Resources

Rapid anthropological assessment procedures (RAP) have evolved as a form of shortcut anthropological techniques which complement quantitative data. RAP is suited for social scientists spending approximately six weeks in the field. The core of the RAP approach is guidelines or "shopping lists" which form the basis for both data collection and analysis. Data are collected through several techniques; formal interviewing, informal interviewing, conversations, observations, participant observations, focus groups, secondary data sources. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique are discussed. Comments are made on the complementarity of qualitative versus quantitative information. Constraints to the RAP approach are acknowledged and analysis is made of the use of RAP for understanding maternal and child mortality.

The BOSTID REA research programme is concerned with how to integrate epidemiological methods into the field of planning and delivery of health services. The aim of the BOSTID programme is to change REA from being an art into a legitimate discipline. Several methods are discussed which are intended to be faster and cheaper than conventional data collection: cluster sample surveys; case control methods; quality assurance sampling and risk assessment and surveillance.

This report outlines a four day workshop conducted by the Indian NGO SPEECH in Manavarayanenthal, Tamil Nadu. The primary purpose of the exercise was to introduce 23 NGO participants to PRA principles and to evolve new stategies in planning specific health projects. Training took place through a mixture of lectures and activities, which included social mapping (by mixed groups and women only), health mapping, time lines, historical transects, seasonality diagrams, venn diagrams, disease ranking, focus groups with women on the reproductive cycle and a problem linkage exercise. The report includes feedback on the lessons participants learned and some of the illustrations generated by the village participants.

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 benefits of using PRA at local level are described, by members of the water and sanitation team who are working with communities in Kenya. Both relevance and participation are increased, and the locals become partners in the project. However, PRA is thought to be demanding and 'very involving'.

This article highlights disease control problems and problems hampering multidisciplinary reasearch. Traditional social science and epidemiological methods are often too time-consuming to address the immediate and urgent needs of disease control programmes therefore rapid assessment methods to provide information on health status, health impact, health services and health behaviour are essential. A distinction is made between the efficacy of disease control tools and community effectiveness, emphasising the potential for rapid assessment to improve community effectiveness. The article describes the development and validation of rapid assessments and techniques.

This paper explains how various PRA exercises have been used to help health - and other - workers think through and challenge the assumptions that they make in their work. Thus the process of conducting the exercise is often in some ways more important than the outcome. Examples are given of PRA which has led to reversals in learning in Asia and Africa. It is concluded that PRA does not solve problems but rather reveals the complexity of the problems encountered - PRA is not a fad or fashion but a fundamental challenge to conventional approaches to development.