Resources

This video explores numerous issues surrounding participatory poverty assessments (PPAs), using the example of a PPA in Tanzania. A key issue is the identification of the poor, about which appropriate information is needed to inform government policy. In contrast to traditional surveys of income-poverty, the PPA provides a way to understand poverty from the perspective of the poor and to enable this perspective to influence policy. The importance of the involvement of policy makers in the PPA is stressed at several points in the video. This involvement contributed to chantes in attitudes to the poor within government and a recognition of the need for a corresponding change in government development tactics. The findings of the PPA were presented at policy workshops and contributed to changes in thinking about the nature and characteristics of poverty in Tanzania, as well as more specific policy reforms. The PPA primarily used PRA methods and visual materials developed by local artists in the PPA. The methods shown include, mapping, discussion of well-being, wealth ranking with villagers and district officials, 'story with a gap' and seasonality analysis. Among the highlighted findings of the PPA are that: indicators of poverty are location specific; intangible indicators of deprivation are important; strong gender differences exist in the prioritisation of problems; the poor adapt to seasonality through complex coping strategies. The PPA also revealed that participatory methods could be used to construct time series price data for rural Tanzania, which had not previously existed. The links between the PPA's findings regarding the causes of poverty and the implications for policy are highlighted, including access to land, agricultural policy, lack of production inputs, environmental degradation and access to credit and savings.

Farmer communities of Sta. Josefa, a fifth class municipality in Agusan del Sur, take center stage in this 25-minute video. It highlights the value of people's participation in the local development planning process in the Philippines, a result of the 1991 Local Government Code, which provided a mandate for democratisation at the village level. The video explores the different participatory tools used to identify, prioritise and analyze problems, and which facilitate the communities in making their own development plans. Also featured is the willingness of local government units to lead communities in making claims through the participatory planning process, as seen in the experience of Toboso, Negros Occidental. This video features the partnership and interplay of the roles of vital community actors, such as non-governmental organisations, people's organisations and local government units, in assisting the communities to achieve socio-economic advancements. Importantly, it highlights the commitment to building empowered and sustainable communities.

This CD presents the D¨thchas project, which was a demonstration project funded under the EU LIFE 97 Environment Programme for the period January 1998-April 2001, with the aim of piloting an affordable, transferable process and framework for addressing sustainable development and integrated land management in peripheral rural areas of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. The work was carried out with the full involvement, support and co-operation of three Pilot Areas: North Sutherland, the Trotternish Peninsula in the Isle of Skye, and North Uist in the Western Isles, each home to between 1400 and 2000 people. D¨thchas involved each community in a highly participative process to create a strategy for the sustainable development of their area. Each Area Sustainability Strategy identifies the community vision, goals and objectives for the area and the practical actions needed to achieve these, now and in the medium and long term. The strategies were defined by the local people and agreed by the Agency Partners. Innovative Participatory Methods were developed and used for facilitating the involvement of local people and for bringing public and other agencies around the table to agree the way forward and relate this to their own plans and resources. The CD contains a stage-by-stage analysis of the D¨thchas project and examines its concepts strategies and outcomes. Additional features include: a 20 minute film introducing the project and the pilot themes; photographic albums; a quick find facility; and a range of reports, reviews, newsletters and publication which have been produced by the project. The contents of the CD can be found on http://www.duthchas.org.uk/