Resources

This document addresses the World BankÆs approach to country poverty assessments. It looks at the increasing involvement of stakeholder groups, with the aim of building in-country capacity to address the problems of the poor. With examples from a number of countries, it argues that the participation of government and other institutional stakeholders in all aspects of the work increases sensitivity to poverty issues, enhances analytical skills, and builds allegiance to the measures proposed for poverty reduction. In addition it claims that, conventional statistical analysis is complimented by qualitative information from participatory social assessments, which reveal the concerns voiced by the poor.

'Voices of the Poor' is a series of three books that collates the experiences, views and aspirations of over 60,000 poor women and men. This second book of the series draws material from a 23-country comparative study, which used open-ended participatory methods, bringing together the voices and realities of 20,000 poor women, men, youth and children. Despite very different political, social and economic contexts, there are striking similarities in poor people's experiences. The common underlying theme is one of powerlessness, which consists of multiple and interlocking dimensions of illbeing or poverty. The book starts by describing the origins of the study, the methodology and some of the challenges faced. This is followed by an exploration of the multidimensional nature of wellbeing and illbeing. Most of the book comprises the core findings - the 10 dimensions of powerlessness and illbeing that emerge from the study - and is organised around these themes. These include livelihoods and assets; the places where poor people live and work; the body and related to this, accessing health services; gender roles and gender relations within the household; social exclusion; insecurity and related fears and anxieties; the behaviour and character of institutions; and poor people's ratings of the most important institutions in their lives. These dimensions are brought together into a many-stranded web of powerlessness, which is compounded by the lack of capability, including lack of information, education, skills and confidence. The final chapter is a call to action and dwells on the challenge of change.

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 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

Participatory methods and approaches are being adopted by many conservation-development organizations within the Central African sub-region. This paper details some of the limitations and challenges of participatory methods in light of the authors ten years of experience of working for agricultural and conservation organizations in Cameroon. One difficulty encountered is whether participatory processes actually revealed genuine community problems. Often, the true priorities of the community would lie beyond the scope and mandate of one development organization. Another major impediment is the minimal participation of women, whom, even when present at PRA sessions, are limited in participating due to social conventions. In conclusion, the author urges caution in the use of participatory methods and approaches.

This article is about a workshop for Oxfam partners in the Yemen. Its key objectives were to introduce community participation as a tool for sustainable development work; to develop and understanding of the role of Oxfam partners for community mobilisation/participation; to introduce participants to PRA tools and show the relevance to their work; and to enhance mainstreaming gender analysis in Oxfam partner's work. Most participants at the workshop represented local NGOs who receive funding form foreign donors, including Oxfam. They represented diverse fields of work, such as women's development, marginalised communities, disability and Social Fund for Development.|The workshop involved discussions around the concepts of community and participation and the changing roles of the partners in the light of using participatory approaches and tools. It includes a discussion of PRA for people with disabilities including methodological innovations.