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TOOL: Community Institutions Sketch Map
Purpose: This tool can be adapted and used to provide a visual overview of what comprises the
community’s decision-making system. In its basic form, a community sketch map is used to identify
locations of important resources or sites, systems of resource use, and customary or property
boundaries. In this particular adaptation, it is intended to identify key institutions, groups, and
individuals that make decision that affect those resources and areas.
Resource: Adapted from basic community sketch map such as in 80 Tools for Participatory
Development (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), 2008)
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Facilitate a discussion about key physical features and resources that the community would like to
include in the map. Examples include rivers or lakes, forests, mountains and valleys, cultivation
areas, sacred sites, and wildlife populations. Not every feature has to be included, especially if it
will make the map too crowded or confusing to be useful.
Consider developing a legend
for different symbols or colours
that may be used.
Using large sheets of paper or a
blackboard, begin by marking
the location of important
reference points such as houses
and transportation routes.
A representative group of about
10 people could continue
mapping the location of other
key features and resources (see
Figure 3 for an example). Often
little facilitation is needed.
Facilitate a discussion about key Figure 3: Example of a basic community sketch map (Source: IICA,
institutions,
groups,
and 2008)
individuals who make decisions
that affect the resources on the map. These may include formal systems such as a traditional chief
or village association as well as informal systems such as women who cultivate fruit trees.
Decisions could range from community-wide management plans to day-to-day collection of
resources.
Continue working with the small group to add these institutions and decision-makers to the
relevant locations on the map. This could be done by labeling or using a different colour or pattern
to shade in the relevant area.
Hold a plenary session or broader group discussion to verify the information and gather further
inputs or suggestions. Consider facilitating a discussion about what the map shows, for example,
overlaps or gaps in decision-making, degree of clarity amongst community members of how
decisions are made and by whom, and so on.
Transcribe the final version of the map and make at least one copy for safe-keeping.
TOOL: Community Decision-making Calendar
Purpose: This tool can be adapted and used to provide clarity about the decision-making processes that
occur throughout a community-defined seasonal cycle. It can be used to raise awareness within the
community about when important decisions are made and to promote transparency and participation.
Resource: Adapted from basic seasonal calendars such as in 80 Tools for Participatory Development
(IICA, 2008)