Know Before You Act: Diagnosing a Local Problem
Every rainy season, the street where Itzel lives in Puebla fills with water up to the curbs. The neighbors say, "the street needs to be fixed." But is the street really the problem? Before proposing an enterprise, you have to understand clearly what is going on. On this page you will learn how to do that, and at the end we will return to Itzel's street.
Problem and symptom
A problem is the underlying situation that affects a community. A symptom is what we see or suffer as a result. If you attack only the symptom, the problem comes back.
A neighborhood street floods every rainy season because plastic bags clog the drains. Tell the problem apart from one of its symptoms and state the need that a local…
A neighborhood street floods every rainy season because plastic bags clog the drains. Tell the problem apart from one of its symptoms and state the need that a local venture could address.
Gathering information in the community
To understand a problem, it is not enough to have opinions. Three techniques are used that complement each other:
| Technique | What you do | What it provides |
|---|---|---|
| Community dialogue | Interviews, conversations, assembly | Experiences, opinions, history of the problem |
| Observation and recording | Look, count, measure, and take notes | Firsthand data of your own |
| Data consultation | Review reports, maps, statistics from the municipality | Broad, comparable figures |
Each one has limits. Opinions may not agree; what you observe in one week may not be typical; official data may be out of date. That is why they are combined.
To diagnose the garbage problem in a vacant lot, the group proposes three actions: interviewing the neighbors on the block; counting and recording the waste that shows…
To diagnose the garbage problem in a vacant lot, the group proposes three actions: interviewing the neighbors on the block; counting and recording the waste that shows up over a week; reviewing the municipality's collection data. Classify each action as community dialogue, direct observation or data consultation, and explain what each one contributes to the diagnosis.
Phases of the diagnosis
A community diagnosis follows a logical order. It is a work outline, not a rigid rule.
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Gather information in the community (dialogue, observation, data).
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Define the scope of the problem: what it includes, where, and since when. Without this, the topic is so big that it can't be addressed.
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Identify causes and who is affected: who dumps the trash? Who suffers the consequences?
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State the need to be addressed.
The order matters: without information you can't define the scope; without defining the scope you don't find clear causes; without causes you can't say what is needed.
Order the phases of a community diagnosis applied to the case of the vacant lot turned into a dump: stating the need to address; identifying who is affected and what…
Order the phases of a community diagnosis applied to the case of the vacant lot turned into a dump: stating the need to address; identifying who is affected and what causes it; delimiting the problem; gathering information in the community. Justify why that order is the right one.
Prioritizing with two criteria
A community almost always has more problems than resources. You have to choose using clear criteria and explain them to everyone.
Two basic criteria:
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People affected: how many people it affects.
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Urgency: how soon it gets worse or how serious the damage is.
You can add feasibility: how possible it is to solve with what we have.
A community assembly has three problems on the table —the lack of water in the dry season, the garbage in the river and the lack of jobs for young people— but resources…
A community assembly has three problems on the table —the lack of water in the dry season, the garbage in the river and the lack of jobs for young people— but resources for only one. Propose two prioritization criteria (for example, how many people it affects, how urgent it is or how feasible it is to solve) and apply them to justify which one to address first.
From the need to the enterprise
Once the problem has been prioritized and the need stated, you can think about a local enterprise. It can be artisanal (by hand, small scale, using traditional knowledge) or industrial (with machines, mass-produced). That is decided in the next section, with a sustainability perspective.
A good need does three things: it comes from the information gathered, it refers to specific people and a specific place, and it doesn't impose a solution.
Go back to the beginning: Itzel's street doesn't flood because it is a "bad street," but because plastic bags clog the storm drains (cause). The flooding is the problem, and the mosquitoes and the water in the houses are symptoms. One possible need: "reduce the plastic bags that reach the neighborhood's storm drains and give them a use." With that, you can already think of, for example, a workshop that turns bags into useful products.