Resources

In this article, the authors recount the experiences of an NGO, Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH), in helping the community of Lele Mahadev Khola village to manage their water system through maintenance and funding. The activities carried out by the NGO through PAR is detailed with insights on what the PAR approach has been able to achieve.

The article describes the state of the water management system in Pakora, Pakistan when the PAR team made forays to assess the situation. Information on the process adopted by the PAR team is recounted and the response from the community is included on key issues such as the committee and transparency and record keeping. The article concludes by providing evidence of improvements to the water management system and assessing the gains made by the community.

This assessment records the experiences of communities after the PAR intervention in Nepal where four communities had started managing their water resources. Details are provided on the focus group discussions and the future plans of the communities. Also included are the reflections of the PAR team members.

This paper describes an experience from Sri Lanka in scaling-up and mainstreaming participation of primary stakeholders. It first offers a typology of participation and discusses the participatory methodologies promoted in Sri Lanka. The process and strategy adopted in scaling-up and mainstreaming participatory processes in the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka are discussed, along with its successes and failures, drawing from experience with a project on rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure.

This report is about innovative ways of strengthening local governance in India. Drawing from various case studies, the conceptual underpinnings of participation in local governance are highlighted. In particular, the report explores the potential of community-based indicators and social auditing techniques to help India to work from below. It highlights techniques that enhance local governance through participation, while examining where techniques work in encouraging participative local governance and why. The authors recognise a huge 'scaling-up' challenge and acknowledge the need for robust guidelines to help new practitioners choose and use appropriate participatory techniques that might play a part in changing governance in India.

This paper is a literature review that examines the 'Gestion de Terriors' (GT) participatory approach, focusing on its institutionalisation in the French-speaking Sahel region. GT, which evolved at the same time as other participatory research methods and methodologies, is concerned with the management of natural resources. It is employed where land tenure issues are undertaken in a participatory manner among the inhabitants of a territory or set of territories. The author argues that the GT approach can provide a cohesive framework and methodology for participatory natural resource management if reinforced by institutions that acknowledge, reflect and build from the diversity of actors involved.

This paper considers the difficulties in assessing change induced by projects in the natural resource arena. It addresses traditional methods of impact assessment and discusses their failure to deliver results. Consequently, it proposes why a new order is needed as well as articulates the development of new monitoring, evaluating, and accountability structures.