Learning From Experience: A Manual for Organising, Analysing, and Documenting Field-based Information

This manual by ILEIA, the Centre for Information on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture, is intended to help small-scale farmers organise, analyse, and document their experiences. ILEIA notes that many initiatives in sustainable agricultural development around the world go unnoticed and undocumented and that, by analysing and writing about these initiatives, they can be shared, so that lessons learnt can be used to further develop knowledge about sustainable agriculture. This step-by-step methodology is created to be adaptable and relevant in various circumstances for people in a variety of roles. The documentation/systematisation method described in the manual intends to enable non-governmental organisations (NGOs), farmers, extension workers, or anyone who is interested, to document their experience in order to analyse it, to learn from it, and then to share it.

Contents include:

• Principles of documentation
• Issues to consider
• The method, step–by–step
  1. First things first - participation, resource, deadlines, available and to-be-found information, objectives
  2. Setting the boundaries
  3. Describing the project
  4. The analysis
  5. Presenting the results of the documentation process
• Writing up the document
• Try this out
• Further reading

Descriptions of how this manual has been used, as well as other efforts at documentation and communication, can also be seen in a recent issue of the LEISA magazine. Click here to access this issue of LEISA magazine.

In addition, on the LEISA website, there is posted commentary on the use of the manual, as well as links to documentation efforts using other media, including radio and photography.

Click here to download the English version of this manual in PDF format.

Click here to download the Spanish version of this manual in PDF format.

Click here to access online information from the LEISA website about this manual.