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This article gives an overview of housing and environmental problems in the metropolitan area of Mexico City. It describes the history of attempts to encourage participation in two particular cases, and discusses the basic elements of the methodology used to conduct these processes.
This short article describes the process and the outcome of a participatory urban appraisal carried out in Chainda (a large slum) on the outskirts of Lusaka. A number of methods used in the PRA approach were used for appraisal and planning. Although the process involved discussing most issues, people carried out detailed analysis and planning involving issues of improving livelihoods, support required by the women for the informal sector and institutional and power relationships. A number of adaptations were needed for use of PRA methods. The paper concludes that many participatory methods developed in rural areas work equally well in urban situations but need continuous adaptation. Also due to the intensive nature of the process in participatory urban appraisal the planning process gets linked with the political and administrative process quicker than happens in rural areas (author's abstract).
This training manual for innovative, community-based shelter training programmes is the result of a partnership which has developed since 1991 between the People's Dialogue, a national network linking representatives from illegal and informal settlements in South Africa, and a group of three organisations in India. These are SPARC, an NGO working broadly in the area of housing and community development; the National Slum Dwellers Federation; and Mahila Milan, a federation of women's collectives. The first part of the manual describes the participation of the South African delegation in a shelter training programme in India. Part two focuses on a follow-up training conducted by the South African delegates in their own country, with the support of the Indian trainers. Forty leaders of the Federations of the Homeless Poor in South Africa took part as they assisted one township to explore their shelter options. The final section reflects on the kinds of methodology followed in the process and provides guidelines for training.
This workshop introduced the participatory learning approach (PALM) to the ODA Slum Improvement Project Implementation Staff from four states in India. Fieldwork was conducted in the slums of Hyderabad to give participants experience applying the tools introduced. The workshop encouraged practionners to recognize urban people's knowledge and skills, and to identify local resources. The workshop introduced PRA methods for use in urban areas. These methods included mapping, seasonality, matrix ranking, Venn diagramming, and livelihood analysis.
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This article describes 'Development Planning for Real', a new approach for integrating participation into the uban planning process. It has grown out of 'Planning for Real', which is discussed in the article by Tony Gibson in the same issue of RRA Notes. Pilot trials of the approach are being held in a number of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Early pilot results from Cambodia, Tanzania and Zambia suggest that the approach can be successfully used to generate a community-controlled planning process in both rural and urban contexts, and in a variety of societies and cultures.
PIDA (Participatory and Integrated Development Approach) has been used in four pilot projects in Kilifi district, Kenya. PRA is an integral part of the PIDA approach : an initiating phase is followed by a PRA phase, then a follow-up phase. This volume discusses in detail the institutionalisation of the PIDA approach within Kilifi district structures. The process of running PRA training, developing community action plans and implementing follow-up is described, with the emphasis on the latter which 'has so far been totally neglected in the PRA literature'. The report is written from a planning and organisational angle, concentrating more on the process of producing plans and reports than on training methodologies.
This manual is designed for the implementers of the PIDA (Participatory and Integrated development Approach) pilot projects in Kilifi district, Kenya. The eighteen steps of PIDA include a PRA training workshop but place greater emphasis on the follow-up phase. This manual introduces PRA theory and methods, as well as sessions on skills appropriate to follow-up, such as 'reader-friendly writing' and 'drafting the proposal'. Instructions for each PRA activity are given, followed by a description of how the activity worked in the project area, including what went wrong. Seasonal calendars, transects etc prepared as part of the project are also illustrated. This manual is clearly laid out but the detailed written instructions may prove too lengthy for readers with English language difficulties.
The study analyses a research and development project targeting poor farmers that is being implemented in southern Vietnam. The paper is neither a summary of findings nor a report on project activities. Rather, the focus of the paper is to reflect on issues which emerged as relevant in poverty alleviation, but which are generally ignored or forgotten in reports on development projects. The study highlights how different actors speak subjectively about poverty, and how images of the poor farmer are generated in rural development discourse.
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This paper looks at the role of PRA in addressing inequality and argues that participatory methods themselves contribute very little to an emancipatory process. It suggests that unless PRA is explicitly linked with an educational process which enables people with little power and resources to gain more control over their lives, the term 'participatory' will remain meaningless. A critical step is understanding issues of difference among 'the poor,' especially gender difference. However, it is one thing to identify differences but another to deal with the conflicting interests that emerge. The potential for a backlash against weaker groups is a real concern and must be taken into consideration. While the facilitator has a role to play in enabling groups to analyze the effects of possible reactions to the action they propose, it is the group of participants who must make the final decision.
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This paper provides a brief account of a participatory methodology used in the development of land and resource use plans in Tanzania's rift valley. In recent years population pressure has led to increasing land and resource use conflict between the three groups - agriculturalists, pastoralists and hunter-gatherers - who inhabit the area. A participatory approach was used to provide an understanding of the complex issues involved and to build trust and cooperation between the different groups. Mapping, transects, seasonal diagramming, semi-structured and open interviewing were used in the process of involving stakeholder groups in developing land and resource use plans for their village territory.
This book examines 'the ways in which people form images of other places and how these images influence many decisions'. Examples are given of how people's mental maps reveal their perceptions and beliefs about the world. Planners asked people in Birmingham, UK, for 'the maps that they had in their heads and which they used in moving around the centre of the city'. The response was very large because 'people seemed to like the idea of helping planners and being involved in some small way with the planning process going on in their town'. As in PRA mapping activities, the maps drawn reflected people's experiences. In another example, a black school boy in Boston drew five educational institutions in the area, 'indicative of his perception of education as an escape route from the segregated life he leads'. Our mental maps are influenced and shaped by information, such as that provided by the media and school text books. School leavers ranked the places where they preferred to live, revealing 'local domes of desirability and a shared national viewpoint' regarding images of certain towns. The book ends by looking at how to change people's mental maps : 'the maps and models of the world we carry around with us need larger and much more relevant information inputs'.
The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD) in Tanzania is currently reviewing land policy, with the aim of supporting equitable, environmentally sustainable agricultural growth. A Seminar and RRA's in four villages provided an opportunity for mid-level policy-makers from different government departments to think about land policy issues. The article describes how a RRA carried out in one of the villages revealed many problems with the process of land use planning (LUP). Many of these arose from attempting to use a top-down process in a situation that required bottom-up planning.
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Outlines the process of preparing a village resource management plan in Sri Lanka. The villagers used mapping, seasonal calendars, matrix ranking and chapati diagramming to analyze their situation and identify problems and solutions. The exercise was part of a PRA training programme for civil servants from five government departments, many of whom found it very rewarding and demonstrated a strong commitment to the participatory planning approach.
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This note describes the use of force-field analysis, a technique originally used to analyze the forces which keep an institution in its present state. It was used in a modified form in two projects - a non-formal education project in Bangladesh and an urban environmental project in India - to provide a way of drawing staff and stakeholders into the planning process, defining possible objectives and how to attain them. It was found to be a useful way of involving different people in the analysis of objectives and how they can be achieved.