Participatory Learning and Action 57
Immersions: learning about poverty face-to-face
Guest-edited by Izzy Birch, Raffaella Catani with Robert Chambers
IIED, December 2007, 160pp. Price $32.00
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The theme for this special issue centres on experiences
of face-to-face learning, often referred to as immersions - opportunities
for development professionals to spend a period of time living with
and learning from a poor family. This issue is a timely reflection
of an emerging trend in development practice, drawing together the
richness of immersion experience. It explores both the limitations
and potentials of immersions by
(i) bringing together diverse experiences, identifying their challenges and opportunities, and exploring their impacts;
(ii) encouraging readers to talk about immersions, share their experience, and recognise that there are many sorts of immersion;
(iii) inspiring people to have them, and help make immersions a regular practice for development professionals; and
(iv) enabling
readers to reflect, get/stay in touch, and follow up.
A critical mass of interest is now gathering among major donors and
civil society groups. Yet the impact of immersions is only now being
tested. Different models are being developed: some are structured
around a specific theme; others are more experiential and open-ended.
But their common purpose is to bring immersion participants face-to-face
with ordinary people, to test old assumptions, develop new perspectives,
and strengthen their commitment to the challenge of poverty eradication.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THEME SECTION
1. Overview:
Immersions: something is happening
Robert Chambers
2. Basrabai,
Meeraiben, and the master of Mohadi
Ravi Kanbur
SECTION 1: EVOLUTION OF IMMERSIONS
3.
A
portrait of the Exposure and Dialogue Programme Association
Jörg Hilgers
4.
Exposure
and Dialogue Programmes at SEWA
Reema Nanavaty with contributions from Raziaben, Savitaben, and
Seetaben
5.
The
World Bank Group: investing in poverty immersions
Frederick E. Nunes
6.
The
World Bank's Village Immersion Programme in South Asia
Praful Patel, Qazi Azmat Isa, and Caroline Vagneron
7. Immersions
in ActionAid
Sonya Ruparel
SECTION 2: IMMERSION ROLES
8.
Host
familes
Izzy Birch with contributions from Gauriben, Ramilaben, Shantaben
and
Kamlaben, Ama Gariba, Sam Mpanga, and Saurabh Kumar
9.
Not
your usual facilitator...
Dee Jupp
10.
Interpreters
Izzy Birch with contributions from Katy Oswald, Hawa Awuro Sam,
and Sonya Ruparel
11.
Reflections
by participants on the interaction with their hosts
Izzy Birch with contributions from Katy Oswald, Arjan de Haan,
and Edward Bresnyan, and Ravi Kanbur
SECTION 3: PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
12.
Extract
from immersion report: Funsi, Ghana
Koy Thomson
13.
Reflections
on an immersion: Funsi, Ghana
Rosalind Eyben
14.
Personal
reflection on Funsi immersion: ActionAid Ghana
Taaka Awori
15.
Reflections
on my immersion in India
Gary Fields
16.
The
salt of the earth
Praful Patel
17. Everyone
at Sida should do an immersion!
Olof Sandkull and Göran Schill
18.
Legends
of Choar Mumtaz: Saleiha Chachi smiles
John Samuel
SECTION 4: INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTS
SECTION 4, PART I: STAFF SELECTION, ORIENTATION AND TRAINING
Introduction to Part I, Section 4
19.
Immersion
as a form of apprenticeship at PRADAN
The HRD Unit at PRADAN with a contribution from Vishal Jamkar
20.
How
SRIJAN uses immersions as part of its recruitment process
Raj Kumar with Haridarkee
21.
How
SEWA uses Exposure and Dialogue Programmes (EDPs) for
internal capacity building
Poonam Shroff
22.
The
Global Journey: a quest for reality
Bosse Kramsjo
PART II: PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Introduction to Part II, Section 4
23.
Using
immersions for programme development at Plan Bangladesh
Haider W Yaqub and Saiful Islam
24.
An
extract from 'Views of the Poor'
Dee Jupp
25.
Immersion:
the soul of development
Qazi Azmat Isa
26.
Reality
Check: accountability, learning, and practice with the people who
matter
Ashish Shah
PART III: INFLUENCING POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL DIRECTION
Introduction to Part III, Section 4
27.
Taking
onboard immersions within Sida
Esse Nilsson, Olof Sandkull, and Molly Sundberg
28.
Reality
Checks: first reflections
Dee Jupp with Malin Arvidson, Enamul Huda, Syed Rukonuddin, Nasrin Jahan,
Md Amir Hossain, Dil Afroze, Fatima Jahan Seema, Md Mominur Rahman,
Sohel Ibn Ali, Rabiul Hasan Arif, Somita, David Lewis, and Hans Hedlund
29.
The
impact of Exposure and Dialogue Programmes (EDPs) on German parliamentary
work and decisions
Ruth Möller
30. With
the strength of the powerless: using immersions for processes of structural
change
Karl Osner
CLOSING EDITORIAL
31.
Immersions and face-to-face learning: reflections on practice
Izzy Birch and Raffaella Catani
REGULAR FEATURES
More about this special issue...
Immersions are opportunities for development professionals to spend a period of time living with and learning from a poor family. The current emphasis in aid circles on policy dialogue and co-ordination, and the endless cycle of capital-city meetings and workshops, leaves little room for time in the field. Those who do travel are constrained by heavily planned itineraries and pre-arranged meetings. As a result, aid agency staff have less and less contact with the very people whom they are employed to help, at the very time when their own rhetoric requires that the perspectives of the poor should underpin poverty reduction strategies.
Different models of immersion are being developed: some are more structured than others, often around a specific theme; others are more experiential and open-ended. They have been organised for a wide range of groups, from political leaders and officials in Europe to senior donor, government, and NGO staff working in the South. This issue aims to capture this diversity. But their common denominator is a concern to bring immersion participants face to face with ordinary people, giving them the chance to test old assumptions, develop new perspectives, and strengthen their commitment to the challenge of poverty eradication.
In a sense immersions are a way of compensating for the shortcomings of the aid system. The approach has been challenged, for example on ethical grounds; there are also concerns about the extent to which individual participants can really influence their employers’ priorities and ways of working on return, given underlying organisational biases and power dynamics. The impact of immersions is only now being tested, and this issue of PLA explores both their limitations and their potential. But a critical mass of interest is now gathering around the idea, among major donors (DFID, Sida, the World Bank) and civil society groups. This issue is a timely reflection of an emerging trend in development practice, as well as an opportunity to start drawing together the richness of immersion experience in a more coherent way.
The issue is guest-edited by Izzy Birch, a freelance consultant with a strong background in immersions, and Raffaella Catani, currently working with Praxis India on the promotion and networking around immersions at both national and international level. They are supported by Robert Chambers, Institute of Development Studies, UK who has written about and practised participatory approaches extensively since the early 1980s, and is interested in the potential of immersions to allow the voices of the poor and powerless to be heard, and to bring about personal and professional change in those working with the poor.