Robinson, E.

Thirty-seven women attended a women-only PRA in South India organised by HIDA/MYRADA Agroforestry Network. The objectives for holding the PRA were to enable women to interact more freely and to focus on issues of interest to women "like health, nutrition, labour and migration, childbirth practices". Observations made about how the PRA differed from "mixed" PRAs included: the level of sharing was more personal, women discussed methods more than content, women did not need as many tea and smoke breaks!

This article describes in broad terms lessons learned by the Hope International Development Agency (HIDA) Social Forestry Program in Andrah Pradesh. PRA has been useful for several reasons; encouraging village participation, understanding connections between problems encountered in the villages, and ensuring the involvement of women and their inclusion in forestry projects. HIDA has used a film produced by MYRADA project and developed a slide presentation for use in community discussions.