of stones for the community as a whole. We suggest 50 stones.
TOOL 9 - DAILY ACTIVITY CLOCKS
Description: Daily Activity Clocks are a technique to identify and visualise the different activities that people are involved in during the course of a day. Knowing who does what and how much time is spent on different tasks may be important to understand for example the ability of women and other caregivers to look after the nutritionally vulnerable. Special clocks for children may be able to show how important school is in their lives and how boys and girls are differently involved in household chores. Comparison of daily activity clocks among different socio-economic groups may help explain for example different child care practices or reasons why poor children do not attend school as frequently as children from better off households. It is also useful to prepare separate clocks for the different seasons so as to capture the effects of seasonal workloads on childcare, school attendance, etc.
Objectives: To learn what different people do during a day and how heavy their workloads are.
With whom: To capture gender aspects, it is best to use female and male focus groups. If time allows, other focus groups may also be useful, e.g. groups of boys and girls, the poor and better off, etc.
Time needed: 1 hour
Examples of key questions:
1. For each person, how is his or her time divided?
2. What is the difference between the women’s and the men’s clocks?
3. Who has the heaviest workload?
4. Who has time for rest and leisure?
5. How much time per day do women or girls spend collecting water and fuel wood?
How to facilitate:
1. Organise separate focus groups of men and women. Make sure that each group includes people from different socio-economic groups, unless you have planned to make clocks for each socio-economic group separately.
2. Explain that you would like to learn about what they do on a typical day.
3. You can start the exercise by asking the groups what they did the day before and how they generally pass their day this time of the year. It’s easy to start the clocks by asking what time people usually wake-up.
4. Draw the clock with all the activities carried out the previous day and indicate the time each activity took. Activities that are carried out at the same time like childcare and cooking can be placed together.
5. When the clocks are ready, ask questions about the activities shown.
6. Note the present season, e.g. rainy season, dry season.
7. If there is time, ask the participants to produce new clocks to represent a typical day in the other season.
8. Compare the clocks prepared by the different groups.
9. Use the key questions above to guide a discussion about people’s activities and workloads.
Be sure to copy the clocks on paper. Note the name of the group or person the season that the clock represents.
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet for the Daily Activity Clocks, this tool sheet, and paper for copying the clocks. For the group to make the clocks use flip-chart paper, coloured markers and a ruler. You may also draw the clock in sand and use local materials to show the different activities.
Hints: You can start the exercise by giving the example of how you spent your day yesterday. Draw a big circle on paper and indicate when you woke up, what time you went to bed and all the activities in-between. There is no need to go into great detail, but be sure to show that all kinds of activities are included such as work, household chores, childcare, etc.
TOOL 10 - FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION: CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITIES TO ACHIEVING GOOD NUTRITION
Description: A focus group discussion is a group discussion that is centred on a specific theme. The group may represent a specific group, e.g. men or women, the poor or better off, the youth, etc. The group may also represent a cross-section of the community. The purpose of the discussion is not so much information gathering but rather to make a first start with the analysis of what local people see as constraints and opportunities to achieving good nutrition. The focus is not only on those affected and how they cope but is also on why others are not affected and why. The discussion should be held once other basic information has been gathered. Resource mapping, social mapping, nutrition mapping, and other tools will provide very useful input for the discussion.
Objectives:
1. Understand local perceptions of nutrition and household food security.
2. Identify and understand constraints in the household and community to achieving good nutrition and household food security.
3. Identify and understand mechanisms in the household and the community to cope with malnutrition and household food insecurity.
4. Identify what community, household and individual resources are required to obtain good nutrition and household food security.
With whom: It is useful to organise separate meetings for men and women in order to capture gender-based differences in perceptions.
Time needed: 2 hours
Examples of key questions:
1. What are the major health problems during the different seasons?
2. What are the most important constraints to achieving good health and how are these overcome?
3. How and by who are decisions made in the household with regard to health or responding to health problems?
4. What measures are taken and what resources are needed to prevent health and nutrition problems from recurring?
5. What are the foods commonly eaten during the different seasons, are their shortages and why?
6. What are the most important constraints to achieve food security and how do different people cope?
7. How and by who are decisions made with regard to achieving food security or responding to problems of attaining food security?
8. How are resources allocated to achieving food security and reallocated in case of food insecurity?
9. What measures are taken and what resources are needed to prevent food security problems from recurring?
How to facilitate:
Make an appointment for the meeting well in advance. Make sure that there are enough participants to have a meaningful discussion, but also avoid too large a group because this will inhibit free discussion. Make sure that there is a note taker and that the facilitator can fully concentrate on the discussion. Start the discussion with a clear explanation of the purpose of the meeting and the theme that you would like to discuss. Use the key questions as a guide for the discussion. Remember that the main purpose of the exercise is not data gathering, but to probe into issues that seem to play a significant role in achieving good nutrition. The discussion may be split into two parts or separate groups may each discuss one of the sub-topics depending on availability of time and facilitators.
Nutrition
1. What are the major health problems that members of the community have faced during the past year? Rank these problems in order of importance by giving ten marks to the most important problem, one mark to the least important problem and a mark between one and ten to the remaining problems. (also find out who was affected by what illness) (indicate those problems that are nutrition related) (if some of the nutrition-related health problems identified during the nutrition-mapping exercise are not mentioned, ask about those problems)
2. In your view, what are the reasons for these problems and what is commonly done to resolve the problems? (Draw a matrix with the problems, the causes, the actions taken by the community and households) (Ask this question for each of the nutrition-related health problems) (Probe deep enough into the reason for problem in order to understand the underlying causes) (probe deep enough into how the family addressed the problem and its causes)
3. How are decisions being made in the household with regard to health or responding to health problems? Who makes specific decisions? How are household resources allocated in case of ill health and malnutrition?
4. What resources are needed by the community, households and individuals to become more successful at preventing health and nutrition problems from recurring?
Household food security
1. What are the foods commonly eaten in the community during this (dry) season? (When listing the foods do not restrict the list)
2. Can you rank these foods according to their frequency of consumption? (Give 10 marks to the most frequently consumed food and 1 mark to the last frequently consumed food. Mark the remaining foods on a scale between 1 and 10)
3. How does the diet change during the other (rainy) season and why? (Add or subtract foods from the list. Rank the foods again)
4. What do you consider to be a good quality diet? (Rank the foods listed before according to importance)
5. During the last year, what have been the problems in the community, households and individuals to obtain such an adequate diet (to be food secure)? (focus on the three levels: community, household and individual so as to reveal issues of food distribution within the community and within household) (Draw a matrix with the problems, the causes, the actions taken by the community and households)
6. In your view, what were the reasons for these problems? What did the community and households do to resolve these problems? (Probe deep enough into the reason for the problem in order to understand the underlying causes) (Probe deep enough into how the community addressed the problem and its causes)
7. How are decisions being made within the household with regard to achieving food security or responding to problems of attaining food security? Who makes specific decisions? How are resources allocated to achieving food security? How are resources reallocated in case of food insecurity?
8. What measures are taken by the community and households to prevent food security problems from recurring?
9. What resources are needed by the community, households and individuals to become more successful at preventing food security problems from recurring?
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet for the Focus Group Discussion, this tool sheet, and paper for copying the matrices. For the group to make the matrices use flip-chart paper, coloured markers and a ruler. You may also draw the matrices in sand and use local materials to show the different foods, diseases, etc.
TOOL 11 - SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW: HOUSEHOLD CASE STUDY
Description: Household case studies are a useful tool to verify findings from the other appraisal tools and to illustrate these findings with concrete cases. Household case studies are time consuming and require excellent facilitation skills if one wishes to go beyond the level of a traditional survey with closed questions. The purpose, as with the focus group discussion, is not so much to collect data but to listen to the story behind the facts and probe deeper in what are important underlying constraints and opportunities.
Case studies are also a good tool to listen to the poorest and marginalised in the community. It may be a unique opportunity for them to participate in the appraisal as they are often not participating or sometimes even excluded from community meetings. It is also an excellent opportunity for observation and the note taker should take note of the surroundings and the way the interviewed people live. The story of the poor will also provide the appraisal team with excellent material to illustrate their findings and advocate for specific solutions targeting the needs of the disadvantaged over solutions that cut across the entire community without having a real impact on the poorest.
Objectives:
1. To understand why members of a household (that was mapped as being affected by malnutrition) have nutrition-related health problems and why other households are not affected.
2. To identify constraints and opportunities in the household and community for household members to achieve nutrition security.
With who: Selected households from different socio-economic groups.
Time needed: 1.5 hours
Examples of key questions:
1. Who lives in this household? (father, mother, children, permanent dependants like grandparents, temporary dependants) (for the children, find out how old they are)
2. What are the major health problems that some of your family members have faced during the past year? (find out who was affected by what illness) (indicate those problems that are nutrition related) (if some of the nutrition-related health problems identified during the nutrition-mapping exercise are not mentioned, ask about those problems)
3. In your view, what were the reasons for these problems and what did you do to solve the problems? (Ask this question for each of the nutrition-related health problems) (Probe deep enough into the reason for problem in order to understand the underlying causes) (probe deep enough into how the family addressed the problem and its causes)
4. What measures have you taken to prevent such problems from recurring?
5. What resources would you need to become more successful at preventing such problems of recurring?
6. What are the foods commonly eaten in the household during this (dry) season? (When listing the foods do not restrict the list)
7. Can you rank these foods according to their frequency of consumption? (Give 10 marks to the most frequently consumed food and 1 mark to the last frequently consumed food. Mark the remaining foods on a scale between 1 and 10)
8. How does the households diet change during the other (rainy) season and why? (Add or subtract foods from the list. Rank the foods again)
9. During the last year, what have been your problems to be able to feed your family well?
10. In your view, what were the reasons for these problems and what did you do to resolve these problems? How did you feed your family during these periods? (Probe deep enough into the reason for problem in order to understand the underlying causes) (probe deep enough into how the family addressed the problem and its causes)
11. What measures have you taken to prevent such problems from recurring?
12. What resources would you need to become more successful at preventing such problems of recurring?
How to facilitate:
1. Sort and pile the households in the community by those that were mapped as having nutrition-related health problems and those that have no such problems.
2. With each pile, sort and pile households that were ranked as wealthy and those that were ranked as poor. (You should now have four piles)
3. Within each pile, sort and pile households that are male headed and those that are female headed. (You should now have eight piles)
4. Randomly select one household from each pile. A household case study will be carried out in each household.
5. The facilitators will carry out the interview at the house using the key questions listed before. Other questions may be added as appropriate. Make sure to use the key questions as a guide for the discussion and probe, rather than to use them as a questionnaire.
6. The note taker should observe the surroundings and take note of things like the state of the house, the location where people cook, the health status of the family members, etc.
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet for the Case Study and this tool sheet.
TOOL 12 - COMMUNITY WORKSHOP
Description: The Community Workshop is a meeting with the community at large to discuss the findings of the appraisal and draw the first lines of what a community plan of action could look like. It is the first feedback from the appraisal team and aims at identifying what the different stakeholders could do to overcome the problems that were discussed. The focus is primarily on what community-based stakeholders can do within the existing resource base. It is important not to create any expectations that one cannot guarantee.
It is important to give a clear overview of what follow-up will be given to the appraisal and what the time frame is going to be. In case you are planning to provide further feedback to the community at a later stage, for example once a draft project proposal has been designed, make a tentative appointment.
Objectives:
1. To present the main findings and conclusions of the appraisal to the community at large.
2. To provide an opportunity to the community for discussion of the main findings of the appraisal.
3. To reach a consensus on the way forward and the roles and responsibilities of the community, the community support staff and the project.
With who: Organise a meeting with the community at large, ensuring that men and women are equally represented, as well as people from different socio-economic groups and ages.
Examples of key questions:
1. What are views of the community on the main findings of the appraisal?
2. In anticipation of an eventual project or other intervention, what actions can the community and the community support staff already initiate, using locally available resources, to start address some of the problems raised during the appraisal?
How to facilitate:
1. The leader of the appraisal team presents an overview of the activities that were carried out.
2. Each team member presents the main findings of the exercises facilitated by him or her. Main findings and conclusions should be presented using the Evaluation Matrix, giving: key questions, main findings, strengths within the community, weaknesses within the community, opportunities outside the community, threats outside the community, and conclusions.
3. Following the presentation of all findings, the gathering should be split into groups. For example: Community Leaders, Adult Men, Adult Women, Young People, and Community Support Staff.
4. Each group discusses the findings and conclusions of the PRA and identifies what actions could be undertaken by themselves (young, old, men, women, leaders, support staff) to address some of the identified problems within the limits of the resources that are locally available (human, financial, natural, social, institutional, etc.). The appraisal team members may facilitate this exercise, allowing maximum participation from the group members, and using the various elements of the SWOT analyses as entry points. For example, what are the weaknesses in the community that the community needs to address and what are the strengths that need emphasising? How can opportunities coming from outside be better utilised and threats reduced? What is the role of the community support staff therein?
5. Each group presents its findings and conclusions to the plenary meeting.
6. The leader of the appraisal team explains what follow-up will be given to the appraisal. E.g. causal analysis at regional level, project planning and formulation, review and approval of the project proposal by a review meeting.
7. In the case of a project, the team leader expresses the commitment to follow-up on the process initiated through the appraisal. For example, a first step following the approval of the project could be the initiation of a “Community Action Planning” process that would build on the findings of the appraisal.
8. Vote of thanks by the various stakeholders.
Materials needed: You need the accompanying documentation sheet for the Community Workshop and this tool sheet. In addition, you may use in the meeting flip charts with the “Main Questions and Findings”, “An analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats” and “Conclusions”. You will also need flip charts for documenting the group discussions.
