ABCD-Training-of-Trainers-Tools-July-2013

2.9. The Leaky Bucket
(Source: Coady Institute)
Session Title
Session Objectives
Duration of Session
Resources
Training Materials
The Leaky Bucket
Identify opportunities for savings and income generation in the
community
Identify money for goods and services flowing in and flowing out of the
local economy
180 minutes
Flipchart
Markers
Laptop, internet connection, white screen (if using the digital version)
How to Construct a Leaky Bucket and Example of a Leaky Bucket
Introduction
The Leaky Bucket is an effective tool for helping community members to understand how the local
economy works and what can be done to make the local economy stronger. This is done by “pouring
more water into the bucket” and “plugging the leaks.”With the whole group, provide a demonstration of
the basic elements of constructing a “Leaky Bucket.” You may want to do this on flipchart paper.
Instructions
If you are following the ABCD methodology from start to finish as laid out in this manual, this could be
the same group of three that undertook appreciative interviews, and mapping of individual skills,
associations, physical and natural resources (as described above), and you could use the community
where the story took place as the demonstration site for this exercise, asking probing questions of the
person who lives or lived in this community. If you are not following the ABCD methodology from start
to finish, these groups can be formed randomly and a Leaky Bucket can be created of one of the
participants’ communities. (They can decide which one).
Step 1. Ask people to imagine their community economy as a bucket with income sources from outside
the community pouring in from the top and expenditure on goods and services purchased outside the
community spilling out of the holes in the bottom.
Step 2. Draw a picture of a bucket. Inside the bucket, draw three boxes representing the three main
economic actors in any market economy:
• Households: all people living under one roof and sharing income and expenditures
• Local government
• Businesses: larger formal sector firms like plantations or horticulture operations that provide wage
employment, or any other business located outside the household but inside the community.
(Small-scale farming and other “home-based” businesses are usually included within the household
sector.)
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