Participatory Methods to Assess Change in Health and Women's Lives

The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) had two main objectives: i) to assess the effectiveness of participatory methods as a means of collecting baseline information; ii) to identify indigenous indicators of women's health and wealth status. A 'smorgasbord' of participatory methods were used; social and demographic mapping; health and wealth ranking; timeline and focus group discussions; key informant interviews and life histories of women. Fieldwork was conducted in a village where the BRAC had been active for five years and another where it had been involved for six months. Participatory methods were confirmed as a means of gathering information 'quickly and relatively accurately.' A 'remarkable consistency' emerged as to indigenous indicators of women's status from which BRAC constructed a seven component measure of household well-being: food security; land ownership; types of income; agricultural assets; homestead condition; days off work due to illness and education.