Message-ID: <326AE371.6DC0@m.cc.utah.edu> Date: Sun, 20 Oct 1996 20:44:01 -0600 From: "James B. Mayfield" <mailto:james.mayfield@M.CC.UTAH.EDU> Subject: Village Assessment Instrument To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
For the List of people interested in village development world wide!I am presenting a preliminary instrument that NGOs and other organizations implementing programs at the grassroots level in rural village communities. Please read and give me any feedback.
Twenty Points of Progress Choice Village Development Program (Please limit yourselves to villages of less than 5,000 people) Country:______________Province______________District______________ Village______________________________, Population_________________ Looking at all villages in the country, in terms of income, government services available and quality of life, the village being assessed is judged to be in the upper 1st Quartile___2nd Quartile___3rd Quartile___or bottom 4th Quartile ___ It would be helpful but not necessary when you send this assessment that you give some indication as to what indicators you used to assign a village to each of these four quartiles. Some indicators might include, per capita income, percentage of families under the poverty level, gini coefficient(extent of income inequities), PQLI, or HDI.
I. Basic Education/Literacy 1. Attendance in School (children 5-15. including both boys and girls) If only boys are attending school, the highest score possible would be a three. (Feel free to use all numbers from 1-5, as long as the number used is consistent with the 1,3,5, categories defined). (1) Less than 20%, (3) Roughly half (5) nearly all of the children 2. Effectiveness of teachers. (1) uses only traditional methods(memorization), (3) uses mostly traditional methods, (5) uses modern methods of teaching (group discussions, multi-media, charts). 3. Diversification of Curriculum (1) only basic 3Rs, (3) 3Rs plus some additional curriculum, (5) a wide variety of classes, including agriculture, health, local culture, geography, music etc. 4. Parent-Teacher Collaboration (existence of an effective PTA organization) (1) very little collaboration (3) some collaboration (5) a great deal of collaboration
Education/Literacy Score ________ II. Primary Health Care 5. Vaccination of children (1) very few (3) maybe half (5) nearly all 6. Use of ORT by parents (1) very few (3) maybe half (5) nearly all 7. Availability and use of latrines (1) very few (3) maybe half (5) nearly all families use latrines 8. Permanent Village Health Worker (with some outside formal training) (1) not widely used (3) used by maybe half (5) used by nearly all families
Health Score ________ III. Income/Alleviation of Poverty 9. Food Security/Existence of Families Vegetable Gardens (1) very few (3) maybe half (5) nearly all families have 10. Existence of Savings and Loan-Giving groups in the village (1) very few belong (3) maybe half (5) nearly all families belong
11. Existence of a functioning market (1) very underdeveloped (3) somewhat developed (5) very developed, people from other villages come to this village's market. 12. Existence of grocery store (1) very few products (3) moderate number (5) nice diversity of products
Income/Poverty Score________
IV. Local Leadership/Social Cultural Enhancement 13. Level of local leadership and community unity (participation) (1) not too well developed (3) somewhat developed (5) very well developed 14. Level of Adult Men and Women Literacy (If only men are literate, the highest score possible for the village would be a score of three) (1)very few (3) roughly half (5) nearly all Men and Women literate 15. Community/Culture (dancing groups, singing groups, traditional festivals) (1) not too well developed (3) somewhat developed (5) very well developed 16. Youth Activities (Sports, other group activities, etc.) (1) not too well developed (3) somewhat developed (5) very well developed
Local Culture Score________
V. Community Environment 17. Quality of Homes, including use of enclosed stoves (Lorenzo) (1) only few have (3) roughly half have (5) nearly all have quality homes 18. Quality of Sanitation in community (stagnant ponds, garbage, animal waste) (1) very little sanitation (3) some efforts at sanitation (5) much effort 19. Existence of a Functioning Village Health/Sanitation Committee (1)very ineffective (3) somewhat effective (5) very effective 20. Availability of Public Utilities (electricity, post office, good access roads) (1) almost none/undeveloped, (3) somewhat (5) very well developed
Environment Score ________ Total Score________ Score Class Category 0-20 Class Five Village (Very Undeveloped Village Community) 1-40 Class Four Village (Somewhat Developed Village Community) 41-60 Class Three Village (Fairly Well Developed Village Community 61-80 Class Two Village (Very Well Developed Village Community) 81-100 Class One Village (Extremely Well Developed Village Community)
James B. Mayfield
Chairman of CHOICE
Twenty Points of Progress Program Choice Village Development Program
A Set of Explanations to be used by RDFs in assessing a village Community 1. Before an RDF considers going into a village to conduct a Twenty Points of Progress Program, it would be appropriate for the RDF to review the material on Cultural Dialoguing which emphasizes what is right with the community, rather than emphasizing what is wrong. (See Appendix A). 2. The purpose of this assessment is not to criticize or belittle a village community. Much care must be given to ensure that the community understands the purpose of the Twenty Points of Progress. The major purpose is to provide some basic indicators by which a village community can measure its own efforts at improving its quality of life. It is hoped the villagers will see this program as a way of seeing where they are now and where they may want to be in the future, to see the various ways in which they might be able to improve their lives, and to seek activities and projects that will help achieve their goals. 3.. RDFs must feel free to add additional indicators that might better reflect what the villagers themselves feel are goals and conditions that they might want to achieve. These twenty indicators are a reflection of a common set of activities and projects that I have observed among villagers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America over the past thirty years that have been found to be meaningful, relevant and useful. However, it is important that communities be allowed to develop other indicators, to modify these indicators, or to use only these indicators as they feel inclined. One goal that CHOICE has is to develop a common set of activities and goals reasonably appropriate for all rural communities as a way of developing some generalizations for purposes of measuring progress across communities, regions, countries, even continents. The twenty points of progress are not set in stone, this is a draft document, I would greatly appreciate hearing from others working at the grassroots level that might have some additional categories. I have decided to limit myself to no more than twenty points of progress, to keep the process of evaluation from becoming too complicated. 4. CHOICE is in the process of creating a data bank on Village Development Activities, using the Twenty Points of Progress. Organizations of all types are encouraged and invited to use this instrument to assess the progress in villages where they are working. All I ask is that you send the name of the country, province, district and village, a rough estimate of the village's population and the results of your assessment If you are sending data on more than one village, please calculate the scores for each of the five dimensions, the total score and the percentage of your villages that are class five, class four, class three, class two and class one. I should like to use January or February 1997 for the first assessment. Then each year during each subsequent January or February, I would appreciate having you assess your villages again, thereby documenting whether the rural villages of the world, as a whole, are improving or not. As this data bank increases I will seek to prepare an annual report documenting the level of progress that is being made, For a detailed outline of these five dimensions of rural development, you may want to read my book One Can Make A Difference, to be published this Spring 1997. Pre-published copies of the manuscript are available for $35 at the CHOICE headquarters, 634 East 400 South, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84102 FAX (801) 363-7980 5. There will be two levels of analysis encouraged for this program. CHOICE will be happy to receive only level one analysis, but you are encouraged to consider preparing a more complete report which gives the detail being suggested below under Level Two:
1. Level One would simply require the completion of the two page instrument with calculated scores for each of the 20 points of progress.
2. Level Two would seek to provide a more detailed descriptive summary for each of the five dimensions of rural development, including the 20 points of progress. Below would be some examples of the kind of information that might be useful.
I. Basic Education/Literacy. 1. Pupils per classrooms (helps to know if new school rooms are needed). 2. Ratio of boys and girls in the schools. 3. Percentage of children who have to walk more than two kilometers to the school. 4. Percentage of boys and girls who complete primary school in the village and the percentage of boys and girls who continue past primary school. 5. Number of shifts per day and the student-teacher ratio 6. Number of women teachers versus men teachers and number of teachers who are from the local area and thus speak the local dialect or language. 7. Number of books per student, quality of supplies, paper, pencils, blackboards. 8. Extent to which teachers seek to work with parents, in determining schedules, amount of homework, encouraging children to attend school, etc.
II. Primary Health Care 1. Some indication of the infant mortality rate. Number of deaths per life births among children under 12 months and from 1-4 years. 2. Existence of a child weighing program, age weight ratio, weight-height ratio. 3. Percentage of children aged 1-5 in groups less 80% weight for age 90% weight for age 80% weight for height 4. Percentage of undernourished population (nutritional survey) 5. Distance to nearest clinic, hospital, doctor, nurse. 6. Number of midwifes, with and without modern medical training 7. Number of village health workers with at least some training 8. Extent to which modern and traditional medicine has been integrated.
III. Income/Alleviation of Poverty 1. Number and area of holdings of agricultural lands by number of people and type of tenure (tenant farmer, renting, leasing, etc. size of land holdings, (quality and use) ownership (by gender) availability of agricultural extension workers in the area availability of a veterinarian in the area 2. Percentage of heads of rural households without land or less than 1/2 acre and how many of them are women? 3. Average Wage rate of agricultural laborers. (Men vs. Women) 4. Rate of unemployment and underemployment 5. Percentage of landless agricultural laborers to the population economically active in agriculture. 6. Percentage of rural household receiving some form of credit informal sources (money lenders, savings groups, rate of interest) formal sources (credit union, rural bank, NGO program 7. Percentage of the economically active population engaged in non-agricultural activities in the rural areas.
IV. Local Leadership/Social Cultural Enhancement 1. Broadly based community participation (Give specific examples) a. Community based income generating activities b. Health and sanitation activities through village health committee c. Literacy and education activities through village education committee d. Local cultural enhancement activities (music, drama, handicraft,) e. Protection of the environment (soil erosion, polluted ponds, streams) f. Problem solving committee functioning (development committee) 2. Women clubs, mothers clubs, providing services to the women 3. Youth clubs, sports, activities developing the youth 4. Percentage of adults (men vs. women) over 15 who a. can neither read nor write at all b. can only sign their name and read a few words c. can read and write at a basic level d. have significant skills in reading and writing 5. Extent to which community has respect for and promotion of traditional activities which develop unity and solidarity, community pride and personal fulfillment. V. Community Environment 1. Access to adequate housing a. number of persons per room b. floor area per person c. rent to income ratio d. percentage of homes with brick, stone, concrete construction 2. Percentage of rural households with specified housing facilities a. piped water b. electricity c. sanitation facilities (latrines) d. enclosed stove e. radio/television 3. Percentage of population living in villages/communities with access to:
-- --Jim Mayfield ================================================== mailto:james.mayfield@m.cc.utah.edu CHOICE Homepage: http://burgoyne.com/pages/choice