Resources

Reflecting on two years of REFLECT experience this paper suggests that the most appropriate approach to scaling up may be a spread through a diversity of local initiatives and grassroots organisations who share their learning horizontally.

Using focus group discussions and key informant interviews this study examines the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and practitioners' understanding of participatory development and the way in which it is implemented. The researcch reveals that often the implementation of participation is limited to simply 'involving' local people at various stages in a project. Constraints limiting participation at the empowerment end of the continuum are identified and recommendations made.

This article describes the very recent adoption of the REFLECT methodology by CIAZO. A certain amount of resistance to the introduction of REFLECT was experienced and some of the lessons learnt during the transition period are outlined.

Report of an experimental methodology used to evaluate the impact, in terms of concrete changes to people's lives, of eight small IAF funded projects. Cost/benefit analysis was applied to a wide range of project impacts, such as the added convenience and savings in time that expansion of services to isolated communities can bring to families. Questions of organizational development were also included in the evaluation and levels of participation, the locus of internal decision-making, flexibility, demonstration of effect and the influence an innovative project can have on government policy at various levels, all taken into account.