Methods for analysing time
How do we Evaluate Programmes?
used in PPA
Time analysis methods help communities to examine themselves with regards to
how they use their time (also noting differences among different categories of
the population) and how they are being affected by the changing times. In the
PPA process some attention will, for example, be paid to examining trends of
particular aspects of poverty or the impact of, say, particular policies on people’s
livelihoods over time. The most common tools for time analysis are: the calendar
of historical events, time trend analysis, calendar of daily activities, and seasonal
calendar.
5.8.1 Calendars
A calendar is a system by which time is divided into fixed periods, marking the
beginning and end of the year. It is a chart showing days, weeks, and months in a
particular year. In PLA calendars are used to discuss events, burdens, and issues
over the year and how they affect the lives of the community. Calendars are used
to present complex information in diagrammatic form.
Note that a calendar does not need to start in January or any particular month or
time of the year. Community members will always decide when they want their
calendar or year to start. As much as possible, also, calendars should reflect
indigenous seasonal categories. Team members may in this regard find it useful to
establish local names of particular seasons and to establish the meaning, if any,
behind such names.
PLA uses a variety of calendars to depict the different aspects of community life
and behaviour. These may be on seasons, health, income and expenditure,
agricultural, or workload calendars.
Steps in preparing a Calendar:
(1) Ask informants to define a period which they would like to analyse. This may
be a year, decade, given historical period, etc.
(2) In case of an annual calendar, ask informants to describe their year: where it
starts and where it ends.
(3) Ask one of the community members to draw a long line on the ground
showing their year and breaking this into different “segments”, months or
seasons.
(4) Facilitate a discussion and account of the main “things” that happen in a year.
A calendar may also be drawn for things that happened in a particular year or
period.
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5.8.2 Seasonal Calendars
These are calendars which show the main activities, problems, key linkages and
opportunities throughout the annual cycle in a diagrammatic form.
They are a way of representing seasonal variations in climate, crop sequences,
agricultural and income-generating activities, nutrition, health and diseases, debt,
etc. They can help identify times of shortage – of food, money or time – and the
best time of the year for particular kinds of development work.
The calendars thus help to identify months of greatest difficulty and vulnerability
of the people, or other significant variations that have impact on people’s lives.
Seasonal calendars can be drawn in a linear fashion with 12 months to show a
typical year or it can be drawn in a circle.
A seasonal calendar can be used to summarise:
(1) Indigenous seasons
(2) Climate (rainfall and temperature)
(3) Disease occurrence
(4) Crop sequences (from planting to harvesting)
(5) Crop and animal pests and diseases
(6) Income and expenditure patterns
(7) Income generating activities, etc.
(8) Labour demand for men, women and children
(9) Prices and marketing
(10) Social events, annual holidays
(11) Migrations
(12) Quantity or type of food consumed (or diet)
Seasonal calendars can also be done as historical seasonal calendars, showing
changes in seasonal patterns over the last decades.
How to draw seasonal calendars:
(1) Prepare the materials that you will use in drawing the calendar. Community
members may use seeds, stones, goat droppings, or other small and reasonably
uniform counters to “estimate a measure of what they are describing”. Sticks
can be broken in different lengths and used to indicate relative magnitudes. In
this way an entire seasonal calendar can be constructed with sticks, stones, and
seeds on the ground.
(2) Begin by drawing three (or more) long columns on the ground. The number of
columns you draw will depend on the number of variables or things that you
want to look at in each month/season (Avoid drawing on sand as sand tends to
blur images).
(3) In different rows:
show the different months or seasons of the year (first column). It helps if
you can find the local names for the months or seasons and what these
mean;
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show what happens at a given period, season or month of the year (second
column);
show how people’s lives are affected by the particular season or month
(third column).
As already noted, you may increase or decrease the number of columns
depending on the number of variables you want to examine.
(4) Find out from informants the main characteristics of the different months or
seasons. Compare and contrast the months/seasons.
(5) Pay special attention to the differences between different months/seasons and
how these differently affect community activities.
(6) Ask such questions as: “How does March compare with May – is it busier, the
same, or not so busy? By how much does it differ?”
Other useful questions may be:
In which months are vulnerable people most hard pressed? Why
What is the “best” month, and why?
What is the “worst” month, and why?
What is the busiest month?
What are you doing then?
What is the next busiest month?
What are you doing then?
How does it compare to other months?
What is the next busiest month? Etc.
(7) Combine all the seasonal patterns in one diagram to show correlation between
different variables and identify any problem or opportunity times within the
year.
(8) Cross-check and refine the calendar throughout the fieldwork. Watch out for
variations, which are due to the seasons, and those, which are not related to the
seasons.
(9) Calendars are a lot of fun but a great source of materials that will need your
analysis. Do not draw them for granted. You can draw them today and discuss
them the following day since you need to have an indepth study of all the
variables and their possible relationships.
Example of a seasonal calendar:
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5.8.3 Daily Routine calendar:
The main objective of daily routine calendars is to understand the daily patterns of
activities of men, women, children, old, young, employed, unemployed, educated,
uneducated, etc and seasonal changes in these patterns.
A daily routine diagram is similar to a seasonal calendar in that it helps identify
time constraints (shortages) and opportunities. For example, it can help in
identifying the most appropriate time in the day for a women’s training course.
The daily routine for an individual can be completed either through an interview ,
through direct observation, or both. It is useful to cross-check results by using
more than one method.
Steps in making a Daily Calendar
(1) Decide with the whole team which group you will focus on (women,
teachers, health workers, farmers, the elderly the unemployed, etc.).
(2) Decide if there is a specific topic or problem to focus on (for example
time spent by older women on household chores).
(3) Develop an appropriate list of questions for the exercise.
(4) Bring the community together and explain the purpose of making
calendars (to help them and you understand daily constraints and
opportunities, and to make individual, focus group and community
plans.
(5) Form a circle around a bare spot of ground where a calendar can be
drawn. Draw with a stick or place a stick lengthwise or make a line of
stones on the ground to indicate the times of day (e.g. hour by hour or
by early morning, sunrise, morning, midday, evening and night) Let
the people help you decide how their days are divided.
(6) Pass on the stick to an individual and ask, "Can you show us at what
time in the day you typically do what task?”
(7) Stand back and let People complete their own calendars. Use the
questions your prepared in advance to encourage them, e.g. "When do
you eat meals?" Encourage the use of stones, seed, sticks and other
local objects indicate time of day, workload tasks etc.
Examples of questions in making Daily Calendars
On a typical (or average) day, what do you do starting from the time that you
rise up to the time that you go to bed?
How much time does each activity take?
What are the biggest problems you face in carrying out some of the important
tasks?
When do you find time to do unexpected things and what are these activities
(such as care for a sick child, help prepare a funeral, come to a community
meeting, etc.?)
What changes do you note from time to time in this calendar? See figure
below)
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Things to note:
1. Encourage people to explain why they might do certain thins at times of
the day (e.g. when they bathe or visit friends, etc.
2. After the calendars have been completed. Look at the general picture it
makes and encourage discussion of obstacles and opportunities (e.g.
Where do you think that you spend most of your time and why? Where
would you prefer to spend less time and why?)
3. If you have helped different groups make daily calendars (e.g. men and
women) bring them all together to compare calendars. Encourage the
community to see where some members are more burdened at more times
of the day than others.
4. Encourage the people to think of what could be done by the community to
solve problems related to the daily work routine.
5. Ask a member of the community to copy the calendar from the ground
onto paper for the community to use and keep. Make an extra copy for the
team.
Example of a Daily Routine Calendar:
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5.8.4 Oral history and historical profiles
People can be asked to talk about the history of a place or a particular situation, or
of their own lives, and the results used to build up a picture of what has happened
over time. Profiles can also be made where simple lists, giving a summary
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overview of the key historical events in a community and their importance for the
present, are compiled.
5.8.5 Timelines
A time line is a line or flow chart with dates or events along it showing things that
happened in the past up to the present day. Several time lines can be shown
together to see how events influence each other, for example, how changes in
particular policies (such as liberalisation) may have influenced prices and crop
production.
A time line is therefore a tool to help the communities understand the past better
in order to analyse present conditions. It can be used to try to predict how things
may change in the future. Time lines help people remember how the bad and good
things have influenced their lives, how they coped with their problems in the past,
perhaps why the current situation exists and what the future may hold.
Time lines are very useful for planning. By indicating what happened in the past,
the people may be able to see what they need to do to change or reverse a bad
situation, or preserve a good trend. Time lines can also be used to capture changes
in the life of a programme.
Steps in making a time line
(1) Discuss the purpose of the exercise, what people hope to learn about the past
and how information will be collected or written down. Note that to make a
time line, you may choose to make maps showing what the village was like
years ago, or take a transect walk while asking key informants what things
were like in the past, or hold large or small group meetings where questions
are asked about the past.
(2) Decide with the whole team the specific topic or problem to be investigated
and how this will be brought out. Think of questions ahead of time. Be as
specific as possible so that the history can help answer the main research
questions.
(3) Assist community members to draw a long line on the ground with one end
representing the past and the other end the future.
(4) Ask the people to indicate the main events in the village related to the topic.
For example if the people are concerned about agriculture, perhaps major
droughts, the first arrival of chemical fertilizer, the demarcation of land, etc. if
their concern is about schooling, perhaps the advent of Universal Primary
Education, the building of a particular school, disruption of school during
wars, etc. Use symbols or local materials to represent what is said.
(5) Encourage people to explain the causes and effects of the events (e.g. why
large numbers of children may have died at certain time, etc.
(6) Help keep the discussion on the topic by asking what importance a historical
event may have had on the topic (e.g. a new government, a war, etc.).
(7) When the time line is completed, have as many people in the community as
possible look at it. Ask someone to explain what they have learned from their
own history.
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Things to note:
1. Take time to think about the purpose of the exercise: help community
members look for reasons certain events are important, and their causes and
effects on different members of the community.
2. Encourage people to think “What will the future be like based on how the past
was and how it is now”?
3. It is not important for people to remember actual years and dates. Instead, help
them relate events to important times like Independence, word wars, political
regimes, their childhood, etc.
4. Do not insist on people relating events in the order they happened. The order
will emerge as you proceed.
5. Get as many people as possible to participate, men and women from different
interest groups: one person’s view alone may be based or inaccurate
Example 4 : A Timeline or Historical profile
Village in Northern Sudan
1907 Railway line constructed
1925 Land registration carried out
1927 Private irrigation scheme established Mango trees planted
1935 First citrus trees planted
1946 Severe flooding
1956 River shifted, pump site moved for irrigation scheme
1960 Asphalt road constructed
1970 Nationalization of private irrigation scheme
1970-75 Irrigation scheme under Land Reform Administration
1972 Severe drought
1975-85 Irrigation scheme under Agricultural Production Administration
1976 Construction of irrigation pipeline
1978 Seleit Animal Fattening ranch opened: brought water, employment,
fodder, and animal diseases
1984 Drought: first permanent settlement of nomads, first arrival of migrants
from Western Sudan
1985 Irrigation scheme under Department of Horticulture
1988 Locusts destroy sorghum crop
Flood destroys houses, kills all banana tress
Possible questions to help develop Time Lines
Education
What has changed in the quality and access to education in the last 10-15
years?
What impact have the changes had on children, parents, girls, boys, etc?
What indicators are there to show that the changes are happening?
Who have gained from the changes and who are the losers?
What were the unexpected changes?
Agriculture
Was agriculture different in your parent’s time, in what ways?
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Have farming practices changed since you were a child?
What is different? Is this a good or bad thing?
Has the available land or the condition of the soil changed?
Is it getting easier or harder to be a farmer now compared to the past?
If things continue this way, what will it be like when your children inherit the
land?
What can be done to prevent/preserve this?
5.8.6.Trend Analysis
The main objective of trend analysis is to observe particular factors and to see
how these may be changing over time, including what impact the changes may be
having on communities.
In order to successfully carry out an exercise in trend analysis, it may be useful if
in the first place a group of people are identified who remember far back and can
give a good account of the changes that have been taking place with respect to
particular factors. In a number of instances such groups are constituted by elderly
members of society.
To proceed:
(1) Get together a group of people who can remember far back.
(2) Find a place which gives participants enough room on the ground
(3) Identify a topic or topics whose trend you and community members want to
analyse (In order to avoid confusion, only one topic should be discussed at a
time in the initial stage, but more than one topic can eventually be handled, in
particular to allow for comparison of trends on different issues).
(4) Facilitate a general discussion on the chosen topic: what community members
think about it, why they want to analyse it, how understanding the trend may
be useful to them as a community, etc.
(5) Ask one of the community members to draw a long line on the ground.
(6) Take the chosen topic, and ask participants to plot at the beginning of the line
the “magnitude” or “intensity” of the factor they are analysing. They may do
this by putting a number of stones, circles, or other materials.
(7) They should then proceed with the rest of the line, allocating the stones
(against a named period or time) and in relation to their perceived magnitude
of the changes over time.
(8) At all stages, community analysis should be sought on reasons why and on
impact of changes.
(9) Looking at the trends of various issues (e.g.. Water, populations, trees) will
allow analysis across these - as some things increase and others decrease.
Remember NOT to go into complicated quantification – use words such as
“more of” or “less of”.