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This article describes the technique of ranking and provides three examples of using ranking to collect information. The exercises were all carried out by the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) in Kenya and Zimbabwe. The first example is from a baseline survey in Zimbabwe using wealth ranking. The second is a disease ranking which was carried out during monitoring of the Kenya Livestock and Pastoral Programme (KLPP). The third example is of a success ranking exercise conducted during an evaluation of a restocking programme in Isiolo District in Kenya. It was found that the main advantage of using ranking to collect baseline information or to prioritise problems and solutions was that the information generated could be analysed immediately and, if necessary, decisions could be made on the spot.

Wealth ranking was one of the methods used in the early stages of a collaborative research and training project in Mongolia. It served two main purposes, direct and indirect. The direct purpose was to identify locally important criteria for distinguishing households according to wealth, status and power. It was also used to stratify the populations of the sample production brigades, as a first step towards understanding differences in the ways richer and poorer herding households managed their herds, gained access to key natural resources, and responded to risk. Indirectly, wealth ranking did more than other PRA methods used to 'win over' an initially sceptical research team to the value of participatory field research, and did much to change the attitudes and behaviour of the research team.

The Policy Alternatives for Livestock Development (PALD) project aims to facilitate the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy in the extensive livestock sector which dominates the Mongolian rural economy. This report outlines some of the participatory research methods which were used during the training of the Mongolian research team. The methods described include wealth ranking, participatory mapping, transects, ranking of grazing resources, and seasonal calendars showing production, climatic variations, incidence of disease and labour requirements.

The PRA exercise described in this paper was part of an FAO PRA training workshop which was carried out at a time when local people were experiencing one of the worst droughts of the century. Matrix scoring, semi-structured interviews, seasonal food calendars and preference ranking were some of the techniques which were used during the workshop. The exercise highlighted the central importance of livestock to the village economies. The visual methods brought to the surface hidden problems, priorities, preferences and uses of livestock, and helped with deeper probing of issues which were important to the villagers.

This short paper reports on the use of browse ranking in southern Zimbabwe. Two types of ranking were conducted. First, a simple scoring of a list of all available trees in the area was carried out. The results showed that the livestock owners' rankings tallied closely with quality assessments based on chemical analysis. Next, a more focused matrix ranking explored a few key species against a range of criteria. In terms of overall preference, early shooting was the most important criterion, followed by the importance of dry leaves as fodder. The paper concludes that ranking exercises can provide high quality information quickly and effectively, and can therefore be useful planning tools for helping to design fodder improvement programmes with herd owners.

The authors outline an approach towards service delivery in which people's needs are first explored and defined through participation and debate. Mechanisms of effective "delivery" are then planned by providers and recipients in a co-learning mode. A "learning systems" approach incorporates the essence of learning theory and systems thinking into a practical way of dealing with complex issues.Three examples of the approach are briefly discussed, from the Philippines, Iran and Papua New Guinea. It is argued that the approach provides a framework for institutional reforms as well as for change in the practice of individuals, through the creation of learning and researching systems.

This paper is based on socio-economic research on the Isiolo Livestock Development Programme in Kenya. It describes a ranking game which was played by the research team with the inhabitants of Isiolo. The game was based on a well-known and commonly played board game. The aim was to get groups of farmers to identify and rank their own problems, and then suggest ways of solving them. Even though the groups were entirely free to select their own problems and allocate their own priorities, a high degree of consensus emerged. This was based on differences in wealth rather than on differnces between production systems or geographic areas. Livestock management problems were the overwhelming concern of the rich while the poor were more concerned by their lack of livestock.