ABSTRACT
The goal of the Project for Building Capacity in Social and Gender Analysis (SAGA) was to build capacity and generate innovative practices and methods that demonstrate the value-added of social and gender analysis methods in actionoriented and transformative research. The SAGA project has provided an opportunity for researchers to build skills with participatory methods, especially those that are used in social analysis systems (SAS). Over a two-year period (2010-11) a team of professors and graduate students from the National Agrarian Institute of Morocco located in Meknes carried out a multi-part study on the role of women in the management, use and marketing of aromatic and medicinal plants in the village of Maâmar in the middle atlas province of Khénifra. Maâmar, like other middle atlas communities, is Amazhir-speaking and most
women are illiterate. The distribution of knowledge, assets and decision-making power are appropriate to its Berber heritage. A challenge to researchers in crosscultural situations such as this is to avoid assumptions, stereotypes and miscommunication. The choice of research methods and tools is critical if an opportunity for community members, and especially women, to express their opinions and to learn as much as possible is to be ensured. SAS tools were used for the research with the intention of enhancing not only
the quality of findings but also to reinforce social capital in Maâmar.The part of the research described here was designed to assess the impact of SAS tools on the quality of information gathered and the learning of the men and women of Maâmar during the study.This article will assess:
• the choice of tools for different aspects of the research; • the degrees of satisfaction of the community members with the information
generated using the tools.
