Producing Manuals for Non-literate Farmers: Handbook for Development Workers

This handbook is designed to guide development workers through the process of developing their own manuals for non-literate people - particularly farmers - in developing countries for use by individuals and organisations. Produced as part of an initiative called Illustrated Manuals for Development Projects (IMDP) (click here for a summary), these simple training manuals for non-literate farmers cover a range of subjects. Using simple language, these manuals are short (around 1-4 pages in length) and show sequences of pictures on a particular topic that clearly depict the task without the use of words. They were produced in collaboration with local people in West African countries using IMDP techniques - methods developed to help local development organisations produce their own training materials. The manuals can be downloaded from the project website and photocopied for field use. Organisations using this method to produce manuals are encouraged to send copies of their new manuals to the organisers to post on the website for others to use.

The materials that are available for download in PDF format include:

• Part 1: Field Work: Course for field staff on how to identify suitable subjects for manuals
• Part 2: Illustration: Course for illustrators and field staff on production of appropriate illustrations for manuals
• Part 3: Manual Production: Course for office-based staff with basic computer skills on processing the illustrations, layout and reproduction of the manuals
  • Part 3a
  • Part 3b
  • Part 3c
• Part 4: Evaluation: Assessing the effectiveness of the materials and responses from target groups

Click here to access the page detailing these download options.