Resources

This briefing is based on the Pathways to Participation Project, a collaborative research initiative by the Participation Group at IDS in early 1999 to take stock of experience with PRA ten years after it began to gain popularity in development practice. The pathways project has worked with PRA practitioners and development organisations in Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, India, The Gambia and Vietnam. It has supported associated work in Pakistan and China, and convened international practitioners of PRA to reflect on their perspectives on the past, present and future of PRA. The briefing includes reflections on the meanings and practice of PRA, the historical spread, concerns about quality, learning and change and the Pathways Project itself.

In 1999, in response to a number of critical pressures, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) re-introduced poverty reduction as a major element of policy making, and Poverty Reduction Strategies were born. Since that time ActionAid offices have actively embraced the potential of these new spaces and processes for interaction in policy making - processes which had previously been closed This brief is drawn from a seven country review of ActionAid's engagement with World Bank/IMF policies, with particular focus on Poverty Reduction Strategies. The review itself analyses the extent to which AA was able to facilitate the participation and involvement of marginalized and vulnerable groups in the PRS debate, the impact this engagement has had on social, economic and political rights, pro-poor policy-making and budgetary allocation with the seven selected countries. This brief summerises the four major findings and eight recommendations and then goes on to ask what has changed in the content of PRSs. It also asks has the paradigm of the Washington consensus lifted, and goes on to summerise the experience of participation and process, key elements of PRSs but requiring immense effort by civil society organisations and other actors. Finally the brief looks at the question of country ownership of these processes.

This report was written in the context of the special session of the UN General Assembly on the successes and failures of the Habitat Agenda. It analyses the rhetoric of empowerment and examines whether these strategies have led to real improvements in people's lives. It was agreed at the Second UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in 1996, that sustainable urban development can be achieved if poor people are able to assert their own rights, and organise themselves to provide their own services and infrastructure. Successful urban governance depend on people power. Definitions of 'partnership' are discussed, and it is argued that partnership for good governance and poverty reduction involves poor people participating with government in policy and decision-making as well as contributing to implementation and costs. However, the privatisation of services, and lack of real decentralisation of powers to city governments, present challenges to meaningful partnership for sustainable urban governance. The report is illustrated with examples from around the world, particularly Bolivia, Kenya, Brazil and Sri Lanka.

Training in the use of RRA for baseline data collection and target group identification was conducted in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, as part of a joint venture between the Governments of Indonesia and Canada. Nine trainees (from government agencies and NGOs) took part in the six week training, half of which was spent in a remote village area. This report describes the "set routine" of fieldwork, where a mixture of RRA (participatory mapping) and baseline data collection techniques were used. The results of the target group identification strategy are discussed in terms of successes and problem areas. The trainees' responses to using RRA techniques and "the potential for institutionalizing RRA/PRA" into official planning procedures in Indonesia conclude the report.

SPEECH (Society for Peoples' Education and Economic Change) conducted a series of workshops on PRA for NGO and Government officials in Tamil Nadu, Southern India. The workshop at Manavarayanenthal focused on health, "to evolve new strategies in planning specific health projects". The training programme began with a session on the principles of PRA, followed by learning various PRA techniques in the community. Descriptions are given of each activity, including materials used, and an evaluation of the training programme as a whole. Findings are analysed in terms of the different responses of the NGO group and women's group, showing clearly the value of PRA approach in revealing the different kinds of knowledge and attitudes to health care.

Using PRA techniques to collect information for the purposes of policy analysis, raises different issues from using PRA in an NGO project context. Training exercises for policy-oriented PRA need to be "custom-designed" for government staff who tend to have a more "top-down" approach, work in discrete departments and have restricted time for learning PRA. The article suggests how to plan a training programme in view of these points.

Redd Barna Uganda is a non-governmental development organization which focuses on child-centred community development. It is looking to Participatory Rural Appraisal to achieve more participatory planning. This report describes a ten-day PRA training workshop which was organised by Redd Barna and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) for Redd Barna staff and trainees in March 1994. A detailed account is given of the classroom-based preparations. Five village profiles describe PRA activities and discussions with different groups of villagers - the children, the older women, the younger women, the older men and the younger men. The process of analysis is also discussed in some detail.