Interview with a fifth year medical student on a radical programme in which students are taught participatory rural appraisal methods and practice in rural communities
This article focusses on how facilitation of a participatory process can enable communities to initiate and manage directly funded projects. A case study focuses particularly on how water committees from three communities in South Africa were facilitated to choose an appropriate engineer.
The first part of the this report reviews the follow-up phase to attempts by Redd Barna Uganda and the Sustainable Agriculture Programme of IIED to institutionalise participatory planning for child-centred community development. While several impacts were noted (increased training and planning capacity within RBU, improved agency-community working relationships, attitudinal changes), weaknesses were also apparent, and recommendations to improve these areas are included. Part II gives the background to PRA in RBU, identifies models of PRA processes and partnerships, and reviews five phases of participatory planning undertaken.
This paper argues that for rainfed and watershed development programmes to be sustainable it is not sufficient for participatory research and planning methods to be adopted alone. A structured planning process is also essential in which local institutions are identified and supported to take responsibility for implementatiom and the long term management .