Participatory Learning and Action 22:
PLA Notes 22: General IssueIIED, February 1995. 88 pp.
Out of print except as part of a complete set of back issues:
Summary
This issue of PLA Notes addresses a variety of emerging conceptual and methodological issues. Several of the articles emphasise, for example, how practitioners of the increasingly widely used PRA must keep a watchful eye on how the term is used, and to what it is applied. Creative contributions on methodological innovations include methods such as social mapping and ranking.
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1. Sharing our concerns and looking to the future
Elkanah Absalom et al.
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Abstract
This article explores the implications of participatory approaches, such as PRA, for: personal and professional values, norms and behaviour; community issues; organisational structures, styles and practices of management; approaches and methods in training; networking; and the policies and practices of donors.
2. Handle with care! rapid studies and the poor
Clas Lindberg, Vesa-Matti Loiske, Wilhelm Östberg and Claude Mung'ong'o
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Abstract
This article presents a critique of an agency study which used rapid research methods to investigate the role and consequences of structural adjustment programmes and the introduction of a multi-party system in Tanzania. The authors compare the findings of the agency study to their own village-level studies. They argue that the genuinely poor were not included in the analysis by the agency study team, thereby casting doubt on the study's provisional findings that 'trade liberalisation has been good for rural people'. They suggest that special efforts need to be made to ensure that 'the unseen and unknown' come to the fore when using rapid research methods.
3. PRA and raised expectations: potentials and pitfalls
Richard Edwards
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Abstract
This article addresses criticisms that PRA raises too many expectations, and that communities should not simply be used as guinea pigs for testing methods. It argues that these criticisms are only valid when planning is inadequate and there is a lack of transparency in groups working with communities. Further, it argues that raising expectations is actually an objective of the PRA process.
Nurul Islam Nazem and Pete Atkins
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Abstract
During a study in rural Bangladesh a simple method was developed to show how people's occupations had changed in the past 40-50 years. The 'grandfather graph' is a rough and ready technique that gave an approximate indication of how the occupational composition of the rural economy had changed over time. It could be also be used to measure aspects of economic, social, cultural or political behaviour.
5. Social maps and geographical transects: some recent experiences in Orissa, India
Prahlad Mishra and Gayatree Mohanty
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Abstract
This paper describes some innovations to social mapping and geographical transects which emerged during field work in Orissa, India. One innovation resolved the difficulty of mapping a large village of more than 500 households by dividing the settlement into clusters of households. Another suggestion addresses concerns that transects, which only cover a limited land area, may overlook areas of land that are highly significant.
6. Women prefer lunchtime
Claus Euler
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Abstract
A brief note which describes a method used to identify the best time of day for visits by project supervisors in rural Bangladesh. A preference ranking of different times of the day showed that best time of day for women was not the same as that preferred by the men.
7. Beyond ranking: exploring relative preferences in P/RRA
Simon Maxwell and Claude Bart
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Abstract
This paper argues that simple preference ranking tells us little about preferences and suggests that scoring provides a better alternative. In an example from Ethiopia (an assessment of a food-for-work programme), the scope of scoring is illustrated and some alternatives are introduced which provide a useful way to explore preferences in different circumstances.
8. Defending the land with maps
Derek Denniston
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Abstract
This article describes a project which helped the Indians of the Mosquita region in Honduras create detailed records of their homelands to establish who inhabited the land and how it was being used. The project was also successfully replicated in the Darien region of Panama. Mapping indigenous homelands demonstrated that these lands are not uninhabited and degraded, and raised the regional awareness of the Indians, showing them the common ground they shared with other indigenous peoples and empowering them to pursue legal protection for their homelands.
9. PRA in a health education, water and sanitation project in Kenya
David Adriance
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Abstract
This case study describes the Siaya Health Education, Water and Sanitation Project (SHEWAS) which was implemented by the NGO CARE International in Siaya District in Kenya in 1990. It focuses on the use of PRA as a means of stimulating community participation in the identification and planning of water and sanitation micro-projects. The SHEWAS approach is outlined and some of the achievements and results, and lessons learned, are discussed.
10. RRA in coastal resource planning: Malampaya Sound, the Philippines
Michael Pido
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Abstract
Although Malampaya Sound is Palawan's richest fishing ground its resource base is threatened. Logging and upland agriculture inflict serious environmental damage on downstream fisheries, and resource use conflicts between large scale and artisanal fishermen are escalating. In 1990 RRA was used to generate information about problems and opportunities, establish monitoring indicators to determine the impacts of future development, and pinpoint subjects for further research.
11. Rehabilitating minor Irrigation tanks
S. Kasivelu, Rupert Howes and John Devavaram
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Abstract
This article describes the use of PRA in the rehabilitation of an irrigation tank at a village in Tamil Nadu. The advantages gained from the use of participatory methodologies in the programme are identified and contrasted with the department's previous approach to tank standardisation.
12. Diagrams for demographic data collection: examples from the Tembomvura, Zimbabwe
Ravai Marindo-Ranganai
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Abstract
This article discusses how visual methods used in PRA were used in demographic data collection among the Tembomvura people of Zambezi Valley in 1992. The study examined not only the demographic measures (which could be obtained from a quantitative questionnaire) but also the opinions of the population and how they perceived their fertility, mortality and population growth.
13. PRA for self-reliant rural development: the case of a resettlement Area in Ethiopia
Savina Ammassari
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Abstract
This paper focuses on the Tana Beles area in Gojam, Ethiopia, where in the mid-1980s almost 80,000 people were resettled from different parts of the country. Following the suspension in 1991of all foreign projects in the area, the challenge has been to enhance the transition from emergency aid to self-reliant and self-sufficient development. The paper describes how PRA techniques were used to explore general adjustment problems and constraints, needs and priorities, as well as the expectations and aspirations of the settlers.
14. A participatory organisational appraisal of ACORD
Mick Howes and Chris Roche
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Abstract
A two-day workshop was held at ACORD (Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development) to introduce staff to PRA through an appraisal of their own work and organisational relationships. The aim of the workshop was to increase awareness about PRA among staff and to enable them to make informed decisions about how it could be used in ACORD programmes. It was also intended that the workshop would feed into the organisation's strategic planning process.
15. Ranking constraints in a community forestry and soil conservation Programme
Kebede Asrat
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Abstract
A workshop was held for agricultural extension workers and catchment technicians employed by the Community Forestry and Soil Conservation Development Department in eastern Ethiopia. This brief article describes a ranking exercise carried out by workshop participants to identify the constraints which they felt most hindered the success of the community forestry and soil conservation programme. Both groups felt that the area in which most improvement was needed was in enabling better participation by farmers.
16. PRA for people and parks: the case of Mole National Park, Ghana
John Mason and Elijah Danso
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Abstract
PRA was used to assess people's perceptions of the benefits and difficulties of their life near Mole National Park in northern Ghana. PRA was frequently the only approach acceptable to villagers biased by years of mistrust and conflict with the Ghanaian Department of Game and Wildlife (GWD). The paper briefly recounts the methods used and problems encountered, the most significant of which was the suspicion and antagonism towards GWD by the villagers.
17. The use of RRA in conservation expeditions: experiences from Sierra Leone
Sarah Pocknell and Danny Annaly
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Abstract
This article describes some of the RRA techniques which were used during a conservation expedition in Mount Goma Forest Reserve in north-eastern Sierra Leone. The aim was to carry out a survey of land use patterns and ecology with the indigenous Kuranko people who live adjacent to the reserve. Methods which were particularly useful included mapping, transects, oral histories and semi-structured interviews. Establishing a plant collection was another effective participatory method of discovering medicinal and food uses.
Non-verbal sequences
Robert Chambers
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