Cornwall, A.

This short paper explores the potential for using theatre as "an effective means of both feeding back and following up some of the issues raised by RRA". Whereas initial RRA training is above all practical, follow-up work has tended to be carried out on paper by a planning team. Dramatisation can be used by communities to explore development opportunities. Two techniques are described : i) the RRA team creates a drama loosely based on themes expressed earlier by the community ii) a more structured workshop approach where participants dramatise the issues themselves.

The paper deals with the subject of participatory modelling. It asks how such a process can portray a picture of a community that does not merely reflect the view of the dominant group. The paper reports on efforts to compensate for the effects of an often dominant group - men. While on a training course in northern Omo, Ethiopia, a group of women and children were asked to make their own model on the ground adjacent to the men. The issue of water availability, a subject not brought up the men, appeared to be key.