Resources

This report was presented during the UNU/WHO/UNICEF International Conference on Rapid Assessment Methodologies for Planning and Evaluation of Health Related Programmes. It is asserted that development institutions should integrate rapid assessment methodologies into the the normal diagnostic, monitoring, and evaluation activities of implementing agencies. This article highlights four types of constraint likely to impede the process of institutionalisation: 1) the constraints of mistrust as efforts are made to encourage a flow of information between hierchical layers of an organisation. 2) the constraints faced by the effort to faclitate participatory development 3) planning and implementation mechanisms 4) personnel supervision and reward systems. Particular reference is made to World Bank experience.

This manual is primarily aimed at helping aid staff supervise in a way which deepens insight into local situations, is supportive of health workers, and is focused on improving the quality of service to the poor. The checklists of questions are intended to be adapted rather than definitively applied. This manual gives practical advice on avoiding the pomp and ceremony of visits which often distracts from appreciating the health situation at community level. RRA techniques are recommended in order to gain a real understanding of health needs. Suggestions are made as to how to talk with health/nutrition workers to get an idea of their integration into the community, their understanding of health in a wider context, recent training, ability to question the health messages that they deliver and the extent of supervisory support. The author then recommends that an attempt is made to decide which problems relate to an individual and which are systemic problems that need to be addressed at the centre or state level. An Annex is included of a sample field visit report.

The United Mission to Nepal (UMN) Animal Health Improvement Project (AHIP) has been training Village Animal Health Workers (VAHW) in Pokhara, Nepal for the last decade. During this time approximately 350 VAHWs have been trained. This article outlines some of the techniques that were used to evaluate the subsequent progress of the trainees. General village-level information was gathered using various participatory methods, including mapping, wealth ranking, production information, labour diagrams, proportional piling and annual disease calendars, transect walks and progeny histories. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out individually with male and female farmers and VAHWs to find out how the VAHWs assessed their own work and how the farmers viewed the service they received.

Section seven of this workshop report focuses specifically on M&E and Project Benefit M&E (PBME). The introduction to this section lists some of the shortcomings, or 'weaknesses', of a "conventional" M&E program and then highlights some of the main 'potential contributions' from RRA methodologies for M&E activities. These include; increasing the cost effectiveness of data collection in areas such as cropping calendars, labour profiles, and crop and input prices; helping in determining cropping parameters and; improving the effectiveness monitoring through the use of diagnostic surveys. In the second section, Mick Howes explores the uses of RRA methodologies to evaluate NGO projects. Using the example of the preliminary study of an irrigation tank renovation project in Sri Lanka, the author provides a useful account of an evaluation approach which employs some RRA methods in determining 'the context', 'the impact, 'project the system' of the NGO's intervention. Methods included mapping techniques, group interviews and household case studies. In the concluding discussion, the author suggests points in which RRA methods may be further employed to improve both the case study evaluation and other participatory forms of evaluation of NGO projects.

The International Conference on Rapid Assessment Methodologies for Planning and Evaluating Health Related Programmes, was organised by the United Nations University, at the Pan American Health Organisation headquarters in 1990, to "explore anthropologically based methodologies for the design, evaluation, and improvement of programmes of nutrition and primary health care". The 42 chapters on Rapid Assessment Procedures [RAP], Rapid Rural Appraisal [RRA], and related approaches deal with a range of research tools. The book is divided in to seven sections: 1. The expanding role of Qualitative research in International Development; 2. Development and applications of RAP procedures in Africa, Asia and the Americas; 3. Community Participation and RRA; 4. Institutionalization of RAP; 5. Training for RAP and other qualitative methods; 6. Bringing RAP to the decision-making realm: effective communication and use; 7. Conference summary, comments, speakers and participants. The overall focus is on planning and evaluation of nutrition and health related intervention programs, but much that is discussed will have a direct bearing on other social development sectors. The stated aim of the volume, of contributing "toward increasing the understanding of RAP and RRA, both as tools of investigation and potentially as integrated components of the community development process itself", highlights this point.

Divided into 4 regional and one worldwide section, this bibliography includes a wealth of material on all aspects of PRA. The first section, on Nepal, includes a number of titles in Nepali and includes publications by local organisations and Nepalese branches of international ones, as well as work within Nepal carried out by other agencies and individuals. For Nepal, there is a focus on forestry issues. In all sections, the subject matter covered ranges from forestry, agriculture, methodology, health, training, gender, women, evaluation, etc. The titles within each regional section are not ordered, but each item is described systematically. Articles are defined as thoeretical or practical, by region, by subject matter, classification, tools, a summary and key words.

This brief paper is a write up of the experiences of an evaluation team using PRA tools in an impact evaluation of a community based programme providing drinking water (a MYRADA project in Mysore District, Karnataka State, India). The impact evaluation took place over only two days, but, as the paper highlights, some very pertinent lessons resulted from the experience. Six main tools from the 'PRA bag' were used in the evaluation: 'water system map', 'focus group discussions', 'time allocation drawing', 'seasonality of disease', 'individual interviews' and 'observation walk'. On the basis of these methods (and patient facilitation work by the PRA team), it was revealed that the any first impressions of a 'perfect' drinking water system were, in fact, unfounded. Serious (but rectifiable) flaws in the project - in terms of efficiency and equity of access - were exposed and, as a result, the local community became involved in identifying some remedial actions. This extremely useful, and clearly written, paper concludes with a frank discussion of some of the problems with the use of PRA tools, which according to the author, primarily stem from a poor understanding of group dynamics and good facilitation techniques.