Learning from experience : a manual organising, analysing and documenting field based information

Much has been said and written in recent years about the need to document the experiences of the many different development initiatives taking place all over the world, and thus learn from successes and failures. Institutional learning and knowledge building are essential processes.
This manual is an attempt to develop a method which will help people to document their experiences, focusing on the detailed description and analysis of a set of activities carried out in the field and their results and impacts. It presents a practical step-by-step method to help describe and analyse a project, and thus document it fully. The method described in this manual refers to a documentation process which seeks to: 1) organise the information available; 2) analyse it in detail to understand what has happened; 3) draw conclusions which will help generate new knowledge, and 4) present the results in the chosen format.
The method is adaptable enough to be relevant for many different circumstances, for example, the process can be used to document single, short activities, projects, or longer and more complex programmes. It is a useful guide for all those who understand the importance of drawing lessons from the activities they are implementing in the filed.
It can be carried out by community based groups or organisations, NGOs, networks or large institutions.
In the annex a case study is presented, "The forestry programme in Pulau", demonstrating the usefulness of the method further.