Resources

This book is a guide to a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods for research and practice. It examines the concept of participation and ethical considerations in fieldwork, and stresses methodological pluralism and dialogue in development planning. The main part of the book is devoted to participatory methods. It discusses techniques such as ranking and scoring, mapping and diagrams, and the use of indicators, focus groups and semi- structured interviews in poverty and gender analysis. Participatory monitoring and evaluation and sustainability analysis are also discussed.

This is a letter written to Mr. Wolfensohn as a comment on a talk delivered at the professional Bankers Association. The letter specifically refers to an issue raised on not judging by volume, but by results. This is in connection with the way the World Bank judges effectiveness as part of the change management process. According to this letter, judging effectiveness of work in the Bank should be linked to the key question ôwhose reality counts?ö The letter says that the Bank has predetermined indicators for monitoring and evaluation of its operations from its own perspective. In order for the Bank to understand its effectiveness in alleviating poverty, it should try to understand its own biases and to offset them by putting the views of the poor first. In conclusion, the letter says that indicators for monitoring and evaluation should not be determined by the Bank, but by the stake holders. The indicators should remain part of an on-going negotiation process because perceptions change.

This article begins with a brief discussion of the links between the concepts of participation and social exclusion. Brief histories of three government programmes in the United States which have attempted to use participation to address poverty and social exclusion are then given. Themes emerging from these histories are outlined and their possible relevance for the South, as participation is increasingly used as an institutonalised strategy for addressing poverty.

These notes examine the justificaion for the involvement of primary stakeholders in impact assessment and how efforts to do so can be assessed and finally how this can be done.

This document outlines the learning process that the Rural Integrated Project Support, RIPS Phase II has gone through in introducing a participatory approach to its work in rural development in two southern regions of Tanzania over the last five years, as seen by the stakeholders and facilitators in that process.

This book examines an approach to evaluation that enables citizens and professionals alike to jointly assess the extent to which the benefits of development are shared - and by whom. It provides a variety of articles from different authors, covering critical themes such as ethics, techniques, case studies, historic reflections, and invitations to action. It addresses the tensions and questions that emerge from the notion of participation such as who has the right to evaluate whom, does the language that makes up the participatory discourse itself limit the practice of participation, etc. It highlights the dangers of evaluations that claim to be participatory but are not, and offers ideas about working in a variety of new directions

'Voices of the Poor' is a series of three books that collates the experiences, views and aspirations of over 60,000 poor women and men. This second book of the series draws material from a 23-country comparative study, which used open-ended participatory methods, bringing together the voices and realities of 20,000 poor women, men, youth and children. Despite very different political, social and economic contexts, there are striking similarities in poor people's experiences. The common underlying theme is one of powerlessness, which consists of multiple and interlocking dimensions of illbeing or poverty. The book starts by describing the origins of the study, the methodology and some of the challenges faced. This is followed by an exploration of the multidimensional nature of wellbeing and illbeing. Most of the book comprises the core findings - the 10 dimensions of powerlessness and illbeing that emerge from the study - and is organised around these themes. These include livelihoods and assets; the places where poor people live and work; the body and related to this, accessing health services; gender roles and gender relations within the household; social exclusion; insecurity and related fears and anxieties; the behaviour and character of institutions; and poor people's ratings of the most important institutions in their lives. These dimensions are brought together into a many-stranded web of powerlessness, which is compounded by the lack of capability, including lack of information, education, skills and confidence. The final chapter is a call to action and dwells on the challenge of change.