Methodology: Temporal and Spatial Mapping of Community Lives and Livelihoods in Senegal: Replicating the Methodology

This article outlines the method that was used to collect, code and visualise sentinel site data from the ARC Replica drought pay-out in Senegal. It is intended for practitioners and decision makers who are looking to: 1) bring in community member voices to inform early action programme designs and 2) explore new ways of using qualitative data to inform decision making around early action. The methodology outlined can also be replicated by researchers collecting longitudinal data with multiple data points over long periods of time.

Start Network has been implementing early action programmes to enable communities across the world to act ahead of potential disasters. Part of the challenge of delivering impactful early action interventions is ensuring that assistance reaches community members at the right time, i.e., before community members have to resort to negative coping mechanisms like borrowing money for food or buying on credit, selling livestock and other assets, or withdrawing children from school. This timing can differ within the same country from one region or community to another, as this research shows.

Qualitative data collected from community members over time can help elicit the right windows of opportunity for the right early action interventions. However, the large amounts of data can make it difficult to distil lessons for decision making. Start Network developed a method for synthesising and visualising qualitative data about the challenges and lived experiences of community members in different areas across Senegal, collected over six months as part of the ARC Replica programme. Using data from community members every month collected, for six months, we created visualisations that summarised that data as shown below