Thompson, John

This article provides an overview of the commentaries received during the e-forum on Participatory Processes for Policy Change. Four areas are considered. Firstly, regarding issues of evidence, the debate raised important questions around the positivist versus more reflective views of knowledge in policy making. The second concerns issues of representation. Many actors emphasise the need for the poor to speak for themselves, but questions arise: who are the poor? And are their voices being heard?

This issue of PLA notes features a set of methodological and conceptual reflections and lessons on the use of Deliberative and Inclusionary Processes (DIPs) which grew out of a citizen jury and scenario workshop in southern India. The articles in this issue do not take the usual approach of PLA Notes of case studies and examples of methods in action, but present a set of conceptual and methodological reflections on the Indian experiment and its implications for citizen engagement in policy processes.

The paper summarises a participatory impact study in Kenya. PRA was used in six catchments in different agro-ecological areas to assess the linkages between the process of implementation and the impacts on the communities. A framework of sustainability indicators developed by IIED was used to organize field analysis and report writing. The impact study was seen by the Ministry of Agriculture as a self-evaluation of the branchÆs operational procedures, since the results are being used to organize field analysis and report writing.