|
Purpose
Ranking method helps to identify individual and group priorities among a number of alternative problems or solutions. It helps to explain the reasons of choosing one item from the other.
This is an important PRA technique, used to compare various kinds of things according to different qualities people value. This places things in an order of what is more or what is less important. Ranking like several other PRA techniques is a useful tool for finding out different possibilities in a local setting with respect to different aspects.
Ranking means placing something in order. There are rankings of people, problems and opportunities and of things. These methods are useful to learn from the people about their categories, criteria, choices and priorities. These are useful for sensitive information like income or wealth
Ranking can be undertaken with key informants or group of villagers that represents a good mixture of interests. It can also be conducted based on gender to determine different preferences between men and women. For simple issues villagers can rank them during the semi-structured interview. For complicated issues, ranking can be undertaken using pair-wise ranking in order to determine the villagers’ preferences.
Methods of Ranking
The types of ranking that are most common in relation with development studies include:
- Problem, preference and opportunity ranking
- Pair wise ranking
- Matrix ranking
- Wealth ranking
How Ranking is done?
The groups for discussion list different items to be compared. Pair wise comparison criteria are developed for ranking. Ranking can be done through ranking order, from the most to the least important through counting of the frequencies in the list, rank the items to be compared and make up a decision. The final choice is done through group of criteria or single, most important criteria.
|
