Resources

Forestry extension services have an important role to play in contributing to a participatory, decentralised and self-sustaining process of rural development. This article describes the approach and different phases of a six-week social forestry training course developed by Forestry Manpower Development (FMP) in Holland. Basic to the training methodology is that participants recognise the value of existing knowledge among the rural population. The participants are then assisted to develop their own participatory approaches to enable them, as extensionists, to make this local knowledge the basis of development initiatives.

A pilot course on project identification was run for 24 heads of local government departments in several states in Northern Nigeria. The first course was based on fieldwork and focussed on applying RRA techniques for the purpose of project identification. This report evaluates the training programme from a methodological perspective, pointing out mistakes that were made, such as using a questionnaire instead of a checklist. The analysis also shows the importance of working out participants' specific training needs and developing a model to meet these. PRA activities are not described, but some findings are given

This short piece describes how to organise an activity based on role play "to create a group norm about sabotage (disruption) and strategies to deal with it".

MYRADA, an NGO working in about 2,000 villages in South India, developed an approach called PALM (Participatory Learning Methods) from their early experiments with RRA. This article describes the areas in which PALM has been used (eg natural resource development) and outlines a typical PALM training exercise. The programme lasts about five days, including camping in the village, and progresses from "introductory" (history of the village) to "exploratory" (eg livelihood, wealth ranking) to a concluding "Operational Plan". Methods and their applications are summarised in table form and illustrated visually. MYRADA is now experimenting with new applications of the methods, developing new methods and "hybrids". This article shows how a PRA approach can become integrated within NGO project planning through a defined training model.

This is a how-to-manage rather than how-to-do type of manual - a practical guide directed towards managers rather than practitioners. It provides guidelines for the management of 'in-house' RRA teams of project or agency staff, as well as of 'outside' teams commissioned to do the job. It starts by introducing the main concepts and characteristics of RRA, and when (and when not) to use it. Two chapters focus on selecting, forming and optimising an RRA team. Different aspects of training are also discussed from the viewpoint of a 'purchaser' rather than 'provider': what type of training, who does training, and where is training available are some of the questions addressed. A further chapter looks at commissioning outside teams to do the work, with a focus on practicalities such as establishing terms of reference, timing and budgeting. The final chapter looks at administration of the actual research process, from the various preparations to make prior to the team beginning its work to completing the RRA and evaluating the final report.

This is a newsletter which describes the formation of the Midnet PRA group and includes a number of very short articles and thoughts on practitioners experiences with PRA in Southern Africa. Experiences shared include working with young people, in education, with periurban communities, for catchment management and for land reform. The methods used are discussed with details of venn diagrammes for community organisation, historical time lines. There are reports from trainings in Namaqualand and Namibia. The thoughts that emerged from evaluation/ reflection and planning meetings included the ideas of rapid learning and sharing and the need for more training. The final article summarises the PRA and gender workshop held at IIED in December 1993.

This paper argues the case for training in participatory methods for government officials. The "system" in most 'Southern' countries is top-down, with a set of beliefs that "rural people are ignorant". The "built-in features" of the system which follow from these assumptions are listed, with an analysis of "the scope for participation" and the changes implied. Training needs based on these changes are identified and a proposed PRA training programme briefly outlined.