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This article explores constraints encountered when using PRA on an ODA-funded natural resources project in a tribal area of Western India. It was particularly evident that women's participation in the PRAs was minimal. The reasons for this were practical (women were not available collectively for long periods of time & there were few women fieldworkers as the project had just begun), social (PRA activities tended to take place in public places where women felt awkward) and methodological (women respond to PRA activities in different ways, sometimes feeling bored and "communicating by singing instead"). The author argues that an organised PRA "gives privilege to certain kinds of knowledge and representation and suppresses others" : the emphasis given to formal knowledge and activities tends to "reinforce the invisibility of women's roles". However, once the formal and public nature of PRA is perceived as a problem, it can become a means by which "women's knowledge and activities.. can be transferred from the informal to the formal arena of project planning", thereby increasing women's profile. Suggestions for encouraging women's participation in PRA include: making non-public contexts (since women are more used to the "private sphere"), using women's knowledge and ways of communicating (songs, sayings, proverbs). There are constraints: the "production of observable outputs (maps, diagrams of PRA) have more status for fieldworkers" than scribbled songs or informal interview notes and women's expressed needs (eg a flour mill) "don't fit easily into established categories of natural resource development".

Community forestry requires field staff to enter into a partnership with forest users. However, field staff often find it difficult to adjust to a "people centred" approach when they have been used to a more traditional role involving policy functions. Furthermore, their traditional role has not equipped them with the skills needed for implementing community forestry. Therefore, training programmes in community forestry need to be designed to facilitate the partnership with forest users. This paper argues that field staff can rapidly adjust to their new role of advisers if they are given appropriate training, support and encouragement until they become self-reliant. Moreover, it is emphasised that there is often a gap between training and implementation. It is argued that bridging this gap demands the whole-hearted support from the District Forest Officers. The training needs for community forestry are examined and the development of participatory methodologies and new initiatives for training field staff in community forestry are described.

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.

Summary of perceived challenges facing the work of six NGO's and one government project in South Asia shared at a series of two day workshops. The workshops were carried out as part of a proposed international research project on the perceived impact, quality and challenges facing participatory rural appraisal.

In this Feedback section, barriers to the institutionalisation of PRA in NGOs in Nepal are discussed. Concerns are raised about the quality and follow-up of PRA training, in particular that PRA is not used on a systematic basis within organisations that have received PRA training. The lack of process-orientation of many PRA trainers may be a possible cause. Suggestions are made as to how to improve this situation in order to ensure more effective use of PRA in Nepal. In response to this, the second section focuses on NGO and donor roles in institutionalising participation in development, as the issues raised are not only confined to Nepal, but are of wider relevance to the development debate. Whilst good personal practice of trainers is essential, the process should be supported with affirmative action from the NGO and donor communities to institutionalise good practice. Recommendations are made to this effect.