Resources

This is a workshop report in Hindi, which discusses the use of PRA methods with Dalits and women in India, focusing on three major themes. The first is the need to involve the people who are the 'target' of PRA approaches. Despite the emphasis on 'bottom-up' approaches, this has not been the reality, hence the call to revise and refocus on people. Secondly, PRA practitioners are urged to re-examine their roles and change themselves as part of returning to the roots of PRA. They need to become more helpers and facilitators and less teachers and leaders of PRA projects. Finally, literature on PRA should be in a range of local languages to be more accessible

Why do field workers use participatory approaches as they do? This paper uses a case study of fieldworkers' use of Participatory Rural Appraisal in ActionAid The Gambia to address the question. Original empirical material that focuses on fieldworkers' perceptions of the factors that influence them is examined through the conceptual framework of structuration theory. The dissertation argues that the practice of a participatory approach emerges from a complex process of negotiation where fieldworkers are subject to unique combinations of competing influences from the organisation they work for, the communities they work with and their own personal characteristics. It suggests that fieldworkers can actively pursue personal agendas and can also be involved in changing the structures that condition their actions. However the dissertation concludes that elements of the organisational structure can leave little room for fieldworkers to use their agency positively. Managers need to change this structure if the gap between the policy and practice of participatory approaches is to be reduced. A deeper understanding of fieldworker's use of participatory approaches will make it possible to establish what changes are required to improve the implementation and institutionalisation of these approaches.

The article traces the mobilisation of rural women in the drylands of Andhra Pradesh, India, to preserve the local biodiversity in order to combat the advent of cheap rice through the Public Distribution System which effectively wiped out their consumption of nutritious grains, pulses and vegetables. The authors chronicle the history of the movement under the aegis of the women sanghams of the Deccan Development Society and report that the women farmers have set up an innovative and highly successful decentralised community-management system for producing, storing and distributing coarse grains. They contend that the dalit (low caste) women have taken control of this variant of the government Public Distribution System and that the local food security, community resilience and biodiversity have also been dramatically enhanced by the process.

'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.

A review of an event held at the Hague in late 1999 which provided an opportunity for participatory development practitioners from around the world to showcase their efforts and share experiences.

This article shows the limitations of conventional Information, Education and Communication (IEC) strategies in working to prevent HIV infection. By offering varied examples from the field, the authors show how participatory approaches enhance analysis and action. They also argue that the concept of vulnerability is central to HIV prevention and stress the need to go beyond individual behavioural change in addressing HIV related vulnerabilities in communities