Resources

A topical PRA on health was held in South India for 23 participants belonging to 11 NGO groups. Activities were conducted separately by the NGO group and women's group : their different perceptions of health problems are compared on a table. Information on the reproductive cycle was also produced by the women's group. Some general observations made about women's participation include : "women have come out with seasonal calendar of 10 months" and "women have triangulated only amongst themselves and never wanted to present in the larger forum."

This collection of PRA activities used for gender analysis consists of examples of maps, diagrams and calendars drawn by women and men from a variety of countries. A knowledge of PRA techniques is needed as there is little written explanation with the illustrations.

Four key issues were addressed at a workshop on PRA and Gender held at Institute of Development Studies, Sussex: 1. Working with conflict. 2. Does the "input of consultation with women as well as men" in itself guarantee empowerment? 3. Ethics of addressing gender through participatory approaches (ie use of PRA methods rather than following through the whole process). 4. PRA with gender or Gender with PRA? Each of these issues is summarised, in terms of practical, analytical and institutional implications.

An RRA exercise was conducted prior to the launching of the "stoves" component of a social forestry programme in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. This article describes how information about women's status and roles was collected in this strictly purdah area where it "reflected on male honour if you even suggested their women were doing any 'work'". The RRA methods used are described in detail since many constraints had to be overcome : women had no formal meeting places, all initial negociations had to take place through men and it was difficult to prevent "over-zealous" men from attending discussion groups of women. Findings from the RRA are presented and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach, including how far women were able to participate.

Over a fourteen-month period, the author lived in two rural villages in south-central Bali and "tested the application of PRA tools with over 300 women and men (villagers to provincial government officials) to explore their gender roles, gender perceptions, gender relations and their Practical (PGN) and Strategic Gender Needs (SGN)". Government-designed programmes for women were also evaluated. Chapters 1 and 2 show how PRA has more in common with GAD (Gender And Development) than the WID (Women In Development) approach, since "they both focus upon relations of power". GAD and PRA are seen to be complementary approaches: GAD uses "extractive tools, with outsiders conducting interviews and participant observation" whilst PRA "has not addressed questions concerning exactly who within a community participates" and lacks tools to address conflict. Certain PRA tools do not enable women to express their particular perceptions and needs. Chapter 3 describes the research methodology in detail, analysing which PRA tools were successful in the field. Chapter 4 presents findings, showing that women have tended to become "implementers of government development initiatives, rather than participants in their own development". Conclusions (Ch 5) include evaluation of the research approach, listing the strengths and weaknesses of PRA and GAD in detail. Recommendations (Ch 6) suggest how PRA could be integrated into Gender Analysis training programmes.

IWID (Initiatives for Women in Development) is a resource centre "which aims at fostering a gender perspective within NGOs in India through training, institutional development, research and documentation support". This paper describes the process of training at community level, showing how existing PRA methods have been used to help raise gender awareness (eg ranking according to oppression, not just wealth and social mapping to show gender based ownership). New methods have also been introduced : mapping of the gender division of labour, self reflection on gender stereotypes through pictures. Examples are given (including illustrations) of all the methods described.

The author argues the need to include women's issues in an RRA, since "analysis of likely or actual "before" and "after" situations are less obvious for women than for men". The "tarmac bias" is more significant for women than for men, so the RRA approach can offer significant gains. The article outlines how the RRA process can explore women's issues, but stresses the danger of "compartmentalising them" within the eventual overall report.