Resources

Outlines the process of preparing a village resource management plan in Sri Lanka. The villagers used mapping, seasonal calendars, matrix ranking and chapati diagramming to analyze their situation and identify problems and solutions. The exercise was part of a PRA training programme for civil servants from five government departments, many of whom found it very rewarding and demonstrated a strong commitment to the participatory planning approach.

A comprehensive introduction to both RRA and PRA, with extensive bibliography and lists of contacts at the end. The first chapter focuses on the theory, with sections on the nature of RRA and PRA, the key concepts involved, the special prerequisites for carrying out "PRA", and the potentials and applications as well as limitations of this type of process. This is a fairly comprehensive analysis which includes two case studies. The second section discusses how PRA can be incorporated into projects, particularly GTZ, and includes related approaches such as diagnosis and design, participatory research and ethnography. Finally, individual tools, as well as approaches such as "handing over the stick" are outlined, with hints and helpful literature. General sequencing is suggested, and for each method a "point in time" gives an indication of when particular tools can be used. The fact that tools are only one component of a "PRA" is mentioned.

In order to attempt to improve the sustainable management of agricultural resources and reduce external inputs, an attempt was made to create a method for monitoring farmers use of resources. This was also used to monitor changes made to the farming system, providing an integrated analysis of livestock, forestry, aquaculture and crops. Maps and transects were used, with bioresource flow modelled between enterprises and resource types. Inputs and flows are recorded. At the start and end of each season farmers come together to discuss their records, which are also recorded by scientists who introduce new ideas for management. Analysis over time allows farmers to monitor changes in their farm system with changes in management. More time series analysis is felt by the scientists to be needed.

Describes the process of using PRA to plan forestry activities in four rural communities in the Highlands of Scotland. The methods enabled people to put forward their ideas on the future of forestry in the areas, as well as creating wider local involvement and helping to spur people on to further action. The paper concludes by reflecting on some of the constraints and opportunities for using PRA in Scotland.

This article explores constraints encountered when using PRA on an ODA-funded natural resources project in a tribal area of Western India. It was particularly evident that women's participation in the PRAs was minimal. The reasons for this were practical (women were not available collectively for long periods of time & there were few women fieldworkers as the project had just begun), social (PRA activities tended to take place in public places where women felt awkward) and methodological (women respond to PRA activities in different ways, sometimes feeling bored and "communicating by singing instead"). The author argues that an organised PRA "gives privilege to certain kinds of knowledge and representation and suppresses others" : the emphasis given to formal knowledge and activities tends to "reinforce the invisibility of women's roles". However, once the formal and public nature of PRA is perceived as a problem, it can become a means by which "women's knowledge and activities.. can be transferred from the informal to the formal arena of project planning", thereby increasing women's profile. Suggestions for encouraging women's participation in PRA include: making non-public contexts (since women are more used to the "private sphere"), using women's knowledge and ways of communicating (songs, sayings, proverbs). There are constraints: the "production of observable outputs (maps, diagrams of PRA) have more status for fieldworkers" than scribbled songs or informal interview notes and women's expressed needs (eg a flour mill) "don't fit easily into established categories of natural resource development".

The first Nepal Participatory Action Network (NEPAN) workshop was held in January 1995 with the aim of providing a setting in which NEPAN institutional issues could be discussed and experiences of using PRA techniques shared. These proceedings cover the short presentations and discussion from the second day of the workshop. Four sessions focused on the following topics: issues in participatory approaches; constraints and problems encountered in using PRA techniques; training for PRA; and institutionalisation of PRA.

This article discusses concerns that information obtained in the public arena, a common forum for PRA work, can hide disparate, multiple and muted voices. Concern about these 'absent voices' arose during a participatory research workshop held in Uganda to find out how food insecure groups and individuals perceive obstacles to food security. It brought together outside professionals and a number of local people, who were chosen by the sub-county chief. It was found that although some coping strategies, such as food-for-work and collecting wild foods were discussed openly, others such as theft or food for sex/marriage could not be mentioned in public. A major obstacle is the public nature of such workshops, during which certain aspects of everyday social life must remain hidden from the outside world. Other 'absent voices' were those of the very poor, who did not take part in the workshop. The paper concludes that only through more intensive, longer-term field research can we understand how poor people organise themselves in situations of food stress.