Resources

1 - 12 of 12 items

Environmental information for and from children

Authors: 
Lee - Smith, D.
Chaudhry, T.
1990

Abstract

This paper describes how The Mazingira Institute in Nairobi created and used a series of illustrated learning packages on environmental issues to stimulate responses from school children. Annual competitions invited children to answer questions and submit essays and drawings on a variety of topics. The children's responses proved a valuable source of information on their perceptions of environmental issues, and traditional knowledge and action in their communities. The "information exchange with children" project helped children to link what they learned in school with what they heard from the elders in their community, and with what they could see and do themselves. The authors conclude that the distributed learning packages and responses gathered from children combine mass media with the education system, allowing the youth to address environment and development problems, and potentially linking with policy making.

Street children, hotel boys and children of pavement dwellers and construction workers in Bombay, how they meet their daily needs

Authors: 
Patel, S.
1990

Abstract

This paper presents the results of research on how street children, hotel boys and the children of pavement dwellers and construction workers in Bombay meet their daily needs. Section two describes the factors which lead to children being in such circumstances and the inadequacies of public provision in meeting their needs. Section three describes the organisations responsible for undertaking the survey and the unconventional means by which contacts were made with the children. It also describes how involving the children in the survey became a means of establishing better contact between the children and the government agencies and voluntary organizations seeking more effective public responses to their needs and problems. Section four presents the findings of the research. (Author's summary)

A Rapid Participatory Assessment of the health needs of women and their children in an urban poor area of Myanmar.

Authors: 
McConville, Frances
1995

Abstract

The research was carried out using participatory qualitative rapid appraisal procedures (RAPs) in order to assess the health needs of women and their children. The study was quite large involving two hundred mothers of children under five years of age. Data was collected by volunteers from the Maternal and child welfare association (MCWA) and the Myanmar Red Cross (MRC). The assessment covers planning issues of communication between formal and informal Health Services, quality of care and training through the importance of the roles of midwives and traditional birth assistants (TBAs), as well as investigating local perceptions and practices. These concern reproductive health issues, ranging from pregnancy to post-natal care and long-term problems, family planning methods, contraception in the prevention of STDs and HIV/AIDS, and abortion. Other related issues such as health financing, drugs policies, and a broader socio-cultural gender analysis are also analysed. The methodology used for this assessment is innovative, participatory and appropriate, generating a considerable amount of new data in a short time. Of particular interest may be the techniques of body mapping used by the women to identify reproductive morbidity and the side effects of birth spacing and other contraceptive methods; sexuality life lines are also used to give an awareness over time of the trials and tribulations faced in the reproductive lives of the women.

Evaluations Done by Communities: A Practical Assessment from the NGO Sector

Authors: 
Linde, Rachel
1995

Abstract

This paper examines participatory evaluation in projects of the NGO PLAN International in Senegal. Through brief case studies it compares the viability of PRA evaluations in urban and rural contexts, and reflects upon the extent to which the methods can be used to reach the least advantaged groups in the communities. A number of criteria are used in assessing PRA as an evaluation tool: limited dependence ono external facilitators; replicability; community 'buy-in' to the process; adaptability to local time constraints; broad participation; reliability of data; turn-around time from data collection to use. The author concludes that PRA is problematic in urban settings if a 'community' is assumed in the same way as in rural areas. Some aspects for improvement (e.g. need to be more focused, and to prevent it from being appropriated by certain groups to the exclusion of others) are discussed.

Roundshaw participatory well-being needs assessment : final report.

Authors: 
Cornwall, Andrea
1997

Abstract

Report of a participatory health needs assessment carried out on the Roundshaw Estate by a team of residents, health, housing and youth service workers, which focused specifically on residents views on well-being on the estate and their suggestions for improving the quality of life there. The report includes a section evaluating and reflecting on the process used, which examines amongst other aspects, reactions of the community members and also the Participatory Appraisal Team to the process.

Citizen action and national policy reform

2010

Abstract

How can ordinary citizens - and the organizations and movements with which they engage - make changes in national policies which affect their lives, and the lives of others around them?  Under what conditions does citizen action contribute to more responsive states, pro-poor policies and greater social justice? What is needed to overcome setbacks, and to consolidate smaller victories into 'successful' change? These are the questions taken up by this book which brings together eight studies of successful cases of citizen activism in South Africa, Morocco, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Turkey, India and the Philippines.

Publisher

Zed Books

London, UK
http://www.zedbooks.co.uk