Resources

The Rural Community Network (RCN) in Northern Ireland embarked on a six-month feasibility study that examined the potential use and benefits of participatory research techniques to policy change and conflict resolution. This article discusses the findings of this research and critically assesses how participatory techniques can contribute to the aforementioned two areas. It also discusses consultation fatigue and the key contributing factors. The article concludes by describing a follow up action research programme, which will address some of the issues raised in the feasibility study.

The Duthchas Project was set up in 1998 in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. It aims to develop local strategies and actions for sustainable development based on the collective knowledge of local people and to ensure that this knowledge/involvement is generated through the use of participatory methods. There are 21 project partners which include the communities from the three pilot areas, along with governmental and non-governmental agencies. This article describes the basis of the project and how it is implemented, a process which has included open public meetings, action plans, publicity, community interviews, a travelling exhibition and the production of a video by the local communities. The article ends by reflecting on what has been learned so far.

The author describes PLA approaches as a set of recipes for the field of Participation. The purpose of this article is to describe another such recipe called "Imagine" which is a version of Appreciative Inquiry. This begins with a group asking appreciative questions then using those questions to talk to a wider group. Their answers are developed into provocative propositions (challenging statements about how the future should be) and these are presented to the wider group of people who need to be involved in making them come true. The article first describes the whole process, then illustrates the various stages and finally reviews it's strengths and weaknesses.

This paper examines the rationale for direct participatory democracy in the context of the contemporary India experience. A detailed account is given of gram sabhas or assembly of villagers, institutions for direct democracy in India with attention paid to the functioning of these sabhas and the laws governing them. Two case studies are presented to show the realities on the ground for self-governance.

The paper discusses the concept of participation in relation to children and raises questions about balancing adult responsibility for providing protection to children with empowering or enabling children to function as protagonists. The author avers that there is no quick fix for developing children's real participation and that ethical issues and dilemmas need to be considered with sensitivity before undertaking projects.

Rooted in his experience with a project in Costa Rica, Carlos Brenes Castillo attempts to introduce a pedagogic development process which serves to reconcile the existing tension between 'top down'and 'bottom-up' perspectives and approaches to rural development. Where the first is held and practiced by external agents and the latter by internal, or local, actors, his starting point is an exploration of the respective and interactive dynamics between rural communities and foreign development institutions. An emphasis is placed on a pedagogy which perceives the project as a process, and the importance of creating space for collective learning is highlighted. This, with the objective of realising a development process that reconciles and respects both humans and their natural environment. Chapters include: A point of departure: between them and us; The stage: a conditioning social context; Process' design and negotiation; Participatory Rural Rapid Appraisal with a gender focus; FODA: Studying a community's strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats, an analytical tool for community development; About the participatory planning process; Community consultation: a means of exercising local democracy; Proposal (?) development: a foundation for local agendas; Development plan: building partnerships (?); From external financing to economic self-sufficiency.

This report is a result of the first ever Uganda Participatory Poverty Assessment Process (UPPAP) in which local people were consulted in 36 rural and urban sites in nine districts in Uganda. In this assessment "voices" and perspectives of the poor are brought to the fore to influence district and national planning, implementation and monitoring. The report covers perceptions of poverty and wellbeing and strategies for coping with being poor, as well as the degree to which the poor have access to, and benefit from, services and infrastructure. It goes on to look at issues of government and poverty, along with the role that security plays in development. Finally there are rcommendations and messages for policy makers. The report points to the fact that poverty is more than just income and expenditure or the lack of basic needs, it is also a feeling of powerlessness. Poverty in the eyes of the poor is location specific, multi-dimensional, cyclic and seasonal and requires a holistic approach to it's alleviation.