Resources

This paper examines participatory evaluation in projects of the NGO PLAN International in Senegal. Through brief case studies it compares the viability of PRA evaluations in urban and rural contexts, and reflects upon the extent to which the methods can be used to reach the least advantaged groups in the communities. A number of criteria are used in assessing PRA as an evaluation tool: limited dependence ono external facilitators; replicability; community 'buy-in' to the process; adaptability to local time constraints; broad participation; reliability of data; turn-around time from data collection to use. The author concludes that PRA is problematic in urban settings if a 'community' is assumed in the same way as in rural areas. Some aspects for improvement (e.g. need to be more focused, and to prevent it from being appropriated by certain groups to the exclusion of others) are discussed.

This document is a proposal by ActionAid and ProNet to add a child focus to the REFLECT process, a participatory approach to literacy and numeracy acquisition which has been geared to adults. The proposed location of the REFLECT youth club pilot program is the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The goal is to help school and non-school going children to develop basic literacy and numeracy skills in their mother tongue and empower them to create social change. The proposal provides a detailed look at the program objectives, logistics, facilitation, implementation, and strategy.

This book focuses on civil society's role in international policy debates and global problem solving. Increased citizen action over the last 10 years has enabled citizens groups to be a major force in nonstate participation in the global system. Against this background, case studies from a number of movements and NGO networks are presented, including: campaigns to reform the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; the Jubilee 2000 Campaign, the movement against Free Trade, the Landmine Campaign as well as several other human rights, social justice and environmental movements. The book finishes with a section on lessons learned and challenges for the future. A synopsis of the book and abstracts of each section can be viewed at http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/research/citizen/globcitact.pdf

This paper presents a range of initiatives the authors are involved in within the field of children's rights and participation. It begins by defining the rights based approach and needs based approach to development and goes on to give details of three projects. The first project is PLAN International Indonesia's training and capacity strengthening for its field staff aimed at promoting a shift towards addressing child rights in its programmes and projects. The paper outlines the tangible benefits for the children and the impact on their lives, for example in family relationships.|The second project is a DFID Innovations Fund research one looking at the ways in which the impacts of development projects on children are addressed in monitoring and evaluation systems, with pilot projects in Nepal and South Africa. It discusses the use of organisational mapping in both these pilot projects and the findings to come out of them|The final case study is about the monitoring and evaluation of the Saying Power Scheme in the UK. Rather than happening at the end of the projects, the monitoring and evaluation process runs parallel to it. The article describes the confidence lines and ôHö method used and concludes with challenges the projects faced

This article looks at the issues of cost and sustainability of one of Save the Children's principle interventions in Morocco: the establishment and support of a major residential institution for physically disabled children. The issues that emerged concerned representation of disabled people, a 'hierarchy' of acceptance relating to disabled people within disabled people's organisations themselves, and the limited timeframe to carry out the research than had originally been planned in order to establish trust with people.|The findings were that the expenses spent on the facility could have been extended to a much wider net of beneficiaries if more community based programmes had been developed. This led to much criticism by officials and project participants. However, no easy solutions emerged to address difficulties in the project, given the complexities involved in discrimination against disabled people.