Resources

This report is a detailed account of a study on the impact of PRA. The main objective of the study was to elicit the perceptions of individuals and agencies (including communities) involved in promoting and practising PRA. They were asked about what they think the impact of PRA has been on their own lives, on their organisations as well as on other participating organisations. A total of seven NGO and government organisations were purposively selected for the study based on the author's knowledge about those organisations and their long term involvement in promoting PRA. For the purpose of collecting data on the impact of PRA, various workshops were conducted in which participants expressed their views either in writing or by drawing using a card. The research questions were focused on the perceived impact, quality and challenges facing PRA. The research is intended to benefit donors, managers of development projects, PRA practitioners in government and NGO projects and in communities, development consultants, trainers, academics and researchers involved/interested in the use of PRA in their work. The report contains detailed information on individual organisations studied with tables and diagrams in the Annex.

This is a trainer's guide on how to carry out rural research. It tries to draw the attention of those involved in planning and rural research through the use of contrasting pictures - of 'good manners' and 'bad manners' - symbolising professionals' attitudes towards poor people. The purpose here is to illustrate how inappropriate attitudes (bad manners) on the part of the professionals towards the poor intimidate and humiliate the latter and preclude their involvement in poverty-programme planning. The document contains pictures with a note for trainers.

This report outlines the methodologies and operational approaches to decentralised planning at the grassroots level using a variety of participatory methods including PLA. A number of operational procedures have been suggested as a prerequisite for decentralised planning, for example, assessment of the existing resources, opportunities and access to public services, needs assessment and a detailed list of sectoral activities to be undertaken. A long list of participatory methods that could be used in decentralised planning is included. The report includes tables and charts obtained from field-based PLA exercises, which illustrate different aspects of decentralised planning.

Unlike the conventional methods of information collection in which outsiders are the immediate major gainers, this brief note describes how PRA can reverse this tradition and enable the villagers to gain from information sharing. Two examples from India - Panahpur, Utter Pradesh and ActionAid Karnataka - have been presented. Local people were used as PRA trainers (after receiving trainers' training from outside experts) and the informal village organisations took the responsibility of organising PRA training for outsiders. The income earned (through fees collected from the participants of the training) was utilised in local development projects.

This paper reflects critically on the central issue of participatory monitoring and evaluation in the context of development projects. The message is that changes are required in values, principles and the ways of doing things, instead of in using words, inventing tools and new jargon. The paper asserts that the incorporation of PRA methods into monitoring and evaluation without a change in organisational values would be simply another structural addition but without substance.

Based on the analysis of selected case studies in which IIMI attempted to practise the PRA approach, this working paper focuses on the use - current as well as potential - of PRA in irrigation management research (IMR). It reviews the pros and cons of PRA in the context of IMR and discusses the potential for institutionalisation of PRA at IIMI. Two generic issues on the applications of the PRA approach by irrigation researchers are investigated, viz., the relationship between PRA and more formal quantitative approaches used in IMR; and the scope of using localised, highly variable insights of the water users in improving the management of the whole irrigation system. The paper analyses the potential for further utilisation and development of PRA in major areas of research in irrigation management.

This brief paper which is based on the personal experience of the author highlights the challenges facing PRA in Bangladesh. The traditional top-down attitudes of the policy makers and planners do present a challenge to the culture of learning and sharing. The emergence of PRA in such a setting has not proved a relief either; instead, it has become a fashion. While the rapid expansion of PRA has prompted poor quality PRA, donors' over-enthusiasm has had the effect of commercialising PRA .