Resources

The paper deals with the subject of participatory modelling. It asks how such a process can portray a picture of a community that does not merely reflect the view of the dominant group. The paper reports on efforts to compensate for the effects of an often dominant group - men. While on a training course in northern Omo, Ethiopia, a group of women and children were asked to make their own model on the ground adjacent to the men. The issue of water availability, a subject not brought up the men, appeared to be key. As result, the paper concludes by highlighting the need for participation to encompass all groupings within a community.

AKRSP supports village institutions in undertaking soil and water conservation on the private land holdings of farmers as a part of the watershed management programme, identified by the villagers as one of their priorities for natural resource management. This paper examines this process with regard to the village of Madargadh. The programme has at its centre the Extension Volunteer, who prepare watershed treatment plans and maps for their village. They are trained in conducting impact studies in order that the impact of soil and water conservation programmes be assessed after the rains. The paper reports on: the sequence of participatory impact monitoring; the process of impact monitoring; recommendations of farmers, made in the light of analysis of impact data; and the application of participatory impact monitoring for natural resource management projects on the general level.

The paper reports on the MYRADA Kamasamudram project and reviews its objectives to: (1) plan a micro watershed in a participatory way; (2) provide more experience in PRA methods for staff; (3) train staff; and (4) to introduce the PRA approach to appraisal to the villagers. The paper contains a brief note on the exercises conducted, the highlights of the exercise, the opinion of participants, and the method and extent of adoption of the key features discussed by the participants.

The report aims to evaluate the structures and organisational systems associated with effective water user groups, analysing the factors that hinder or support their role in the management of water supply schemes. Although the study is termed participatory, no direct mention of the methodology used is made. However, the study provides some very structured and detailed information on different aspects of water management collected in a survey of 69 villages. Volume I provides information on organisational issues in water management. Volume II instead illustrates five case studies covering a range of issues including social impact of technological choice and community level subsidisation.

The paper describes a short exercise which was designed to explore the potential use of RRA/PRA for BRAC, an NGO working with rural people in Bangladesh. The first part of the report provides an overview of the applications and procedures for using various RRA/PRA techniques. The second part presents the findings of an attempt to use RRA methods to assess the performance of a BRAC-supported village deep tubewell group.

Pwani is a resettlement community located in a difficult environment adjacent to Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya. This case study describes how a PRA-derived village level plan of action has helped to mobilise the community to solve its own problems of water access and related forestry and vegetation problems. The report outlines the process and methods used in the PRA, and discusses some of the lessons learned.