Synthesis Baseline Information – Sahel – July 2011

The field surveys were undertaken in two areas each of Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, and in three areas of Niger. The Synthesis Workshop held July 19 to 22, 2011 was an opportunity for all the participants in the HEA capacity building programme to take an overview of the findings from their fieldwork (the workshop agenda is given in Annex 1).

The aim was to train the participants to look at the data on the different zones comparatively and to think about the meaning of the information. The key was for them to keep the Household Economy analytical framework constantly in mind, and to sift through the data in the zone baseline spreadsheets and the written profiles, not forgetting their personal observations in the field, and from all the detail pick out the essential points – the « story ».