Summary of Activities and their Duration

The PRA activities and their duration of time is summarized in the following table:
S.N. Activities Sub- Activities (if Participants Duration
any)
1. Introductory meeting Sikles 1-2 Hours
Community
Members

2. Community Mapping Women and men Half a day

groups perform
separately

3. Sikles History All participants Half a day

4. Seasonal Calendar Women and men Half a day
groups perform
separately

5. Transect Walk PRA team and Half a day

SVPC
6. Trend Lines All Participants Half a day
7. Focus Group Discussion One day
On Agriculture Men Group Half a day
On Health Women Group Half a day
On Education Nearly Half of the Half a day
participants ( Men
and Women)
On Marketing, Credit Nearly Half of the Half a day
and Cooperatives participants ( Men
and Women)

8. Sikles Institutional All Participants Quarter of a day

Diagram
9. Participatory Wealth All Participants Quarter of a day
Ranking
10. Community Problem All Participants Half a day
Analysis (CPA)
11. Community Problem All Participants Half a day
Ranking
12. Community Action Plan All Participants Half a day
(CAP)
13. Evaluation and Close up All Participants
Community Mapping
Points for Discussion
A. General Access:
 Are there any areas in or near the village where you cannot go because of
area closure/security/other reasons? Where? Who cannot go there? Why?
 Where do people go for health services outside of the community? How far
is that? Who goes and for what reasons? How often?
 Where is the nearest market? How far? How does one get there?
 Do people consider access to the village to be a problem? If so, why? What
can or is being done about it?

B. Crops Produced and Soil Fertility

 What are the major types of crops grown in the area? How much of each
on average in percentage terms?
 What is the average yield per hectare during: good rains, bad rains,
average performance?
 How many days does it rain on average in the summer during good rainy
season, drought, most frequent phenomenon?
 Do you have more than one rainy/harvest season? How do you weigh their
relative importance?
 What major problems are there related to agricultural activities?
 General History
 When was this village settled? Where did the first families come from?
Why did they leave where they were before?
 Why does the village have this name? Did it have a different name in the
past? If so, why did it change?
 What important events have occurred in this Sikles since it was settled?
 When has security been bad/good? Why?
 When were some of the happiest times? Saddest times? Why?

 Population and Culture

 When has the village population increased or decreased? What were the
reasons for people coming here or leaving?
 Has the ethnic or religious composition of the community always been the
same or has it changed? If it has changed, how and why?
 Have there been important religious events in the village?

 Agriculture and Natural Resources:

 Have local farmers always grown the same type of crops? What kinds?
What has changed? Why?
 Have farming methods or equipment changed? How and why?
 What were the forests, rivers and wildlife like in the past? If different from
today, how have they changed?
 When were years of the worst flooding? Drought? Animal Diseases? What
effect did these have? How did the community respond?
 Have flood control or irrigation systems ever been built in the community?
If so, when? Are they still working? Why or why not?
 Health and Water Supply:
 When were times of outbreaks of disease? How many died? Why?
 Has anything been done to prevent these outbreaks from happening again?
Why? By whom?
 Are there any new diseases that were not a problem in the past? When did
they start? What has been done to manage them?
 Are there diseases that were a problem before, but not now?
 Have health services in the village always been the same, or have they
changed? If so, how have they changed?
 Have any wells or other water supply systems ever been built in the area?
If so, when? Do they or did they work well? For how long? If they are no
longer working, why?

 Education:
 Has the educational system in the village always been the same, or has it
changed? If so, how has it changed? How has the traditional education (nay
keshi timhirti) been like? How does the current situation of the traditional
education look like?
 How the level of literacy in the community always been the same? If not,
how has it changed and why?
 Have the educated left the area or remained here? Do they work nearby or
far away? What was their contribution to the village?
History of Village ……………………..
Year (A.D.) Important Historical Events
1350 The building of …………………Monastery in the village and the establishment
of the village. This was during the period of ……………………………
1859-63 ………………….. (locally known as ………….) destroyed the monastery of
………………
1889 …………………………………………………..
1906 Many combatants from village participated in the battle of…………………….,
a battle waged between …………….. They fought along with the forces of the
……………..
1928 ……………………………………………

1990 Elementary school and health center was built nearby rural town called
…………..
1992 Community made active involvement in …………..
1995 Health post, store, and training center constructed with contribution from the
public.
Seasonal/ Daily Calendar
 Agriculture/ Gardening:
 What are the main agricultural activities during each season? Are these
activities done close to the village or far? Who does each of the tasks
required- Men, Women, Children?
 When do people go to the farm fields? How long do they stay? Do some
people come back at night during the harvest (threshing) season?
 Do some people migrate to other areas with their cattle in search of water
and grass? Where do they go?
 What other activities take place during the dry season? Do people do off-
farm activities? When? Why?
 Do some families plant vegetable gardens? During what time of the year?
Who usually does this? Men? Women? Children?
 How long does it take to get water for gardens? Who does this?
 Do some people sell crops at the market? When do they do this? Where do
they sell? How long does it take? Who does this?

 Forests/ Wood Use

 Do people go to the forest to collect things like firewood, construction poles,
etc.? When? For how long do they go?
 Do people collect cow dung for cooking? Where? When? Who does this?
 Do people hunt? What kind of animals? When? Why? For how long do
they do?
 Do people go to the forest to gather wood or medicinal plants? When?
 Do some people cut trees for selling?
 Water Sources and Supply:
 How long does it take to collect water for cooking and drinking in the dry
season? In the rainy season?
 How much water is used by the family during each season? Who collects
the water?
 Who takes animals to get water? How long does that take?
 What would people do with the extra time if did not take so long to collect
water?

 Cattle, Sheep and Goats:

 Do people herd their animals? How long does it take? Who does that?
 Are grazing fields sufficiently available? How long do animals graze?
When? Where?

 Disease/ Hygiene
 What times of the year are women/men most healthy? Why?
 What times of the year are they least healthy? Why?
 What kinds of illness do they have at the least healthy times?
 Comparing healthy and unhealthy periods, what differences are there in
food availability, water, etc.?

 Education/ Literacy
 When do children go to school? Do most children stay in the village during
rainy season or go to school?
 At what age do children go to school? Why?
 Livelihood
 How much time do women spend on each kind of work they do in a day?
Men? Older children? How does this change during the year?
 What are the primary income-generating/subsistence activities here?
 When do men have the freest time? Women? Children?
 What time do you get up every morning? What is the first thing you do?
The second? etc.?
 What time do you go to sleep? How much time do you spend in the fields?
Gardens? House? Other places? How much time do you rest?
 What other things you do if you had more time? How could you make more
time to do other things?
 When do men meet? Where do they meet? What do they talk about?
 When do women meet? Where do they meet? What do they talk about?
 How many holidays are there in a month or year? Religious and local
holidays? What do people do and do not do during holidays? Why? Why
not?
Seasonal Calendar of Men group in …………… Village
Major Activities Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Ma Apr. Ma Jun Jul Aug
t. . . . . . r. y e y .
Agriculture
 Plowing - - - - X X X - X X - -
 Sowing - - - - - - - - - - X -
 Weeding X - - - - - - - - - - X
 Mowing - X X X - - - - - - - -
 Harvesting - X X X - - - - - - - -
 Collection of - X X X - - - - - - - -
straw
 Fencing - - - - X - - - - - - -
Water and Soil - - - - X X - - - - - -
Conservation
Daily Labour - - - X X X X X - - - -
Petty trade X X X X X X X X X X - -
Food Availabilty:
High
Medium
Low
Health:
High
Medium
Low

Semi- Structured Interview for Transect Walk

 Agriculture/Gardens:
 Where is agricultural land located in the village? What percentage of the
land does it cover? Is there enough land for farming (how many ropani or
hectares on average)?
 What kinds of crops do people plant?
 Are there any gardens? What vegetables and fruits do people grow? Are
there plants used for medicine?
 Where do people get water for crops and gardens? Are there traditional
and modern irrigation schemes? How do people share water for drinking
and irrigation?
 What type of soil is there? Is the soil good or getting less productive? Do
the farmers use any manure, compost, or chemical fertilizers, pesticides?
 What types of fruit trees are grown in the village?
 From where do people get seeds? How do they find out how to grow new
vegetables or other crops?
 Are some of the crops sold? What crops and what percentage of the
harvest? If sold in the market, where and how are they transported?
 What have they planned to do for the next year? What are some of the
problems which might be encountered in doing this?

 Forest/ Wood Use:

 Where is forest land/trees located in/around the village? What percentage
of the land does it cover? What percentage is in ‘big trees’?

 Is it important to live near or be able to go to the forest? What do people

get from the forest? Do they collect food? Resin?

 What problems will people have if this resource disappears?

 Do they sell firewood or charcoal?

 When do they sell wood or other things from the forest, where do they sell?
What percentage of their income comes from that?

 Water Supply and Sanitation

 Where do people get water for drinking sand cooking? Where are they
located? Who fetches water for drinking and cooking?
 Where do people wash clothes and bathe?
 Where do animals get water in rainy season? In the dry season?
 Are there drilled wells/ hand dug wells/ springs/ponds? Where? Do they
provide enough water? Who uses them? Why/ Why not?
 How long does it take to collect water everyday at this time of the year?
 When is the rainy season? How long does it last?
 How to people keep drinking water? Do they treat it or boil before
drinking?
 What sicknesses people get from drinking unclean water? Do people in the
community think their water is clean or unclean?
 Are there latrines? Who built them? Who can use them? Do people like
them? If not, why?

 Society and Culture

 How does the settlement look like, scattered or nucleated? How far from or
how close to the farm fields?
 Is settlement based on income or level of poverty or based on blood ties?
 Are there inaccessible areas?

 Transport/ Infrastructure
 Are there roads connecting the village to other areas/ villages? How far is
the village from the main roads? What kind of roads and means of
transport are used within the village or to other areas?
 If there are roads, what is the condition of the roads in/around the village?
How do they maintain the roads? What kind of problems do they have?
 What are the means of transport used to the market place?
 Are there any plans to construct new roads or improve existing roads?

 Community Infrastructure
 What kind of public buildings do they have in the village?
School/Church/Bayto office/Health center?
 If someone wants to organize a meeting, where would it be held?
 If the community wanted another public building, who would organize its
construction? Who would work? Who would pay for the materials and
labour?
 Are there any plans for improving community meet? Are there recreation
or sport centers?

 Iron Smith/Wood Work

 Are there any metal or wood works in the area?
 If these services are not available where do people go for wood-work and
iron works?

 Health
 Was there a time in the past 40 years when many people in the community
died? When? Who was mainly affected? Why did this happen? What were
some of your coping methods? How could this have been prevented?
 How has the general health of the population changed over time? When
was it particularly good or bad? Why were some years better than other?
What did you do when health was generally poor? How can this be
prevented?
 Were there any significant events in the past years that have had an impact
on community health? What and when did they happen? Did those events
affect the health of children, women, men, or all the community? How?

 Population
 How has the community’s population changed over the past 40 years? Was
there a time when it increased or decreased rapidly? Why? How did this
affect the community?
 Has there been a time when there was much population movement into or
out of your village? When and why? Was this good or not? Where do these
people come from and where do they go?
 Has there been a time when there were many births in a year? When and
why? Was there a time when there were many deaths? When and why?

 Education
 How has education for children changed over for years? Is it better or
worse? Why?
 Are more adults able to read and write now or in the past? Are there
institutions that are helping with adult literacy?

 Food Production
 Can you describe a time when a crop production was good or was not very
good? Why do you think the production was good or bad for that
particular year?
 Do you use fertilizer or pesticides? How have they impacted on crop
production?
 Have your community tried any new method for crop production? If yes
did they work or not?
 Has the quality of the soil remained same or has been changed over the
past 40 years? Has it gotten better or worse?

 Animal Health
  Was there a time when many animals died? When and why did this
happen? What did your community do in this event? How can such deaths
be prevented in the future?
 Were there outbreaks of diseases in certain animals? When? What kinds of
diseases and which animals were affected? Could such diseases be
prevented?
 Was there a time when you did not have enough food to feed your animals?
When? How did you solve this problem? Is there any plan to prevent this
from happening in the future?
 How has the availability of domestic animals changed over the years? What
were the reasons for changes?

 Natural Resources
 Was there a time when production of forest products was particularly
good/bad? When and why?
 Are there items from the forest that are easier or harder to collect now
than in the past? What and why?

Rainfall (………. Village)

High ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Medium -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Low -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1958 1968 1978 1984 1988 1998 2003
Year
Forest Cover (………. Village)

High ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Medium -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Low -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1958 1968 1978 1984 1988 1998 2003

Year

Human Health (………. Village)

High ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Medium -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Low -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1966 1968 1978 1984 1988 1998 2003

Year
Focus Group on Health, Hygiene and Nutrition
 General Health:
 What are the most common illnesses for women? Pregnant women?
Children? Men? What are the symptoms and causes?
 Have you heard about HIV/AIDS? How has it affected your community?
 How do you protect yourselves from diseases? Do people take vaccinations
and give their children as well?
 How are diseases treated in the village? Who treats them?
 How many traditional healers and birth attendants live and work here?
How did they learn their skills? Do they treat everyone or just some
people?
 What happens if someone is too poor to take the treatment?
 How far is the nearest government health facility? How do people go there?
Any incidence of death on the way?

 Maternal Health
 Do women see health person for prenatal care? Why/why not? What kind
of services do they seek for prenatal care?
 Who assists women when they give birth?
 Have women and children been vaccinated?
 How many women have died while giving birth in the past few years?
Why? How can this be prevented?
 How many women have had miscarriages in the past year? Why? How can
this be prevented?
 How many babies were born healthy in the last year?
 Water use and Hygiene
 From where to people get drinking water?
 Do people try to improve the quality of their drinking water? If yes, what
methods do they use?
 Which source of water in your village is considered better for drinking?
 Do animals and humans use same kind and place of drinking water?
 How often do people wash their clothes? Do they wash hands before and
after eating? Do people use soaps while bathing?
 Do parents teach their children about health and hygiene? If so, do most
children remember those messages? Do they practice regularly?
 How do people store food items?

 Sanitation
 Where do people dispose human waste? Are there latrines in every house?
 Where do people keep domestic animals? What happens to their waste?

 Nutrition
 What do people feed themselves and their children to stay healthy?
 What kinds of food are eaten at each meal and how many meals are taken
per day? Are different types of foods used in different season?
 Do people like to improve the quality and quantity of food? How?
 What foods do women eat during pregnancy? What foods do they avoid?
Why?
 Do women breastfeed their babies? For how long?
 At what age do infants start to get supplementary foods other than breast
milk? What kinds of food do they avoid? Why?
 Birth Spacing
 How many children on average do most families have? Is it better to have
more or fewer than that? Why?
 What do women do to stop or postpone birth if they want? Where do they
learn about it? Is it important? Why or why not? Are men interested in
limiting family size or birth spacing?

Focus Group on Agriculture

 General Agriculture
 What is the average number of ropani per family? What part of farm land
is used on average for wheat, maize, barley, etc.?
 Does every family in the village have land? How is land distributed to
residents? When was the last time the land was distributed? Is the existing
land sufficient for the population? If not, why?
 Is there any irrigation done in the community? What problems are
encountered in the irrigational activities? Why?
 Are there any plans for irrigation projects in the future? Where and when?
 Where do people get water for their crops?
 Have people been using chemical fertilizers or traditional manures? How
useful have they been?
 Do people use pesticides? What kind? Where is it obtained?
 How much of the agricultural production is for home use and how much is
sold? Where is it sold? Do people make profit? Are there some crops
specifically grown for sale? What are they?
 Is the production of crops increasing or declining in comparison to the past
years? Or have people changed to other types of work?
 What are the biggest problems faced by farmers? Have they talked about
the ways of solving it with the community?

 Family Gardens
 Do families grow vegetables and fruits at their homes? What are the types
of fruits and vegetables grown?
 Who does most of the work in family gardens?
 Where do people buy seeds for gardens?
 What are the problems faced while growing fruits and vegetables?
 Do people use fertilizer? What and how much is applied?
 Do people use pesticides?
 What equipment are used to grow fruits and vegetables in the garden?

 Livestock/ Animals
 What kinds of animals are raised in the village? What are they used for-
work, food, selling them or their products?
 Is there a village veterinarian or someone who knows much about animal
health?
 Have there been problems with animal diseases in the past?
 Are the problems with the big animals, small animals or all the animals?
 Do people vaccinate their animals as per required? Does anyone outside or
inside the village help with animal vaccinations?
 How many animals die on average every year? What are the main causes?
 What do people think is the biggest problem with their animal health?
What can they do about these problems?
 Who do the people think should solve these problems? The people in the
village? The bureau of agriculture? Someone else?
Focus Group on Education
 Primary Education
 Is primary education available to the children in the community? Where is
the school located?
 Is the school found within the Sikles communities? If not, where is the
nearest school located? How much time does it take for children from this
village to get there?
 If the school is located within the Sikles community, is the building in good
condition? If not, are there any plans to fix it? How many classrooms are
there? Are the classrooms enough for all the students?
 How many students are there? What is the number of girls and boys
respectively? Do parents and community accept the participation of girls?
 How many teachers are there? Do they come to teach everyday? About
how many days a month is the school open?
 Does the nearest school provide classes for higher grades or first few grades
only? If only first few grades then where do they go after that? How do
they get there and how long does it take?
 Are the students, teachers and parents co-operative with each other? Do
the parents think that teachers are dedicated?
 What are the main problems regarding education? What could the
community do to minimize the impact of the major problems?

 Adult Education
  Can most of the adults in the village sign their names? How many adult
men and women read and write? How did they acquire the skill? Would
more adults like to read and write?
 Is there some kind of class available for adults who want to learn?
 Are there volunteer teachers who can teach adults to read and write?
 Are there agencies from outside the village helping educational activities in
the village?

 Non-Formal Education
 How do people learn new things in this village? Do they share information
in meetings? During prayers? During the gatherings? How is it done?
 Are there outside groups who come to the community to help people learn
new things? If yes, what kind of things do they help with?
 Would many people in the village be interested in learning new things by
working together in groups with someone outside the village?
 What kind of thing do women and men be interested in learning?
 What do people think is the best way to learn new things?
 Do people realize that this PRA is a kind of non-formal education and a
chance for community to decide what other things they would learn and
how to organize a request for training?

Focus Group Discussion on Market, Credit, Cooperatives and Non-

farming Activities
 Market
 What are the areas that you use for selling your products and buying your
necessities?
 How far are the market places?
 How many days do you go to the market place in a week, month, year?
 What kind of transportation do you use most often or occasionally?
 What items do you sell the most and the least?
 What items do you buy the most and the least?
 What problems have you encountered while buying or selling such as in
price, quality, security, etc.? How can it be resolved?

 Credit
 Have you ever taken credit? What are the sources of credit that you use?
 Are credit services available in your community? If not, how far do you
have to go to obtain credit?
 Which of the sources of credit do you like the most? Why? Why not?
 Where do you use the money you borrowed from credit? Do you use the
entire money for the purpose you told your lenders?
 Are you ok with the interest charged by the lenders? Why? Why not?
 What benefits did you get from borrowing or what problems have you
faced?
 What problems are there in the process of borrowing and repaying?
 What solutions do you propose for the problems?

 Cooperatives
 Do you have any cooperative in your community? When and how was it
established?
 What activities are involved in the cooperative? In what specific areas has
the cooperative been helpful, strong or weak?
  What benefits did you get from the cooperative? What problems have you
faced?
 What is the overall evaluation of the cooperative? Problems and possible
solutions.

 Non-farm Activities
 Do you do non-farm activities? What are such activities?
 When and why do you do non-farm activities (like daily labour)?
 Do you feel that there are plenty of opportunities for non-farming works?
 How much income do you derive from these activities per year?
 Who participates? The young? The elderly? Women?
 How helpful or problematic has it been? Problems and possible solutions.

Village Institutions Diagram

 Village Groups
 What groups of organizations exist in the village for each of the following
areas?
i. Civil administration (i.e. village administration, village court, etc.)
ii. Religious organizations
iii. General village development (i.e. village development committee)
iv. Agriculture (i.e. water administrator, etc.)
v. Women affairs (i.e. women’s association)
vi. Cultural activities ( singers group, dancers group, etc.)
vii. Education (adult literacy committee, women education committee, etc.)
viii. Traditional institutions like rodhi, guthi, etc.
 How long has each group been in existence?
 Who belongs to each group? How many men and women? What is the
process for joining?
 What does each group do?
 How well does each group function?
 Do these groups ever work together? Why? Why not?
 If the village wants to undertake a development project, who organizes this
work?
 If there is a conflict or disagreement within community members, how is it
solved or handled?

 Outside Organization
 What governmental agencies regularly work in the community? Now? In
the past? What did they do, or what are they currently doing?
 What NGOs/INGOs work or have worked within the community? What
have they done?
 Did the outside groups work with groups or people in the village? Which
one?
 Do you know of any plans that the above or other agencies have to work in
the community? What do they plan to do?
 Agriculture Police

……Council

Sikles Ward
Other Administration

Administration

Health
post Education Agricultural
Guidance Assistant
committee Court

Development
agent
Other Irrigation
committee service
Service promotion
Cooperatives

Youth/Women
Association
Security
Committee
Veterinary
Clinic

REST- Remaining other Health

Fig.1: Village Institutions Diagram of ………

Community Problem Ranking
Problem A B C D E Count Rank
A
B
C
D
E

The following table summarizes the community problem ranking exercise done by the
community during the PRA done at ……………………………..
 Wate Ani Feed Mar Trans Unit of Thie Cooper Cred Medi Over Akus Co Ra
r mal Shor ket port Measur very ative it cine 10 hela unt nk
Shor Hea tage Dista Probl ement in Leader Prob Short Chil Dam
tage lth nce em Mar ship lem age dren not
ket givin
place g the
requi
red
result
Water R R R R R R R R R R R 11 1st
Shortag
e
Animal C R R R R R R R C R R 9 3rd
Health
Feed C C R R R R R R C C R 7 4th
Shortag
e
Market C C C C R R R R C C R 5 7th
Distanc
e
Transpo C C C R R R R R C R R 7 4th
rt
Proble
m
Unit of C C C C C C C C C C C 0 12t
Measur h

ement
Thiever C C C C C R R C C C R 3 9th
y in
Market
place
Cooper C C C C C R C C C C C 1 11t
ative h

Leaders
hip
Credit C C C C C R R R C R C 4 8th
Proble
m
Medicin C R R R R R R R R R R 10 2nd
e
Shortag
e
Over 10 C C R R C R R R C C R 6 6th
Childre
n
Akushel C C C C C R C R R C C 3 9th
a Dam
not
giving
the
require
d result
R indicates that the problem indicated in the row is considered more pressing than the one shown in
the column. C shows that the problem in the column is more pressing than its counterpart in the row.

Table 4: Problem Ranking - …………………… Village

Community Action Plan
Format
Problem Cause Solution Who will do what When
Communit Govt. NGO Others
y
Xx
Yy
Zz
Bb
SN Problem Causes of the Possible Who should do what When
Problem solutions Community Government NGOs and others

1 Shortage -Lack of rain Conservation -Conserve - Educate the - Educate the

of water water and its of forest trees community community
being erratic. resources. - Cooperate - Follow up - Financial support
- Lack of with - Assign
mountains chairperson forest guards
- Lack of - Not to cut
forest cover trees

Preparation of - Supplying
Harvest any bankers and - Implement food for
drop of plastic for work
ponds; divert ponds
water: water for - Professional
-Water - Supplying Advice
better use; cement
banker making
-Ponds - Professional
shades above advice and
-Water ponds, etc.
diversion follow up
-Prevent
evaporation
through
shades

Cementing - Free Labour -Professional

microdam so - Financial support
that it could contribution - Financial
hold water -Professional support
and material - Financial and
support material support
Lifting water - Making -Professional
from river canals support
and make - Financial - Financial
use of lift contribution and material
irrigation. -Hydropower support -Professional support
projects - Financial and
material support
2 Lack of The health Increasing Request the Supply Medicine support
Medicin post does not supply of health post medicine to
e get enough medicine and relevant the health
amount and bodies to post
type of increase
medicine supply
3 Lack of Unavailability -Establishing Preparing the Professional Professional support
animal of Animal animal area for support
health Health health center animal health Medicine
services Services in the service. Medicine
village. Medical materials
-Trained Medical
selected Selecting materials
member on trainees
Animal
Health. Provision of
animal health
serviced on
individual
basis