SEAGA Field Handbook

Note: This page presents the Table of Contents and Introduction of the Field Handbook. You may also download the complete Handbook in Word 6.0 for Windows (.ZIP, 4MB!)

Chapter One: Introduction

Handbook purpose
The SEAGA approach
An analytical approach - An ideological approach
Summary of the SEAGA toolkits
Toolkit A. Development context
Toolkit B. Livelihood analysis
Toolkit C. Stakeholders' priorities for development

Chapter Two: Preparing for participation

Bringing insiders and outsiders together
Characteristics of Rapid Appraisal
Attitude - Focused learning - Speed - Learning from local people - Learning from many points of view - Multi-disciplinary teams - Triangulation - On-the-spot analysis
Preparation for Rapid Appraisal
Identify RA purpose - Select sites - Select timing and frequency - Set objectives - Select team - Review secondary information - Hold preparatory workshop - Contact local authorities - Make logistical arrangements
Risks of Rapid Appraisal Raising expectations - Agency domination - Revealing failure or need for change - Learning about illegal activities - Stirring up conflicts

Chapter Three: Working in the field

How to be a good facilitator
Be an active listener - Be observant - Ask questions - Be flexible - Be organised - Be knowledgeable but clear - Be assertive but not controlling
How to encourage participation
How to use additional field methods
Direct observation - Semi-structured interviews - Key informant interviews - Informal group discussions - Brainstorming - A note on formal surveys & questionnaires
How to start well

Chapter Four: Using field information

Analysis
Who analyses? - What is analysed? - When is it analysed?
Presentation
Who are the results for? - How to present the results?

Chapter Five: Introduction to the SEAGA toolkits

Structure of each toolkit
What - How - SEAGA questions for analysis & summary
Structure of each tool
Purpose - Process - Materials - Notes to the RA team - Example

Chapter Six: Toolkit A. The development context

Tool A1: Village resources maps
Tool A2: Transects
Tool A3: Village social maps
Tool A4: Trend lines
Tool A5: Venn diagrams
Tool A6: Institutional profiles

Chapter Seven: Toolkit B. Livelihood analysis

Tool B1: Farming systems diagram
Tool B2: Benefits analysis flow chart
Tool B3: Daily activity clocks
Tool B4: Seasonal calendars
Tool B5: Resources picture cards
Tool B6: Income & expenditures matrices
Chapter Eight: Toolkit C. Stakeholders' priorities for development
Tool C1: Pairwise ranking
Tool C2: Flow diagram
Tool C3: Problem analysis chart
Tool C4: Preliminary community action plan
Tool C5: Venn diagram of stakeholders
Tool C6: Stakeholders conflict & partnership matrix
Tool C7: Best bets action plan
Chapter Nine: Additional tools

Chapter Ten: Handbook sources

Introduction

Handbook purpose
This SEAGA Field Handbook is written for development agents who work directly with local communities in developing countries. It is intended for outsiders such as extensionists, government and non-government field workers, and private- and public-sector development consultants, and for insiders such as community organisers and leaders of local groups and institutions. The purpose of this Handbook is to support participatory development planning at the community level. Using the tools provided in this Handbook will help outsiders and insiders to work together to:

Identify key development patterns,
Understand the livelihood strategies of different people, and
Build consensus about development priorities and action plans.

This SEAGA Field Handbook incorporates ideas and methods from people of all regions of the world who share a commitment to participatory development. It is based on actual experiences in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, but can be used by those working in all sectors of rural development. While building on earlier learning's, there are three things that are different about this Handbook.
First, explicit attention is given to the linkages among economic, environmental, social and institutional patterns that together constitute the development context. Both opportunities and constraints for development are identified. Second, understanding gender, wealth, ethnicity, caste and other social differences in communities is considered fundamental to understanding livelihood strategies and development priorities. The poor and marginalised are ensured a voice.
And third, this Handbook provides toolkits specifically designed to support a participatory process that first, focuses on an analysis of the current situation, and second, focuses on planning for the future. The toolkits consist of a number of rapid rural and participatory rural appraisal tools, but include also a series of SEAGA Questions to facilitate and deepen analysis.
This SEAGA Field Handbook is written in recognition that those of us who work directly with village women and men have a great responsibility. As outsiders who enjoy a certain degree of power, privilege and security, we must remember that many insiders do not. Indeed, many villagers walk a thin line between poverty and destitution. This is especially true for those who lack access to key resources because of their gender, ethnicity or caste. The only sure way to avoid mistakes, or negative impacts, is through a participatory process in which rural women and men clarify their needs and resources, constraints and opportunities. But for development efforts to be truly beneficial in the long run, people's needs and priorities must also be considered in light of the total development context, many factors of which stem from outside the community. And this is where you come in -- as the bridge.

The SEAGA Package
This Field Handbook is just one piece of the complete SEAGA Package. Two other Handbooks are also available.
The Intermediate Handbook is for those who work in institutions and organisations that link macro-level policies to the field level, including government ministries, trade associations, educational and research institutions. The Macro Handbook is for planners and policy-makers to apply SEAGA to economic and social policies and programmes, at both national and international levels.
All three Handbooks draw upon the concepts and linkages described in detail in the SEAGA Framework and Users Reference. Additional materials include the SEAGA Learning Materials, a notebook of training modules and case studies designed to facilitate learning the SEAGA approach during training workshops; the SEAGA Hypertext, a self-help interactive computer programme, and the SEAGA Sector or Issue Guides which address application of SEAGA to specific sectors or issues such as irrigation or food security.
All SEAGA materials are available from: Women in Development Service, Women and Population Division, Sustainable Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organisation, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. Phone: 39-6-52255102, Fax: 39-6-52252004, E-mail: SEAGA@fao.org

The SEAGA approach
SEAGA stands for Socioeconomic and Gender Analysis. It is an approach to development based on an analysis of socioeconomic patterns and participatory identification of women's and men's priorities. The objective of the SEAGA approach is to close the gaps between what people need and what development delivers.
By putting socioeconomic analysis and gender analysis together, SEAGA helps us learn about community dynamics, including the linkages among social, economic and environmental patterns. It clarifies the division of labour within a community, including divisions by gender and other social characteristics, and it facilitates understanding of resource use and control, and participation in community institutions.

SEAGA definitions
Socioeconomic analysis
the study of the environmental, economic, social and institutional patterns, and their linkages, that compose the context for development.
Gender analysis
the study of the different roles of women and men to understand what they do, what resources they have and what their needs and priorities are.
Participation
a process of communication among local people and development agents during which local people take the leading role to analyse the current situation and to plan, implement and evaluate development activities.

An analytical approach

SEAGA's three levels

Field-level
focuses on people, including women and men as individuals, socioeconomic differences among households, and communities as a whole.
Intermediate-level
focuses on structures, such as institutions and services, that function to operationalise the links between the macro and field levels, including communications and transportation systems, credit institutions, markets and extension, health and education services.
Macro-level
focuses on policies and plans, both international and national, economic and social, including trade and finance policies and national development plans.
Note: An analysis of the economic, environmental, social and institutional patterns, and the interactions among them, is included at all three levels.
In the SEAGA approach it is recognised that development is complicated. There are no simple answers! SEAGA helps us to take a realistic look at the development challenge -- looking at socioeconomic patterns at different levels and for different people.
For any one development problem, a number of different socioeconomic patterns play a role [1]. For example, the lack of food security in a village may stem from environmental problems such as drought, as well as economic problems such as the lack of wage labour opportunities, or institutional problems such as inadequate extension training on food conservation methods and social problems such as discrimination against women. There are important linkages between these patterns too. Discrimination against women, for example, can result in women's lack of access to credit, in turn limiting women's ability to purchase inputs. The end result is that overall crop productivity is lower than it could be. In areas where women have a major responsibility to produce food crops, these linkages are an important part of the food security equation.
Development problems also stem from different levels. The lack of food security in a village, for example, may result not only from crop and animal production problems at the household or community level, but also from barriers to district-level markets, as well as national pricing policies and international terms of trade. In other words, there are important linkages between field-level problems and intermediate- and macro-level institutions, programmes and policies.
In the SEAGA Field Handbook the focus is on the field level, but includes an analysis of the linkages between field-level and intermediate- and macro-level patterns and institutions.
In SEAGA it is also recognised that different people have different development needs and constraints. Rich people, for example, have fewer food security problems than poor people because they can afford to purchase additional foodstuffs. Female heads of household may suffer the greatest shortages of food because of their lack of access to resources and their resulting poverty. People from an ethnic group with a pastoralist tradition may be able to cope with a long drought with fewer food and nutrition problems than members of an ethnic group with an agrarian tradition. Using gender analysis helps us to understand the needs and priorities of different people, clarifying the relevance of gender in conjunction with age, wealth, caste, race, ethnicity, religion, and so on. In gender analysis the focus is on both women and men.
An ideological approach
SEAGA is not only an analytical approach that pulls together patterns, levels and people; it is also an ideological approach based on three guiding principles:
Gender roles are key,
Disadvantaged people are priority; and
Participation is essential.

Gender roles are key because gender shapes the opportunities and constraints that women and men face in securing their livelihoods across all cultural, political, economic and environmental settings. Gender influences the roles and relationships of people throughout all their activities, including their labour and decision-making roles. It is also important for understanding the position of both women and men vis--vis the institutions that determine access to land and other resources, and to the wider economy.
Gender roles are:

Socially constructed
Learned
Dynamic - they change over time
Multi-faceted - they differ within and between cultures
Influenced - by class, age, caste, ethnicity and religion

There is overwhelming evidence that development must address the needs and priorities of both women and men in order to be successful. It is recognised that across all socioeconomic groups, women are disadvantaged vis-à-vis men. This must be taken into consideration because development efforts in which women are marginalised are destined to fail!

Key questions

'It is imperative to ask, Development for whom? With input from whom? Failing to ask these questions is a failure in the fundamental purpose of development itself. If women in subsistence economies are the major suppliers of food, fuel and water for their families and yet their access to productive resources is declining, then more people will suffer from hunger, malnutrition, illness, and loss of productivity.'
Source: Jacobson (1993)
In SEAGA the focus is on establishing an environment in which women and men can both prosper. Women are seen as integral to any community, not as an isolated group. Because women and men have different tasks and responsibilities, and different livelihood strategies and constraints, they must each be listened to.
Disadvantaged people are priority because discrimination due to gender, ethnicity, caste, race or other social characteristics, operates to make women and men poor. Poor people lack access to resources -- and lack of access to resources keeps people poor.
Because communities are composed of a number of different groups, some more powerful than the rest, some particularly disadvantaged, and some that may be in direct conflict with each other, there is room for many differences of opinion and widely varying needs. Even within one household decisions are more often based on compromises between different members' priorities rather than on total agreement.
But it is these individuals and households who lack control over resources essential for survival and development that are most constrained in their efforts to meet basic needs, resulting in suffering and a waste of human resources. SEAGA is an approach based on the assumption that focusing on the needs of the most disadvantaged is the starting point for development.

How project resources can be diverted to the better off

In Ghusel village, Nepal, the Small Farmers' Development Programme (SFDP) provided credit to poor households for the purchase of milk buffalo. A few years later two new dairy co-operatives were formed to help farmers market their milk. The SFDP brought considerable financial benefits to at least a third of the households in the village, bridged ethnic and caste differences in democratically run dairy co-operatives, and had positive effects on crop production because more manure was available.
But the project also had negative effects: (1) on women whose labour for collecting fodder and caring for the milk buffalo increased greatly but was not compensated by their husbands who controlled the income from milk sales, (2) on income distribution between socioeconomic and ethnic groups (Tamang and Brahmin) which widened because the better off Brahmins received credit even though it should have gone only to landless or near landless farmers, and (3) on the access of poorer households to community land and state forests for gathering fodder and fuelwood due to the rapid depletion of these natural resources as the livestock population grew.
If women had been consulted during the planning stage of the project, two additional provisions would have been included: (1) community action to manage and improve fodder resources in state forests, (2) provisions to include women as members of the dairy co-operatives and to assist them in purchasing their own buffalo.
Further, if socioeconomic and caste differences in the community had been analysed in a participatory way, the need to plan strategies to reach the poorer Tamang households would have been recognised. This may have prevented the diversion of credit to the wealthier Brahmin households.
Source: Bhatt, Shrestha, Thomas-Slayter and Koirala (1994)

While gender roles and poverty are given priority in SEAGA, participation is essential to hold the whole approach together.
Development organisations and local communities have seen many development activities fail. Many now recognise that development activities designed by outsiders only, which ignore the capacities, priorities and needs of local women, men and children, are a key source of such failures. Even in cases where local people were asked for information, most development programmes were planned outside the community without involving them in the planning process.
Participation requires that local women and men speak for themselves. After all, it is only the local people who know the details about the local ecology, and of the linkages among their family members' activities in food and cash crop production with livestock, forestry, fisheries and artisanal activities, and how these are managed and by whom, and under what constraints. The knowledge and practices of local people need to be recognised by development agents and built upon in development activities.

Why participation is important:
The 100-to-1 Cow Project (Part 1)
The farmers in a small village in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya in western New Guinea, had rarely, if ever, seen a cow before government representatives announced that a boatload of cattle would soon arrive.
The village had about 300 households most of whom depended on subsistence farming supplemented by raising a pig and a few chickens, and by hunting. Apart from government officials and the occasional trader, the village had little contact with the outside world.
Government development planners were anxious to introduce beef cattle to the region in order to provide a new source of meat for the country's rapidly growing urban centres. As the people of the village had migrated to the coast from upland areas known for breeding pigs, the planners assumed that these people would adapt easily to the challenges of expanded livestock-raising.
The visiting officials convened a one-day training programme and then, 100 beef cattle arrived. Almost at once, the animals began wreaking havoc. Knee-high fences designed to keep pigs from entering the village centre were no barrier to the animals; they trampled gardens, damaged homes, broke tools, and fouled fresh water sources. When the cows were shooed away, many wandered into the bush and disappeared.
Deciding to hunt them down before they did any more damage, the villagers armed themselves with bows and arrows and one-by-one they killed the cows until there was only a single animal left alive. Satisfied that the danger was passed, they spared the lone survivor, a living memorial to the danger that government officials had called "development".
Source: Connell (1993)

A participatory approach aims to support local people to carry out their own development using the expertise of outsiders to help them achieve their development goals. While local women and men are the experts on local constraints and opportunities, they do not know everything. Small farmers, for example, are usually disadvantaged in their lack of knowledge about the options that development programmes can offer, including improved methods and technologies, and may not receive information about markets, inputs and new government policies. Therefore, while development agencies need greater access to local knowledge in order to play a more effective role, farmers need increased access to information about the wider context in which they live in order to make informed decisions about their development.

But is participation enough?
The 100-to-1 Cow Project (Part 2)
A few years after the 100-to-1 cow incident, development agents visited the same village to make an assessment of community needs. The team convened a village assembly and told the people that this time things would be different. They asked villagers to tell them what they needed.
Villagers asked to delay their decision until they could consider it more deeply. The team agreed and left. When they returned a few days later, they convened another assembly, where village leaders announced that they had come to a decision -- they wanted cows!
Now it was the development agents' turn to be shocked, for they knew the 100-to-1 cow story. They asked: how could the farmers risk another disaster? Why cows, and not pigs or poultry? Why not agricultural extension assistance with their gardens? Why not food storage facilities? What about health care, literacy or income generation?
Once they began asking questions, they learned that the answer was simple: cows were what the people knew of development. Since outsiders brought cows, the question for villagers, as they saw it, was did they or did they not want more cows? In the end, said most villagers, the animals could be something to sell to passing traders. Better to take them than not.
Source: Connell (1993)

SEAGA helps us to frame appropriate questions about development. The ability to frame appropriate questions is key to three related outcomes:

Enhanced capacities of rural women and men to direct their own development,
Closer co-operation between development agents and local people, and
Successful development programmes and policies.

SEAGA helps us to plan successful development
Successful development enhances
: Sustainability -- supporting the security and regeneration of resources.
Equality -- providing equal opportunities for all women and men to participate and benefit
Efficiency -- achieving objectives without wasting time and resources.

Summary of the SEAGA Toolkits
The tools in this SEAGA Field Handbook are simple visual, oral or written methods for learning about life in rural communities [2]. Each toolkit consists of a number of tools that have been selected and organised for specific learning purposes.

The Three Toolkits
Toolkit A. The Development Context
for learning about the economic, environmental, social and institutional patterns that pose supports or constraints for development.
Toolkit B. Livelihood Analysis
for learning about the flow of activities and resources through which different people make their living.
Toolkit C. Stakeholders' Priorities for Development
for planning development activities based on women's and men's priorities.

This SEAGA Field Handbook offers three toolkits. The first two focus on learning about the current situation ("what is"), while the third focuses on planning for the future ("what should be"). Each toolkit is designed to answer important questions. (In Chapter Nine several additional tools are provided to facilitate adaptation of these toolkits, as needed.)
Toolkit A. Development context
In any particular community, there are a number of socioeconomic patterns that influence how people make a living and their options for development. Looking at the Development Context helps us to understand these patterns. Key questions include:

What are the important environmental, economic, institutional and social patterns in the village?
What are the links between the field-level patterns and those at the intermediate- and macro-levels?
What is getting better? what is getting worse?
What are the supports for development? the constraints?

The development context tools are:

Village resources map: for learning about the environmental, economic and social resources in the community.
Transects: for learning about the community's natural resource base, land forms, and land use, location and size of farms or homesteads, and location and availability of infrastructure and services, and economic activities.
Village social map: for learning about the community's population, local poverty indicators, and number and location of households by type (ethnicity, caste, female-headed, wealthy, poor, etc.)
Trend lines: for learning about environmental trends (deforestation, water supply); economic trends ( jobs, wages, costs of living), population trends (birth-rates, out-migration, in-migration), and other trends of importance to the community.
Venn diagrams: for learning about local groups and institutions, and their linkages with outside organisations and agencies.
Institutional profiles: for learning about the goals, achievements and needs of local groups and institutions.

Toolkit B. Livelihood analysis
Livelihood Analysis focuses on how individuals, households and groups of households make their living and their access to resources to do so. It reveals the activities people undertake to meet basic needs and to generate income. Gender and socioeconomic group differences are shown with respect to labour and decision-making patterns. Key questions include:

How do people make their living? How do the livelihood systems of women and men compare? of different socioeconomic groups?
Are there households or individuals unable to meet their basic needs?
How diversified are people's livelihood activities? Do certain groups have livelihoods vulnerable to problems revealed in the Development Context?
What are the patterns for use and control of key resources? by gender? by socioeconomic group?
What are the most important sources of income? expenditures?

The livelihood analysis tools are:

Farming systems diagram: for learning about household members' on-farm, off-farm and non-farm activities and resources.
Benefits analysis flow chart: for learning about benefits use and distribution by gender.
Daily activity clocks: for learning about the division of labour and labour intensity by gender and socioeconomic group.
Seasonal calendars: for learning about the seasonality of women's and men's labour, and seasonality of food and water availability and income and expenditure patterns, and other seasonal issues of importance to the community.
Resources picture cards: for learning about use and control of resources by gender and socioeconomic group.
Income and expenditures matrices: for learning about sources of income, sources of expenditures and the crisis coping strategies of different socioeconomic groups.

Toolkit C. Stakeholders' priorities for development
Stakeholders are all the different people and institutions, both insider and outsider, who stand to gain or lose, given a particular development activity. With this toolkit the focus is on learning about people's priority problems and the development opportunities for addressing them. But for every development activity proposed, the different stakeholders are also identified, revealing where there is conflict or partnership. Key questions include:

What are the priority problems in the community? for women ? men? for different socioeconomic groups?
What development activities do different people propose?
For each proposed development activity, who are the stakeholders? how big is their stake?
Is there conflict between stakeholders? partnership?
Given resource constraints and stakeholder conflicts, which proposed development activities can realistically be implemented?
Which development activities most support the SEAGA goal of establishing an environment in which both women and men can prosper?
Which development activities most support the SEAGA principle of giving priority to the disadvantaged?

The stakeholders' priorities for development tools are:

Pairwise ranking matrix: for learning about priority problems of women and men, and of different socioeconomic groups.
Flow diagram: for learning about the causes and effects of priority problems.
Problem analysis chart: for bringing together the priority problems of all the different groups in the community, to explore local coping strategies and to identify opportunities to address the problems.
Preliminary community action plan: for planning possible development activities, including resources needed, insider and outsider groups to be involved and timing.
Venn diagram of stakeholders: for learning about the insider and outsider stakeholders for each action proposed in the Preliminary Community Action Plan, and the size of their stake.
Stakeholders conflict and pPartnership matrix: for learning about conflicts of interests and common interests between stakeholders.
"Best bets" action plans: for finalisation of action plans for development activities meeting priority needs as identified by women and men of each socioeconomic group

Notes
1. The other SEAGA materials refer to the six socioeconomic categories, namely: social, demographic, institutional, political, economic and environmental. For the sake of simplicity appropriate for the field-level, only four types of socio economic categories are named in the Field Handbook: economic, environmental, institutional (including political issues), and social (including demographic issues).
2. Many of these tools have been used successfully in urban settings as well, but the SEAGA questions that accompany the tools in the SEAGA Field Handbook would require adaptation for learning about urban-based development issues.

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