Description: Once the village profiles have been compiled, the time has come to compare the findings from the different communities and prepare an overall profile for the entire region or area that was covered. The purpose of the profile is dual. On the one hand, there is need to summarise the findings and draw general conclusions. On the other hand, the comparison of individual profiles may reveal important differences. These may for example be due to geographic or agro-ecological factors. Also the location of the community within or near an urban centre may result in greater access to services, markets, and other facilities as compared to more remote communities.
The process of preparing a regional profile also provides a good opportunity to present the findings to a larger public and to evaluate the results together with all the stakeholders. This may lead to the identification of remaining information gaps or areas that require further probing, and to plan for collecting the missing information.
The basic information for the profile comes from the individual village profiles. These were organised along the key questions of the different appraisal tools. To make sense of all this information and put it in a format that is readily useable for planning purposes, one may use a tool called SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses are characteristics of the people or group that is being investigated. For example, the group may be poorly organised, there may be social vices that unhealthy, the extended family may provide a good social safety net. Opportunities and threats on the other hand are factors that are beyond the immediate control of the community, but that nevertheless have either a positive or negative impact on the community. For example, erratic rainfall may be a threat to agriculture, and the counselling services provided by a mission hospital may be a good opportunity for preventing and dealing with HIV/AIDS.
It is extremely useful to do a SWOT analysis prior to problem tree analysis and objective tree analysis. The reason being that the weaknesses and threats will provide the problem statements with which the problem trees can be developed. The strengths and opportunities will provide a good basis for formulating means and ends of the objective trees.
If the participants feel that making a distinction between what is under the control of the community (SW) and what is not (OT), one may decide to simple look at constraints and opportunities. Constraints being those factors that inhibit development and opportunities those factors that favour development. While this may be an easier and faster method, the added value of making a distinction between what is under the control of the community and what not should not be underestimated. When planning, it will be extremely useful to know what the community can do on its own and where outside support is needed. Often, the simple realisation of one’s own strengths and shortcomings is enough to get development moving again without creating dependence on external assistance. Hence, the process of the appraisal and analysis is as important to the local people as it is to the team that was tasked with preparing a project or programme proposal.
Objective: The SWOT analysis is a tool that may help to summarise, structure and evaluate information related to an issue under discussion, i.e. the issue that is being addressed by the appraisal or by a specific appraisal tool. In the case of this manual, one may wish to summarise, structure and evaluate the information that was obtained from the appraisal, from the secondary data analysis or from the participants in the Orientation and Training workshop.
The team may also have made certain assumptions that need to be verified. The SWOT analysis aims at organising this information in terms of strengths and weaknesses within the community and opportunities and threats coming from outside the community. Strengths and opportunities help the community, weaknesses and threats are hindering the community to address the issue that is being investigated. The advantage of a SWOT analysis is that it allows looking both at positive and negative factors and situations.
With who: The analysis is carried out by the appraisal team or by the participants in the Orientation and Training workshop. In the case of the appraisal, it may be useful to present the analysis to the community or to local authorities and stakeholders as a summary and evaluation of the findings of the community appraisals. It is a good starting point for a community workshop at the end of the appraisal and for further planning.
Examples of key questions:
1. What is the entity of the analysis? An entity is the group that determines the boundaries of the analysis. It could be a household, a community, an economic reality, a geographical region. For community action planning purposes, the entity is the community.
2. What is the issue that we are investigating? E.g., the issue could be ‘food security and nutrition problems in the community’.
3. Given the objective of the PRA or PRA tool, have all key questions been answered adequately and has the team probed deep enough to reach a good understanding of the underlying issues.
4. It is important to ask whether the issues under investigation have been adequately looked at from various perspectives, including gender, participation, household food security, nutrition, socio-economic differentiation, agro-ecological zones, farming system, etc.
5. The team should make a distinction between confirmed answers, open questions and information gaps, and assumptions that need to be verified. For the gaps and assumptions, the team should indicate if further probing is essential before going ahead with the planning exercise. If so, the required methodology for further probing should be defined.
6. Once the team has made an overview of the various answers, assumptions and information gaps, the information should be reorganised in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
7. What are the strengths present within the community that helped to address the issue that is being investigated? Strengths could be characteristics and advantages of a situation or issue, locally available potentials, capacities, resources (human, social, economic, physical, natural), experience, knowledge, successes. Why and how has this strength an impact on the community's nutrition and food security situation?
8. What are the weaknesses present within the community that hindered in addressing the issue that is being investigated? Weaknesses could be negative characteristics and disadvantages of a situation or issue, constraints, difficulties, problems and shortcomings. Why and how has this weakness an impact on the community's nutrition and food security situation?
9. What are the opportunities that have come from outside the community that have helped the community in addressing the issue that is being investigated? Opportunities could be positive situations or factors out of the direct control of the community. Although, the community could sometimes seek opportunities to resolve problems. Some opportunities are completely out of the control of the community, like favourable prices or good weather. Why and how has this opportunity an impact on the community's nutrition and household food security situation?
10. What are the threats that have come from outside the community that have hindered the community in addressing the issue that is being investigated? Threats could be negative situations and factors out of the direct control of the community. Although, the community could sometimes seek to counteract threats. Some threats are hard or impossible for a community to deal with, like environmental disasters or policies. Why and how has this threat an impact on the community's nutrition and food security situation?
How to facilitate:
1. The information collected during the appraisal is presented according to the key questions that needed to be answered, i.e. in a village or regional profile or as the unprocessed appraisal documentation sheets.
2. The team is asked if all key questions were sufficiently answered and if there is any information missing.
3. The team asks for every issue that was brought forward how it affects nutrition and household food security and why?
4. The team also needs to consider if the issues were adequately probed from various perspectives, including gender, participation, socio-economic differentiation, differences by agro-ecological zones and farming systems, etc.
5. Key questions for further probing or filling information gaps are developed.
6. The team is also asked if there are any new questions that have come up and that need to be answered. These questions are then included in the list.
7. The information is restructured according to Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats using the above key questions.
8. The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are visualised according to the SWOT framework.
Materials needed: Big sheets of paper to draw the matrix, markers, village profile or documentation sheets.
