Resources

This case study describes the Siaya Health Education, Water and Sanitation Project (SHEWAS) which was implemented by the NGO CARE International in Siaya District in Kenya in 1990. It focuses on the use of PRA as a means of stimulating community participation in the identification and planning of water and sanitation micro- projects. The SHEWAS approach is outlined and some of the achievements and results, and lessons learned, are discussed.

'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.

In this report, the Gambian experience with the use of Stepping Stones in villages with groups or kafos is recorded. Details of how the pilot programme was implemented and how the Stepping Stones mother manual was adapted to suit local needs are provided. An assessment based on a KAP survey concludes the report.

A participatory well-being needs assessment on a deprived urban housing estate on the outskirts of London in UK. The report describes how the process of using a participatory approach proved as, if not more, important as any substantive findings about the well being needs of people on the estate. What mattered most was not what was known, but who found out about it and how. The report describes the different methods and tactics employed to incorporate different voices from around the community and some of the essential outcomes. It also shows how the community set about making action plans and leaves us at the stage of some of the intial ideas being put into action.

This paper discusses how a community-based approach - Research Action Capacity-building (RAC) - can be valuable for malaria control and more specifically for the dissemination of insecticide treated bednets (ITNs), using the case study of a bednet project in N'Djamena, capital of Chad. A description of the concepts and methods of the RAC approach is given, along with a comparison with the like-minded approach of Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) - the RAC approach emphasizing that social change is its ultimate goal. The potential of the RAC approach for mobilizing and strengthening community-based activities is discussed. In addition a report on the successes and failures occurring in the case study, of the initial stages of the net selling and impregnation centres is outlined. In conclusion, the authors propose two major points. Firstly, when promoting ITNs, technical, economic and social factors must be targeted. Lastly, collaboration and communication at local, regional and international levels are vital for a project to be sustainable.

This paper describes the result of a Participatory Learning and Action initiative that took place among prisoners' known to be HIV positive in Malaysia. Although the area of preventing the spread of HIV in prisons has become of primary concern and is being tackled, the issue of caring for those already infected with the virus is given little emphasis. PLA was carried out in three prisons over four weeks in order to understand what HIV infected prisoners considered high priorities and thus to generate related ideas for projects. Medical, dietary, religious and personal hygiene needs were all listed as a priority with project proposals ranging from small-scale generation income to regular prisoner/authority dialogue. In the discussion, the author concludes that when undertaking PLA in a tightly controlled social context, certain principles should be adhered to, which are listed and briefly described.

This working paper details a new community-led approach to sanitation in Bangladesh. Access to latrines in rural areas is less than 15 per cent. Despite many agencies having been involved in the provision of subsidised latrines and toilets over the last three decades very few villages are totally sanitised. This new approach concentrates on empowering local people to analyse the extent and risk of environmental pollution caused by open defecation, and to construct toilets without any external subsidies. The Paper details the background to the work, the process of participatory total community sanitation, the impact of the project, it's national and international spread, how it differs from other sanitation programmes and limits to the approach. Finally it provides a list of recommendations, which have implications for policy makers and require institutional change. This project has had a huge impact: open defecation had been stopped in over 400 villages in Bangladesh and the methodology is being adopted in parts of India and elsewhere in Asia and Africa.