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As part of the 50th issue of PLA Notes, this article provides an introductory overview of both critical reflections as well as future directions of participatory learning and action. The articles compiled in the 50th edition speak from personal analyses and experiences. This article describes the process and products of a writeshop, held at IDS, where the participants came up with a timeline of participatory development based on their experiences. The main themes identified then formed the basis for the articles in this special issue of PLA Notes, including literacy, adult education and empowerment; participatory communications; sexual and reproductive health and well-being; gender and development; children's participation; agriculture, livestock and fisheries; people-centred approaches for natural resource management; urban participatory development; participation and well-being; monitoring and evaluation; advocacy, citizenship and rights; participatory processes in the North; governance and democracy; and critical reflections from practice. Several crosscutting themes also emerged, such as the evolution or participatory discourse; sharing learning and best practice between the South and the North; recognizing the political significance of participation, democratization and issues of power; scaling-up and institutionalizing participatory approaches; the continuing importance of critical reflection and participatory monitoring and evaluation; and the links between working at the local, national and international levels. After identifying these themes, the article goes on to briefly introduce and summarise each of the articles in this special issue. The article concludes with a hope that readers of PLA Notes continue to send in critical reflections and examples of innovations and best practices.

As part of the special issue of PLA Notes, this article looks at the evolution of the Reflect program pioneered by the INGO ActionAid. Looking back at an issue of PLA Notes on participation, literacy and empowerment in 1998, the authors look at the Reflect approach and its historical links with PRA. The Reflect program began as a fusion of Paulo Freire's theoretical framework on the politics of literacy with the participatory methodologies developed by PRA practitioners. The Reflect approach has now spread through the work of at least 350 different organizations in more than 60 countries, and this article looks at the key moments in the continuing evolution. Some of the main issues addressed in the article include Reflect as a political process; creating democratic spaces; intensive and extensive processes and building from existing experiences; the importance of integrating reflection and action; the role and use of participatory tools; power analysis; coherence; and processes of self-organisation. The authors also look at future directions for Reflect, such as the integration of Reflect with the Stepping Stones approach (a participatory adult education program to address gender relations and HIV/AIDS prevention) to create STAR; linking Reflect to governance and accountability; Reflect and information communication technologies; reflect within institutions and applying Reflect to ourselves.

This article, as part of the special 50th issue of PLA Notes, highlights some of the learning that has been gained from discourse and practice relating to young people's participation and how it might be integrated into the broader development field. The article links background and theoretical ideas to practical learning and application in the field. Citing examples such as the Soweto uprising and the Palestinian Intifada, the authors look at young people's potential for political action. They argue that a rich collection of participatory techniques has accumulated and many successful examples of practice demonstrate how young people's competence, creativity and sense of fairness can be channelled in constructive ways if they are given roles in shaping their communities. The challenge facing this field appears to be institutionalizing young peoples' participation otherwise successful examples with remain as random acts of excellence. The authors suggest that the best projects with children and young people have shown a concern for human rights, ethics, clear communication, and capacity building that can provide models for good practice with all ages, calling for processes that are fun and engaging, transparent and action-oriented. The authors conclude that one of the ways forward for building capacity and integrating children's participation into development policies and processes is to include child and age sensitivity in mainstream training programmes. Some examples given, recognizing the need for special ethical considerations relating to the protection of children, relate to rights-based approaches, participatory processes, gender, poverty and social exclusion, project management process, and monitoring and evaluation.

This article, as part of the special 50th edition of PLA Notes, looks at specific tools and methods used by an alliance of three organisations in India that are engaged in initiatives to reduce urban poverty. The organisations are the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF), Mahila Milan (savings cooperatives formed by women slum and pavement dwellers) and the Indian NGO SPARC. The article provides a background of the development of the tools and methods used by these organisations over the last 20 years, which are then linked to empowerment, learning and transformation: Poor people know what their problems are and generally have good ideas regarding what solutions they want. But they lack the resources or capacities to demonstrate that they can produce a solution. So the federations support their members to try out solutions in what can be termed a learning cycle. Some of the tools and methods covered in the article include savings and credit, mapping, surveys, community exchanges and house modelling. The author also describes how the Alliance (the grouping of the 3 organisations) works differently from other NGOs whose strategies tend to be about lobbying and advocating directly for change. Instead, the Alliance focuses on setting precedents and using these precedents to negotiate for changes in policies and practices. As a case study of this approach, the article describes the use of community toilet initiatives. Some of the outcomes include bringing communities together, expanding livelihood options for the participants (who gain useful skills and experiences from building the toilets), strengthening relations with municipal authorities, changing national policies, and enabling spaces for communities to learn. The article concludes with three overarching implication for change processes initiated in the community by the toilet projects, arguing that the poor make ideal partners in the projects and that the projects themselves need to be community managed and controlled. These are: organisation for empowerment; community-based problem solving; and learning to negotiate with city and state governments and other groups.

As part of the special 50th edition of PLA notes, the authors reflect on the evolution of PRA from its early days as Rapid Rural Appraisal to its current form as Participatory Learning and Action. The article looks at how criticisms about quality and approach have been incorporated and responded to during the evolution of PLA, as has the increasingly important idea of empowerment. The article also touches on scaling-up participation and the appropriation by some of the ideals by international agencies such as the World Bank. Overall the authors look at the innovating ideals and attitudes that underlie RRA, PRA, PLA, and other embodiments in policy research, learning, participatory governance and rights-based development work. The authors conclude by asking how to recapture the dynamism that gave rise to PRA to inspire a new generation of innovators and pioneers to help meet the challenges that development now faces.

Participation is never simply about what development agencies do out there. It is also about the play of power inside such organisations, and about the values, attitudes and behaviour of those who work within them.The Swedish official development cooperation agency, Sida, has long had policies that advocate participation in development. Yet putting these policies, and the ideals they represent, into practice has proven to be very challenging. This paper explores some of the ways in which participation has been interpreted and applied in Sida's work. It looks at changing meanings of participation across time and place, from different eras of Sida's work to different field projects supported by a country Embassy. From this enquiry into meanings and practices of participation, the authors draw out some broader lessons about the challenges of institutionalising a multi-faceted ideal like participation in a complex aid bureaucracy.|Adapted from authors summary