Resources

Introductory article to special edition of PLA notes focusing on methods that can be used to understand market opportunities.

CAMPFIRE is a Zimbabwe project which seeks to place the proprietorship of natural resources with the poepl living most closely with them. The game discussed in this article is based upon the board game "Monopoly" where the participants each have a sum of money and their objective is to develop the wildlife potential and manage visitors. The game allows participants to practice the mechanics of book-keeping, analyse their sources of income and practice developing budgets.

This paper describes the challenges and lessons learnt from Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) in a multidisciplinary research project on Tourism and the Environment. The projects overall goal was to assess the negative and positive economic, environmental, and socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Kenya, with particular emphasis on learning of the perceptions of stakeholders in the industry, namely local communities. Professionals from biological and environmental sciences, economics, geography and film production were included in the project. Eight challenges that project team workers faced are described. These were: how to define local stakeholders; inability to understand each others specialized knowledge; leadership issues; problems due to changes in time and the economy; time clashes; difficulties of regular briefings; delegation issues; and personal gain vs. group objectives.

This paper argues that transnational corporation ventures ought to factor in and mainstream accountability at the early stages of a project, implying that corporate accountability is a process to be nurtured over time. It also outlines a role for civil society actors as being instrumental in creating spaces for engagement with diverse stakeholders. It also draws emphasis to the role of advocacy in combating exploitation and human rights violations. The paper is based on a case study from the Titanium Mining Campaign in Kwale, Kenya. Some of the key lessons learnt from this paper include: ways in which the campaign brought together diverse players working against major obstacles in a bid to counter Tiomin and its allies; effective poverty eradication strategies will warrant a review and harmonisation of government policies to facilitate equitable access and control of productive resource by the immediate owners; the newly enacted Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act of 1999 needs to review observed inconsistencies and loopholes, particularly those requiring Environmental Impact Assessments be undertaken by project proponents to undertake EIAs for proposed developments; advocacy is most effective when backed up by a solid information base; as International NGOs continue to demand for accountability, they ought to focus on developing local capacities for engagement. This paper can be found at http://www.eldis.org/

This is a workbook designed for people concerned about the local economy and who want to measure how different parts of the economy are working. This workbook describes LM3 measuring tool that has been tried and tested in various sectors across the UK. This workbook is a manual of how to use the tool, and is structured around four key sections: the money trail; a how-to-guide for using LM3; troubleshooting and finally taking action. The workbook concludes with some appendixes about flowcharts, surveys and data management.