The Communities' Toolbox: The idea, methods and tools for participatory assessment, monitoring and evaluation in community forestry

This manual follows on from a concept paper also prepared by D'Arcy Davis-Case and is the result of an Agroforestry Monitoring and Evaluation Project workshop which was held in 1988. The field manual is divided into three sections. Section One introduces the idea of participatory Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation [PAME] and provides some two-way communication exercises for field staff. Section Two provides the methods determining information needs, and ways that information can be analyzed and presented. While Section Three described the information collecting tools, and offers some suggestions for the selection of tools. There are 23 tools listed in this latter selection, including; Semi-structured interviews (tool 9), Ranking, Rating and Sorting (tool 10), Maps and mapping (tool 14) and community directed visual images (tool 21). Although the RRA/PRA methodology is not specifically mentioned, this manual does represent a very useful and well ordered contribution to the literature of PM&E, while some of the tools described under PAME are directly applicable to a PRA orientated approach.