Theis, J.

This paper presents a preliminary draft of a needs assessment exercise carried out for an integrated rural development programme run by Save the Children in Vietnam. PRA methods were used to carry out the needs assessment, and NGO and local government personnel received training in PRA. Critical reflections on the PRA training and the use of PRA in the needs assessment process are made, principally that participants' biases and resistance to change of attitudes were constraints. Institutional and personal reasons for these constraints are discussed in detail.

A comprehensive account of a large scale experimental PRA conducted for SCF in Vietnam. The approach taken and its justification (not agreed by all doners) is detailed. The methodology section is extensive, discussing the theory behind PRA, training, tools and fieldwork, as well as problems such as the external and timeconsuming production of the report. The final report gives details of the education system and educations problems encountered, in general terms and by specific commune.

This manual is aimed primarily at NGOs and assumes that trainers have a prior knowledge of PRA techniques. The first section deals with how to plan and organise a training course in PRA, suggesting a set of questions, the ten steps of planning and giving checklists for planning, for materials and examples of warm-ups. The second section describes the individual training sessions in detail, covering the theoretical background to PRA (including PRA versus other research techniques) and a session on each PRA technique introduced.