This paper synthesises the critical reflections on PRA of a small group of Nepali PRA practitioners, as part of the 'Pathways to Participation' Project. It summarises some contextual factors, including the historical moment in which PRA has spread in Nepal, and the issues that have arisen in association with this expansion. The paper reviews some of the widely varied views of practitioners - about what PRA is, what it should be and what it is for. It also compiles some of the challenges for PRA practice - raised by the practitioners - for the future, including innovation, training and continuing to learn through critical reflection on PRA.
From tentative beginnings in the late 1980s, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) has spread through Kenya 'like a bushfire'. In response to growing demand for 'doing participation', PRA has been popularised and marketised to such an extent that, as one Kenyan practitioner put it, 'everyone is doing something and calling it PRA'. PRA has become a routine requirement for development organisations, many of which have done little to change their ways of operating to accommodate a more participatory approach. The paper explores some of the different visions and versions of PRA as it has taken shape in the Kenyan context, highlighting differences that are rooted in the different pathways that have brought practitioners to use PRA, and in the enduring development institutions that have shaped practice. It suggests that the sheer variety of meanings and practices associated with PRA pose a serious challenge for efforts to enhance the quality of participatory practice. It poses the question of whether it is possible to arrive at a single vision of PRA and how quality standards could be agreed upon and enforced. It goes on to argue that deliberation on these issues is in itself valuable, even if no clear agreement is reached.
The theme of this policy briefing is participative learning, focussing on the role of Higher learning Institutions (HLIs) in development and in bringing about social, political and economic change. It gives a brief introductive analysis of problems faced in this process and discusses the challenges faced by HLIs in learning to participate. A new initiative by IDS (Insitute of Development Studies) for Learning and Teaching Participation (LTP) is presented, and three case studies (from Universidad Autanoma Metropolitana in Chiapas Mexico, Mekelle University Ethiopia, and the Social Forestry support programme in Vietnam) illustrate examples of participation in HLIs. The briefing concludes with an outlook on the improvement of LTP and the role of HLIs in development.
This briefing looks at how participatory immersion techniques can be used to promote advocacy in policy planning, focussing specifically on gaining insight into the situation of the poor. Senior staff in aid agencies are involved in daily decisions about policy and practice which have direct impact on the lives of poor people. But in a rapidly changing world, how can they be sure that they are basing those decisions on up-to-date information about what poor people want and would consider to be most helpful? REALISE is a participatory approach to learning, whereby staff from policy institutions and donor agencies spend a few days living and working with host families in a poor community. This enables them to engage in critical self-reflection both on their own and in a facilitated group and can bring long-term benefits to the practice of development. The experience increases motivation and commitment and the personal contact ensures that poor peopleÆs voices and perspectives are heard and integrated into new policy approaches and practice at senior level.
This paper explores the potential of Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs) as agents of social, institutional and individual change. It argues that while HLIs have a clear role in building the capacity of individuals and organisations to undertake key development initiatives and to practice participation, they are often restricted by internal and external constraints. Perceptions of HLIs as experiencing hierarchical power systems, structural rigidities, traditional elitism, and research which is disassociated from local realities imply that a paradigm shift in the learning and research approaches of HLIs is greatly needed. In response to some of these concerns, a wide range of initiatives and innovations are promoting learning of participation and participatory teaching and learning. In April 2002 a global dialogue on Learning and Teaching Participation (LTP) was launched at IDS (Institute of Development Studies), UK, with the purpose of sharing innovations and experiences in order to make lessons learned more widely available, as well as helping to promote LTP through a dialogue on strategies, methodologies, processes, practices and theories. This paper draws on the key issues and findings from the dialogue and related research to discuss practice and potentials of LTP in HLIs. It concludes that significant achievements have been made in bridging theory and practice, linking HLIs and communities through collaborative research, and developing participatory methods for more effective learning. However, challenges still remain and further research is needed to address the contextual implications of learning and to develop appropriate participatory methodologies to support these ventures.
This paper is part of the series Lessons for change about organisational learning, resulting from a collaboration between ActionAid, DFID, Sida and the Participation Group at the Institute of Development Studies to explore understandings of learning and to document innovative approaches. Today's development talk is full of concepts such as participation, ownership, partnership and accountability; concepts that speak above all to the complex relationships that those who work in aid bureaucracies need to manage. Yet scant opportunity exists within these settings for reflection in and on everyday working practice and its relationship with the ideals that policies profess. In this paper, we describe an experiment in creating these spaces for reflection and learning in such an organisational setting. It narrates the process of establishing and running two participatory learning groups in the Swedish official development agency, Sida: one in the Stockholm headquarters, and one in the Embassy of Sweden in Nairobi. In the work, a hybrid approach to participatory learning was evolved, taking principles from action oriented research methodologies and adapting them to the context of an aid bureaucracy. Through cycles of reflection and action over a period of close to a year, group members explored experiences and ideas, building analyses, alliances and possibilities for action through participatory interaction. Fostering subtle changes through small acts and shifts in thinking, the learning groups helped foster greater reflexivity amongst participants and, with it, a degree of engagement and awareness with the potential for changes at other scales. This paper reports on the way the process developed, and reflects on lessons learnt with potential for wider application.
This paper is about the practice and the potential of immersions. Immersions are occasions when professionals learn directly from encounters with poor and marginalised people by living with them and reflecting on the experience. Those taking part may be the staff of bilateral and multilateral agencies, diplomats, parliamentarians, government officials, NGO staff, academics, or other development professionals.|Aims were to:|describe types and purposes of immersions;|review practical experience with immersion design, logistical organisation and the host community;|assess the rationale and impact of immersions, including better awareness of the realites of poor and marginalised people, personal and institutional learning and change, reinvigorated commitment, and influence on decision-making and policy;|identify enabling conditions for making immersion experiences a normal, regular and expected activity for development professionals, together with good practices.|Authors' summary