Participatory action research

Step 8: Matrix ranking

Matrix ranking will help you to create insight in and make participatory decisions about possible interventions in the community. Ranking methods include:

• Preference ranking
• Pairwise ranking
• Direct matrix ranking 

Preference ranking and pairwise ranking are a bit simpler than matrix ranking, but the worksheet will help you through all of the methods. Ranking methods have logical steps to be followed:

• Decide upon a set of problems, preferences or solutions to be explored.
• Interact with the community members to formulate indicators (only for matrix ranking) 
• Interact with community members and set his or her favoured items in order of priority. Repeat this exercise with a good number of people.
• Tabulate the responses.

Download the worksheet for detailed instructions on how to to set up matrix ranking.

Worksheet matrix ranking