Resources

The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme supports soil and water conservation work on private land, a priority identified by villagers, as part of a watershed management project. Villagers suggested that monitoring should look at: erosion controlled; land reclaimed; moisture retention in soil (as inferred from crop growth); and productivity and income generation. The article goes through the process of participatory impact monitoring, illustrated by real results. The benefits of such monitoring are listed, most of them related to increased farmer understanding of processes and control over further experimentation.

This paper describes how the combination of chemical soil and water analyses and PRA exercises were found to be complementary methods in assessing the magnitude of the pollution problem caused by the tannery industry in Kamtchipuram village, Tamil Nadu.

The Asian Coalition for Housing Rights has had great success with community-to-community exchange programmes across Asia. Video supplements this process and allows more communities to actually 'see' what's happening with other poor communities in Asia. Groups have found this type of documentation and presentation easier and more productive than writing reports, particularly for confidence building. This story tells about the use of video for urban poor solutions in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In December 1999 and January 2000, the largest slum community was facing eviction threats from government under pressure to redevelop the land. While having support from the local Municipality for land-sharing alternatives, they needed to influence government at a higher level as the Municipality had little control - the plans for eviction were directed from above, by people in national government. A short 10-minute video was made of the work ACHR was doing involving partnerships with government organisations and slum communities, offering an alternative process to forced evictions. The message was conveyed to the Prime Minister via video, whose response was very positive. The author concludes by reflecting on the potential for using video in even more participatory ways.

This manual is designed for trainers and facilitators who have an interest in improving the facilitation skills of field workers in the context of community forestry development. The manual is designed as part of a facilitation training package supported by a training video that helps the trainer bring real life scenes from the field into the classroom. The training sessions described have been effectively used within a wide range of audiences all over Asia, including field workers, extension workers, college teachers and managers. Practical suggestions are given for how to adapt and use the manual for different target groups and contexts. The focus of the manual is on the facilitation of groups and group processes in meetings. The manual is divided into 9 main sections, including preparing for the job; setting the context of the training; participatory decision-making; facilitation fundamentals; core roles of a facilitator; practicing facilitation skills; integrating skillsÆ optional sessions and annexes.|The video lasts for 2 hours and is designed to accompany the training manual. It consists of a series of short film clips that are self-contained and can be watched separately. Each clip shows a sequence of scenes of a facilitator in action or interviewed reflecting on their experiences. The video is divided into 4 main sections: basics, roles, challenges and skills. Within each section, specific issues are addressed such as what is facilitation; role of the facilitator; attitudes and group dynamics; integrating tools into the meeting process; dealing with controversial issues; dealing with dominance and facilitating multi-stakeholder meetings; facilitating reflection and using energisers.