Chambers, Robert

The author briefly describes the origins of RRA, the evolution of Rapid Assessment procedures and the development of PRA. PRA has demonstrated that rural people have a strong capacity to map, model, quantify, rank, score, diagram and analyse. The potential of PRA in the field of health and nutrition includes participatory social, demographic and health mapping of villages, seasonal analysis of deprivation and disease incidence, ranking wealth and wellbeing, matrix ranking, time lines and trend analysis. PRA can be used with direct relevance to health issues.

The significant principles of PRA (and RRA) are examined, considering the importance of behaviour and attitudes, not rushing, handing over the stick, and being self critically aware. The power and popularlity of PRA is explained by the discovery that local peoples' own capacity for analysis is high, especially when relaxed rapport is attained, and visual and sequential methods are used. Validity and rigour is found to be high, illustrated by examples of farm and household surveys, ranking excercises, participatory village cencuses and rainfall data.

The introduction includes a summary of the principals and evolution of PRA. Two types of spread in the use of PRA are identified - in terms of the basic components of participatory methodology, behaviour and attitudes, and sharing of knowledge and experience - and in terms of the lateral, personal and experiential mode of spread through field experiences, familiarization workshops, through villages and through materials such as RRA notes. The spread of PRA through these methods has been rapid.

Critique of the workshop organised by GTZ about cross-fertilisation between the two methodologies.

The article traces the development of RRA and PRA in relation to earlier and parallel methodologies, and outlines their core principles and practices. PRA is distinguished from RRA by the extent to which people are involved in carrying out the analysis and own the resulting information. The three pillars of PRA - behaviour, methods, and sharing - are discussed, with a strong emphasis on the importance of behaviour and attitudes. The article also highlights some problems and dangers, and concludes with some practical tips for using PRA in the field.

A five day workshop for trainers of PRA was held in the Emmental valley, Switzerland. Participatory mapping and transects were carried out with local residents, as well as theoretical sessions using new training methods, such as a "mood metre" to provide constant feedback. The PRA Problem Solving Exercise questions around fieldwork protocol ("What would you do if..?") are attached as an appendix.

This comprehensive article traces the roots of PRA, describing PRA as a "confluence" of the following approaches : activist participatory research, agroecosystem analysis, applied anthropology, field research on farming systems and rapid rural appraisal. The descriptions of these theories highlight the similarities with PRA and lead to a definition of PRA principles, a menu of methods and the six "discoveries" or advantages of PRA over other approaches.