After identifying the problems, limitations and shortcomings of the community through different groups of people and different views, the next step is to prioritise them so as to start working on the most important or urgent issues.

Prioritisation

The community has been divided into groups and given the list of identified problems. They are given time to prioritise five problems, ordering them from 1 to 5 according to importance.

Following the prioritisation activity, it becomes clear that the issues considered the most important or urgent by the members of the Sanibeni Center, are:

1. Combined educational institution
2. Rural health post
3. Road improvement
4. Agricultural improvement
5. Water sanitation
6. Community building

The Problem Solving Tree

In the previous activity, all community members had prioritised community problems and needs in according to their importance and urgency. The next step involves elaborating these problems, establishing a road map and coming up with solutions.

The problem tree highlights the causes and consequences of a problem. In the tree trunk we can find the central problem. The roots are the cause of this problem, whereas the branches and the leaves represent the consequences. Working on the causes of the main problem will eliminate the roots, cutting them off, giving a solution to the problem from the ground up.

For this activity, the groups remained the same, however each worked on a separate problem, discussing and generating their respective problem trees.

Photographic Record

PRA in Centro Sanibeni: Introduction| Stage I | Stage II | Conclusions

“She’s on the horizon… I go two steps, she moves two steps away. I walk ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps ahead.
No matter how much I walk, I’ll never reach her. What good is utopia? That’s what: it’s good for walking.”
(Eduardo Galeano)