Resources

This article reviews three books written by development professionals about Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approaches. The books reviewed are Who Changes? Institutionalising Participation in Development, (Blackburn, J. and Holland, J. eds), Whose Voice? Participatory Research and Policy Change (Holland, J. and Blackburn, J. eds) and The Myth of Community: Gender Issues in Participatory Development (Gujit, I. and Kaul Shah, M. eds). Through an examination of the above, the author concludes that the new PRA agenda advocates change in 4 areas: in the mindsets of development professionals, in the poor, in development organisations, and in policy and policy-making processes. The author then provides a critique of some aspects of the books arguing, amongst others, that the barriers to true participation caused by gender is not seriously tackled in Who Changes? and Whose Voice? The final section provides a critique of PRA more generally and describes how the authors of the books suggest that a more pragmatic approach to PRA be adopted.

This book describes how the Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) approach has been used at the local level in Bolangir, a district located in the State of Orissa, India, in which poverty manifests itself in many forms. PPAs are seen not as a panacea, but as a starting point to bring about understanding of the whole range of conditions affecting the lives of the poor. The aim of the study was to identify and recommend appropriate policy measures for the Western Orissa Rural Livelihood Project which is supported by DfID India. The scope and methodology of the study was evolved and administered in association with a large number of local stakeholders, with the hope that creating ownership amongst the various agencies would lead to prolonged and effective follow-up. Chapters focus on different issues which include gender dimensions, land and livestock, forest and common property resources, food security, droughts, migration, poverty in the eyes of the people and institutions and development initiatives. It ends with chapters on findings and recommendations for the project design process.

In 1992, an Act was passed which dictated that 1/3 of seats at all levels in the newly formed Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) should be reserved for women. This PRIA (Society for Participatory Research in Asia) publication, Participation and Governance has a special focus on women in Governance and looks back on the years succeeding this act. Included in this volume are the experiences and contributions of women elected to the PRIs, the methods they use to govern and the obstacles they face in both urban and rural governance. The household dynamics and the way in which gender roles are consequently shaped are also discussed with regards to women's bearing on PRIs.

This guide aims to enable activists, trainers and other involved in development and democracy to promote citizen participation and to democratize decision-making. Drawing on experiences of NGOs from numerous countries, the document contains concepts, tools and step-by-step processes aimed at promoting citizen advocacy. It aims to help activists, practitioners and planners to work with civil society in a way that promotes political change, develops solutions to development problems and policies, creates strong and lasting links and transforms power relations, including gender dynamics.

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

These notes are a resource for putting ActionAid's new Accountability, Learning and Planning System (ALPS) into practice. It is intended for use not only by ActionAid staff but also, where appropriate, by partner organisation staff. The notes assist in considering the implications and thus practical application of ALPS. An important feature is the inclusion of examples of processes to enable efficient utilisation of ALPS; by regularly updating this resource and constructing a corresponding website for interaction, staff will be invited to contribute by identifying what has and what has not worked well, in order to facilitate an efficient system of processes integral to ALPS.

This book intends to provide participatory development tools that will enable those traditionally excluded - particularly women - from decision-making processes and control over resources to have a voice and to play an active role. The authors contend that the tools described increase the capacities of local communities, NGOs and public sector agencies by integrating applied and analytical methods. To illustrate, examples from field experience in urban, rural and agrarian communities from around the world are described. A brief overview of participatory approaches to development is described, including issues such as power relationships within a community and between local institutions and outsiders. Its explores the opportunities for using multi-media tools to strengthen the impact of other tools in conscious-raising, data-gathering, advocacy, and community decision-making and action.