Resources

Whilst the use of quantitative approaches in poverty analysis has been dominant in the past decade, the use of qualitative approaches has been increasing, with many multilateral and bilateral agencies now routinely commissioning studies in this tradition. There have been increasing attempts at integrating the two approaches but these have generally been neither systematic nor successful. Despite the obvious complementarities between the two it seems practitioners are not working together as much as they could to develop sound poverty reduction strategies. This is the context in which the workshop "Qualitative and Quantitative Poverty Appraisal: Complementarities, Tensions and the Way Forward" took place in March 2001 at Cornell University. Participants were asked to submit short contributions setting out key issues which were presented and discussed at the workshop. Two central tenets of the workshop were self criticism in both traditions and a search for best practice in combining the two approaches. This report is a compilation of these contributions, made by 19 participants from around the world.

This manual aims to cover a wide range of development issues, including participatory poverty alleviation, micro and macro development, the role of the change agent, the use of participatory techniques in HIV/AIDS programming, and understanding childrens' perspectives. It is designed as a practical guide for NGO and government personnel and includes many examples from the field.

La participaci¾n se ha transformado en un concepto crÝtico del desarrollo, cada vez mßs usado en la planificaci¾n y la ejecuci¾n de los programas de desarrollo. Este libro toma la participaci¾n un paso mßs adelante y explora su utilizaci¾n en el seguimiento y evaluaci¾n de esos programas. Reuniendo una amplia gama de estudios de caso (12 en total) y discusiones entre practicantes, acadÚmicos, donantes y elaboradores de polÝticas, este libro explora los aspectos conceptuales, metodol¾gicos, institucionales y polÝticos del seguimiento y evaluaci¾n participativos (SyEP). En el mismo se sintetizan los temas y experiencias comunes en SyEP para mostrar los desafÝosù y los amplios beneficiosù de este enfoque. La Parte 1 proporciona un panorama general del SyEP, sÝntesis de investigaciones bibliogrßficas y revisiones regionales de su prßctica en todo el mundo. La Parte 2 presenta estudios de caso que ilustran la variedad de escenarios y contextos en los cuales el SyEP estß siendo aplicado. La Parte 3 analiza los temas clave y los desafÝos identificados en los estudios de caso y en las discusiones de los talleres y propone ßreas para las investigaciones y acciones futuras.|Participation has become a critical concept in development, increasingly employed in the planning and implementation of development programmes. This book takes participation one step further by exploring its use in the monitoring and evaluation of these programmes. Bringing together a broad range of case studies (12 in total) and discussions between practitioners, academics, donors and policy makers, the book explores conceptual, methodological, institutional and policy issues in participatory monitoring and evaluation. It distils the common themes and experiences in participatory monitoring and evaluation to show the challenges - and far-reaching benefits - of the approach. The book starts with a general overview of participatory monitoring and evaluation, followed by a synthesis of case studies and regional reviews of practice and methodological innovations around the globe in Part 1. Part 2 then presents case studies of learning with communities; these illustrate the diverse range of settings and contexts in which participatory monitoring and evaluation is being applied. Part 3 raises the key issues and challenges for participatory monitoring and evaluation, including the need for changing institutions. The book concludes by way of proposing areas for future research and action.

Since 1996, Porto Alegre, Brazil, has had the highest standards of living of all Brazilian metropolitan areas. The author links this to the way in which the city has been managed by its municipal government over the last 12 years. The last four mayoral terms in Porto Alegre's Municipal Government have been coined Popular Administration. The key characteristics of this are: adoption of techniques for participatory democracy; a high level of citizen involvement in allocating the municipal budget; the integration of public environmental management policies; and the regeneration of public spaces. The most widely publicised technique of participatory democracy is participatory budgeting. This article discusses the structure and process of particpatory budgeting that is in place in Porto Alegre and goes on to discuss the stages of the process and consequent results the city has experienced.

This paper describes one of the earliest experiences of the New Zealand City Councils in using participatory approaches to gain active inclusion of community members and their views into decision making processes within Councils. The Palmerstone North City Council set out to gather Palmerstone North City residents' views on what they value about the physical and natural characteristics of the city. This was done in two residential suburbs; Hokowhitu and Takaro/Highbury, geographically opposite, being at either end of the city, and also very different in socio-economic circumstances. Methodologies used included community workshops with mapping and H-diagrams. Due to a poor turn out at the public workshops, community views were also collected from less formally organised activities where the maps generated from the workshops were taken to a range of sites such as sports clubs, shopping centres and pubs. The paper details the methods employed, the final reporting and follow-up to the process.

Paying for the cost of local development is one of the major challenges facing Mali's Rural Councils. The only potential source of local income in the district of Bankass in north-eastern Mali is to levy charges on local people for the use of natural resources such as forests and rangelands that are under their jurisdiction. Any development of such plans should legally be done in a consultative way for it has implications for people's livelihoods. Councils hence face the dual challenges of designing management plans for the sustainable use of natural resources which requires a long term view, and doing this in a way that is participatory and involves all those who use and depend on these resources. For three years an SOS Sahel International/GB project has been underway with the aim of encouraging Rural Councils to work in a more participatory way with their constituents and other interest groups in the formulation of their resource management plans. This article details the various stages of the iterative, process-led approach that was used with the Councils to build their capacity to implement participatory planning processes. It concludes with lessons learnt from the experience.