PRA/PLA tool implementation guide

Use 1 sheet per tool. Check participant diversity in gender, age and position beforehand. Outsiders should facilitate and encourage communities to create and analyze their own work.

When to use this worksheet and what completion involves Fictional completed example

EvalCompass Worksheet

PRA/PLA tool implementation guide

Method: Participatory Rural Appraisal / Participatory Learning and Action

Use 1 sheet per tool. Check participant diversity in gender, age and position beforehand. Outsiders should facilitate and encourage communities to create and analyze their own work.

Basic information

Basic session information

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

Community and location: Mountain community A (fictional)
Tool used, such as a seasonal calendar: Seasonal calendar and local map
Date and time: September 13, 2026
Participant composition: counts and characteristics: 8 residents, including people with and without car access
Facilitator name: External facilitator A

Reason for this entry: Participant composition includes differing living conditions.

Community and location

Tool used, such as a seasonal calendar

Date and time

Participant composition: counts and characteristics

Facilitator name

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Basic session information

Participant composition includes differing living conditions.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Follow each field’s heading to record the program name, focus, period, and other details. Leave undecided matters clearly marked as unresolved.

Read the full fictional example

Tool implementation record

Record residents' products while respecting their own words. Photograph only when needed after checking consent, publication scope and identifying information.

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

Residents drew roads and bus stops on paper and marked places difficult to travel through in winter. Outsiders asked what symbols meant, and residents added explanations themselves.

Reason for this entry: Retain the process of residents expressing and verifying local knowledge.

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Record residents' products while respecting their own words. Photograph only when needed after checking consent, publication scope and identifying information.

Retain the process of residents expressing and verifying local knowledge.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Use the example as a reference and record what you have established about your own program. Distinguish assumptions and unchecked matters from confirmed facts.

Read the full fictional example

Key findings and statements

Record important findings, community priorities and participant statements, using original words where possible.

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

Scroll horizontally to view the table

Finding or theme	Community's words or statements	Speaker characteristics, such as role or gender
Winter shopping	Cannot walk to the bus stop on snowy days	Resident not using a car
Timing of medical visits	Afternoon services arrive too late for appointments.	Resident attending medical appointments

Reason for this entry: Summarize residents' interpretations as well as analytical terminology.

Scroll horizontally to view the table

Finding or theme	Community's words or statements	Speaker characteristics, such as role or gender

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Record important findings, community priorities and participant statements, using original words where possible.

Summarize residents' interpretations as well as analytical terminology.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Keep the information in each row aligned. Scroll wide tables horizontally to see every column.

Read the full fictional example

Triangulation notes

Record agreements or contradictions with other tools or groups.

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

Walk mapped routes with residents, and show the map to people who could not attend at another time. The latter remains incomplete.

Reason for this entry: Vary tools and participants to check omissions.

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Record agreements or contradictions with other tools or groups.

Vary tools and participants to check omissions.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Use the example as a reference and record what you have established about your own program. Distinguish assumptions and unchecked matters from confirmed facts.

Read the full fictional example

Ethics and quality check

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

☑ Checked: Obtained prior community consent
☑ Checked: The community created the work actively without outsiders writing for them
☐ Not checked: Ensured participation by women, young people and minorities
☑ Checked: Returned products and records for community checking
☐ Not checked: Triangulated through several tools or groups

Reason for this entry: Returning and checking the map is completed in this scenario, but input from young people and people absent in daytime and additional triangulation remain incomplete.

Obtained prior community consent
The community created the work actively without outsiders writing for them
Ensured participation by women, young people and minorities
Returned products and records for community checking
Triangulated through several tools or groups

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Returning and checking the map is completed in this scenario, but input from young people and people absent in daytime and additional triangulation remain incomplete.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Read each item and check those you have confirmed. Do not use the fictional example’s checkbox states as findings about your own program.

Read the full fictional example

Before writing, check when to use the worksheet and what completion involves

PRA/PLA tool implementation guide is a worksheet for applying Participatory Rural Appraisal / Participatory Learning and Action in meetings or individual work. For the overall duration of the method, use “Illustrative estimate, adjusted to scale and staffing: several hours–several days of fieldwork, depending on the tools” as a reference, adjusting for scale and resources. Fill in what you know provisionally and leave unresolved matters as questions to check next.

When this worksheet is useful

When understanding communities' own knowledge and priorities in marginalized rural or informal settlement communities
Evaluations including diverse participants, such as non-literate people, older people and children, for whom text-dependent surveys are limited
Pre-assessment and participatory planning for community development

Participants and preparation

Community members diverse in gender, age and social position, 1–3 external facilitators and key community people. 6–15 people per group is a planning example.

Bring the materials used for decisions, existing data, and differing stakeholder views to help complete the worksheet.

Suggested order

1. Basic informationBasic session information
2. Tool implementation recordRecord residents' products while respecting their own words. Photograph only when needed after checking consent, publication scope and identifying information.
3. Key findings and statementsRecord important findings, community priorities and participant statements, using original words where possible.
4. Triangulation notesRecord agreements or contradictions with other tools or groups.
5. Ethics and quality check

Signs the worksheet is ready for review

Records of community-created maps, calendars and other visual products
Community-agreed priorities
Triangulation report

Cautions for review

Outsiders writing for the community. Restraining the urge to intervene and remaining a facilitator is most important.
Only men or powerful people participate, excluding women, young people or people with disabilities.
Failing to return information reduces the process to external data extraction and loses the meaning of participation.

Read a completed fictional example (your entries will not change)

Fictional example; not actual results

A fictional illustrative example in which mountain residents organize transport for appointments and shopping by season.

Basic information

Community and location: Mountain community A (fictional)
Tool used, such as a seasonal calendar: Seasonal calendar and local map
Date and time: September 13, 2026
Participant composition: counts and characteristics: 8 residents, including people with and without car access
Facilitator name: External facilitator A

Reason for this entry: Participant composition includes differing living conditions.

Tool implementation record

Residents drew roads and bus stops on paper and marked places difficult to travel through in winter. Outsiders asked what symbols meant, and residents added explanations themselves.

Reason for this entry: Retain the process of residents expressing and verifying local knowledge.

Key findings and statements

Scroll horizontally to view the table

Finding or theme	Community's words or statements	Speaker characteristics, such as role or gender
Winter shopping	Cannot walk to the bus stop on snowy days	Resident not using a car
Timing of medical visits	Afternoon services arrive too late for appointments.	Resident attending medical appointments

Reason for this entry: Summarize residents' interpretations as well as analytical terminology.

Triangulation notes

Walk mapped routes with residents, and show the map to people who could not attend at another time. The latter remains incomplete.

Reason for this entry: Vary tools and participants to check omissions.

Ethics and quality check

☑ Checked: Obtained prior community consent
☑ Checked: The community created the work actively without outsiders writing for them
☐ Not checked: Ensured participation by women, young people and minorities
☑ Checked: Returned products and records for community checking
☐ Not checked: Triangulated through several tools or groups

Reason for this entry: Returning and checking the map is completed in this scenario, but input from young people and people absent in daytime and additional triangulation remain incomplete.

Common errors in judgment

Outsiders drawing the correct map and asking residents only to confirm it

How to revise: Residents identify places and meanings and select necessary support.

Reason: Local people's analytical process is central.

Treating meeting participants' views as everyone's conclusion

How to revise: Also check with absent people and groups with different conditions.

Reason: Otherwise analysis is biased toward those able to attend.

Editorial and checking information

Content updated: 2026-09-13Source checked: 2026-09-13 (includes AI cross-checking)No documented human reviewIncludes fictional examplesEditorial policy and scope of checking Cite this page Report a correction

References and checked sections

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) / Participatory learning for action (PLA)
BetterEvaluation
Section consulted
Main text
How it relates to the text
Outsiders provide facilitation and external information to support local people's own analysis and action.
Source checked: 2026-09-13 (includes AI cross-checking)

How to cite this page

EvalCompass Editorial Team. “PRA/PLA tool implementation guide”. EvalCompass, updated 2026-09-13. https://evalcompass.jun-nakatani.com/en/worksheets/pra-pla/

Add the date you accessed the page. Text created by this site is available under CC BY 4.0. Quotations, external materials, and bundled fonts have their own terms of use. When reusing content, credit the source, link to the license, and indicate any changes.

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Change history

2026-09-13 — Updated explanations to correspond with sources, and added method-specific fictional worksheet examples, judgment examples and revision history.