Thematic Areas

Village Book

VB 1 - Analysis of the village situation

VB 1 - Analysis of the village situation

The first stage of the Village Book process involves a comprehensive analysis of the village context using participatory Reflection-Action tools and focusing on the following:

Social analysis

To understand the social composition and social cohesion within communities and to assess people’s control and access to communal infrastructure:

Economic analysis

To understand the different economic resources in the village and their links to people’s livelihoods:

Vulnerability analysis

To capture how important events in the past have affected the life of the community, to identify vulnerable people in the village and understand the factors contributing to their vulnerability:

  • Tools used: timeline and wellbeing matrix.

Women’s situation analysis

To understand the conditions and status of women in the village:

Relationships and power analysis

To understand who makes or influences decisions in the village and if or how the power is used for the benefit of poor and marginalized people in the village:

This is similar to the context analysis process outlined in the Areas of Analysis and Reflection-Action Cycle Toolboxes.

To learn more about the Village Book process, take a look at this video by ActionAid Myanmar: 

Resources

Resources

Here you can download some useful resources.

Tools in this toolbox

Chapatti diagram

To explore relationships between things – particularly the relative importance, influence or power of people, organisations or gr…

Cobweb for rights analysis

To help understand the rights situation and of different groups in a community.In the example below the focus is on women's right…

Natural resources map

To identify the natural resources within a community and to discuss changes in the availability and quality of such resources. Na…

Seasonal calendar

To help participants to analyse the distribution of agricultural work / crops / illnesses / etc. over the year.Cross referencing …

Social map

This is a bird’s eye view of a village that shows the demographic details and the social infrastructure available for the people …

Timelines

To track changes or document the history of a community or organisation.By capturing the chronology of events as perceived and …