This paper provides several examples of inappropriate policies and programmes in the field of natural resource management, as a basis for highlighting and reflecting on the importance of appropriate behaviour and attitudes on the part of policy makers and programm managers.
This document describes and reflects on the process and methods used to conduct an evaluation carried out between phases of the Red Sea Hills Development Programme to assess the performance of a new project team and the impact of the introduction of a participatory approach. The evaluation was carried out in two settlements in the coastal area and two in the hilly area.
This document includes, details of the process used to review ActionAids programme in Somaliland and provides both a summary and details of the findings. The review was carried out by a group of both men and women composed of community based organisation members, village elders, staff from government institutions and other professionals. Mapping, interviews and small group discussions were used to elicit data on availability, relevance, accessibility, utilisation, coverage, quality, effort, efficiency and impact indicators.
This case study reports on a investigation into the effects of thee National Development Foundation's (NDF) small tank renovation activities in Kurunegala on poverty levels, gender relations and grass roots institutional development. The study was carried out in three villages: a low caste village and a mixed caste village where a participatory approach was facilitated by the Intercooperation Self-Help Support Programme and a high caste community where a more conventional approach was used.
Data was collected using information available from project files and the knowledge and recollections of field staff before conducting a series of exercises using PRA techniques.
A publication of the national slum dwellers federation, Mahila Milan and SPARC in India, this newsletter gives examples of good sanitation ideas developed by slum dwellers. Sections include municipal planning and co-ordination, community decision making, technical matters, and reports from several community run toilet projects.
Newsletter of the Mahila Milan and National Slum Dwellers' Federations in India with articles on how communities negotiate with public authorities to find space for their own settlement improvement plans. In Pune, communities have negotiated for land and challenged slum regulation. In Bangalore there is a toilet construction project and in Mumbai street children are working on experimental recyling and composting of garbage. Finally there are articles about exchange visits between different communities in India and between India and South Africa.
Translations from English of ten articles on agriculture and informal research methods, including, formal and informal data collection;emergence of RRA and its application to irrigation; the Sondeo approach; rapid rural appraisal; wealth ranking; using a traditional african system for measuring farmer attitudes; and choosing methods for analysing production systems.
Newletter from the Squatter and Urban Poor Federation. Run by women and men who live in Phnom Penh's poor settlements, it SUPF works to get communities to come together and work out their own solutions to problems they all face, problems of land, evictions, houses, toilets, basic services, savings and credit.
The Mahaweli Authority Sri Lanka was established to implement the largest multi-purpose Integrated Development Programme ever launched in the country. It is responsible for engineering construction work as well as the establishment of human settlements providing irrigation facilities, social infrastructure, post settlement services, maintenance and management of the settlements and their infrastructure. The MASL system has traditionally had a topdown approach which has contributed to dependancy as well as incurring a high financial cost. Since 1994 the MASL strategy has aimed at a gradual transfer of management of settlements to farmer organisations, thereby overcoming dependancy through empowerment of the farmers, using participatory methods. This has required time, and attitude and behavioral changes at all levels of MASL. This seminar paper details the MASL system and the move towards a sustainable management system based on farmer participation.
This paper outlines some key features of participatory appraisal methods that are applicable to Alaska village sanitation issues. It describes the sanitation problems that afflict "Village Alaska" (the many remote villages in rural Alaska with low populations and high levels of poverty), the application and methodologies of participatory research approaches that were undertaken to address the problems, and the findings of the study.
This report describes the principles of the PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation) approach developed by the World Health Organisation and UNDP. It describes how, by using specific participatory techniques, this approach promotes hygiene behaviours, sanitation improvements, and community management of water and sanitation facilities. The document also offers examples of the use of PHAST in Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe and discuses the impact of the approach in the respective communities as well as lessons learned during the field tests.
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This article argues that if participation is consistently emphasised in all phases of a project, local people will increasingly become the owners of the changes that they propose. It draws from experiences in a water management project in Haurancca, Peru. It describes the various phases of the project, including a participatory appraisal and planning phase, a process of interactive design, a construction phase and the stage of clarifying water management to enable effective use of the physical infrastructure. The lessons learnt from the experience are also reflected upon.
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A series of articles in this issue report on a research project for the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) working with partner organizations in Kenya, Cameroon, Guatemala, Colombia, Nepal and Pakistan and focusing on the role of communities in the improved management of rural water resources.
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The article provides the overview and analysis, gives examples of diverse experiences and draws on emerging trends and patterns in community water management which is the thematic focus for this issue of PLA Notes. In teasing out the outcomes and progress of a research project for the International Water and Sanitation Centre which aimed to improve the management of water supply systems of rural communities in six countries, the authors challenge readers to think of water management in terms of participation, governance and democracy.