Resources

Using PRA techniques to collect information for the purposes of policy analysis, raises different issues from using PRA in an NGO project context. Training exercises for policy-oriented PRA need to be "custom-designed" for government staff who tend to have a more "top-down" approach, work in discrete departments and have restricted time for learning PRA. The article suggests how to plan a training programme in view of these points.

Redd Barna Uganda is a non-governmental development organization which focuses on child-centred community development. It is looking to Participatory Rural Appraisal to achieve more participatory planning. This report describes a ten-day PRA training workshop which was organised by Redd Barna and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) for Redd Barna staff and trainees in March 1994. A detailed account is given of the classroom-based preparations. Five village profiles describe PRA activities and discussions with different groups of villagers - the children, the older women, the younger women, the older men and the younger men. The process of analysis is also discussed in some detail.

A game of juggling with oranges was used to demonstrate how PRA allows the roles of farmer and scientist to be reversed. This glimpse of the actual event at a livestock seminar in Indonesia shows how the role play "energised" the proceedings.

This report describes how RRA techniques were introduced to six fieldworkers, to enable them to assess the performance of a BRAC supported village tubewell group. RRA/PRA techniques are summarised on a chart, with particular attention to their sequence. Each technique is then described in terms of "applications and procedure", the latter given as numbered instructions. The field work explored issues such as implications for women, employment opportunities, seasonal effects of the deep tubewell project. Findings are also given in diagram form, with a list of equipment used and day-by-day summary of the study.

This training course in RRA techniques was held for heads of local government departments of several states in Northern Nigeria. The report does not describe the training sessions, but evaluates how various RRA techniques were carried out in the village context. Many of the problems identified relate to the idea of government officials using RRA : they were viewed with suspicion by the villagers (as tax collectors), and had a different perspective from NGO workers (one official asked, "Why are we trying to identify the poorest?") The report includes the visual results of activities and suggests how the training could link to project identification in local government.

Participatory modelling was organized by a team on a training course in North Omo. To avoid men dominating the activity, as is usual if only one group is formed, the group was divided into men, women and children. Each group created a model which showed their different perceptions and "a version of their area which begs certain emphases and areas for intervention."

"The gender equivalent to Chambers' poverty biases" is summarised as an ironic checklist of ways of "keeping women invisible in development planning" - eg treat the household as a homogenous and harmonious group of people. Concepts for gender training for development planners are discussed : i) The distinction between "biological" sex and "socially constructed" gender ii) The different processes that construct gender in different cultures iii) Focus on the gender division of labour iv) Rethink the meaning of production in the light of our analysis of the gender division of labour v) Shift from planning for practical needs to strategies for empowerment. Such training should help to get away from "aggregated concepts of development that planners have worked with in the past".