Tools for Poverty Auditing at the village level

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The Participatory Poverty Profiling (PPP) process involves listening to the voices of all people at the village level - male and female, old and young, rich and poor, literate and illiterate, able-bodied and disabled. The tools described in this document will help to make sure that everybody's voice is heard.

The tools are in two groups. The first deals with methods for making drawings which help people to understand how different people look at the same situation. The second group of tools deals with methods of getting broad agreement about the issues that are most important and urgent.

Exercises for Diagramming and Visualisation:

It has been said that "a good picture is worth a thousand words". This is particularly true for people who are not good with reading and writing. The first eight tools can be used to help people visualise and talk about their situation and to appreciate that different people and groups see it and understand it in different ways.

Tool 88: Mapping your Neighbourhood

To give participants the chance to make drawings and therefore to understand some of the processes
To give participants the chance to understand issues of scale, symbols, direction and omission in the process of making drawings

Tool 89: Mapping your own Town or City

To demonstrate that we all have different mental maps of where we live or work depending on who we are and what information we have
To give participants the chance to practice mapping and modelling for themselves

Tool 90: Mental Map Analysis

To discover what different maps tell about the people who drew them
To show the great differences in the way that different people think about their communities and organisations

Tool 91: Transect Walks

To demonstrate the importance of outsiders going in person (as a team) to observe and talk about things of local importance

Tool 92: Seasonal Calendars

To demonstrate ways to explore changes during the year

Tool 93: Venn Diagram of your Organisation

To teach participants about the value of using visual methods to understand institutional linkages and relationships
To reveal important linkages and constraints in the participants' own institution or organisation according to the perceptions of different groups of participants (senior management, junior management, department heads, field staff etc)

Tool 94: Flow Diagrams for Systems and Impact Analysis

To illustrate how farm and livelihood systems can be shown on a diagram and how this leads to a better understanding of the complexities of linkages and relationships at the local level
To show how the impact of an intervention or process can be represented on a diagram and how this leads to a better understanding of both the expected and the unexpected effects
To describe the basic principles and procedures of flow diagrams

Tool 95: Comparative Diagram Analysis

To illustrate the value of different types of diagrams for understanding local realities
To analyse what different diagrams tell about the people who drew them
To illustrate the great differences in how different people within communities or organisations understand their situation
To demonstrate the soundness of these different views and the importance of recognising and understanding the many different perspectives and priorities within communities and organisations

Exercises for Ranking and Scoring:

We cannot solve all problems at the same time. We have to make lists of all the problems that we face and then decide which are the most important and urgent. Different people will have different ideas about this and we need ways of coming to an agreement about the priorities. The next four tools can be used to help groups and communities to list and explore the issues which they face and to have a better understanding of what is involved in making decisions about them.

Tool 96: Line Game

To introduce the idea of 'ranking' in a light hearted way
To show how we normally make judgements based on many reasons rather than on only one
To fill the participants with energy and enthusiasm

Tool 97: Preference Ranking

To describe how to do a 'preference ranking'
To show how people use their reasons for making choices
To show how important it is to recognise and accept that different people have different preferences.

Tool 98: Matrix Ranking and Scoring

To show participants how they can find out about the different ways that different groups in a community look at the advantages and disadvantages of an issue
To produce a scored and/or ranked list of ideas about some topic of interest

Tool 99: Calculating Well Being or Wealth Ranking

To describe the method of 'well-being ranking' by sorting piles of cards
To practice the calculations
To rank households according to their well-being as this is understood by the participants

The source of the tools mentioned in this document is:

Jules N Pretty, Irene Gujit, John Thompson and Ian Scoones (1995)
Participatory Learning and Action - a Trainer's Guide;
IIED Participatory Methodology Series - ISBN 1899825002

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