Notes on a Workshop on Participatory Methods

These notes are of a workshop on participatory methods which was organised by the MIDNET PRA Interest Group in South Africa in August 1994. The workshop aimed to increase the participants' understanding of participatory methodology for development by sharing methods and approaches from different disciplines. Five methods were discussed: Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSRE); People's Participatory Planning and Action (PPPA); Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA); SARAR and Village Level Planning (VLP). Each method is discussed in terms of its history, values and assumptions, how it works, and the tools it uses.