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Article on how authoratitive arguments made by local people can be transmitted through video. Maasai men record a film stating that local residents are best equipped to undertake environmental conservation. International bodies and conservation authorities try to stop distribution of the video, because their report tells a story different to that told by the Maasai. They try to discredit the video. The article concludes that project coalitions can use video to get involved in local processes of negotiation.

This video explores numerous issues surrounding participatory poverty assessments (PPAs), using the example of a PPA in Tanzania. A key issue is the identification of the poor, about which appropriate information is needed to inform government policy. In contrast to traditional surveys of income-poverty, the PPA provides a way to understand poverty from the perspective of the poor and to enable this perspective to influence policy. The importance of the involvement of policy makers in the PPA is stressed at several points in the video. This involvement contributed to chantes in attitudes to the poor within government and a recognition of the need for a corresponding change in government development tactics. The findings of the PPA were presented at policy workshops and contributed to changes in thinking about the nature and characteristics of poverty in Tanzania, as well as more specific policy reforms. The PPA primarily used PRA methods and visual materials developed by local artists in the PPA. The methods shown include, mapping, discussion of well-being, wealth ranking with villagers and district officials, 'story with a gap' and seasonality analysis. Among the highlighted findings of the PPA are that: indicators of poverty are location specific; intangible indicators of deprivation are important; strong gender differences exist in the prioritisation of problems; the poor adapt to seasonality through complex coping strategies. The PPA also revealed that participatory methods could be used to construct time series price data for rural Tanzania, which had not previously existed. The links between the PPA's findings regarding the causes of poverty and the implications for policy are highlighted, including access to land, agricultural policy, lack of production inputs, environmental degradation and access to credit and savings.

This book arose out of a workshop held in 1999 as part of a programme entitled "Promoting Farmer Innovation in Rainfed Agriculture" (PFI), which was developed by UNDP and piloted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The book is a joint effort of all those who attended and participated in the workshop and it seeks to examine the lessons of the programme so far. It explores the background to working with farmer innovators; looks at the PFI programme; analyses 74 farmer innovators who have been identified under the programme; looks at issues such as identification, partnership, gender and monitoring and evaluation; looks in depth at scaling up; and finishes with the conclusions to the workshop.

This video is based on the first five episodes of the Baraza ya Mji Mkongwe TV series from October-December 1999. The purpose was to facilitate public debate on the need for conservation of thousands of unique buildings in Zanzibar's historic Stonetown. The programmes were produced in a participatory way on the streets and in people's homes. They were broadcasted weekly by TV Zanzibar, each programme building on ideas from the previous one. The TV series is part of an on-going community based rehabilitation programme. The video demonstrates how local television was used in participatory urban planning in Zanzibar's Stonetown.

This paper argues for participatory approaches as a sound basis for sustainable rural development. It focuses on how the government plans to institutionalise participatory approaches in the development process of Singida Region, Tanzania. The discussion first looks at participatory development ideas at national and regional levels of government. The author critiques the national Poverty Alleviation Policy Paper and instead calls for true participatory development, whereby the role of the government is to empower people, as opposed to the top-down mobilisation and education rhetoric that is often imposed. The paper then proceeds to review the participatory ideas and practices of regional and outside NGOs. (See also 3599)

This paper describes experiences from East Africa and elsewhere where coalitions of different agriculture-related organisations at different levels have been using a learning process for collective planning and innovation. The learning process follows five phases:
À Defining future agroecosystems
À Matching farmer demands with the services needed to create those agrosystems
À Negotiating new partnerships
À Taking action and assessing the actions taken
À Assessing the performance of the new partnerships
These are all part of a continuous cycle, with all stakeholders constantly monitoring agroecosystem and partnership performance, identifying weaknesses and taking new action to improve performance further. The emphasis of the approach is on joint learning, since no single organisation can come up with all the solutions required and everyone stands to gain from improved co-ordination. After an introduction the paper asks what is the learning process, then goes on to describe how to develop one, and lastly looks at initiating and sustaining such an approach. Finally, the paper presents the conclusions.

This paper draws on experience from Uganda. Uganda is committed to decentralisation. This commitment is transforming the way services are planned and financed, and new associations between local government, NGOs and private sector agencies are being created. Much attention has been focussed on the adoption of various techniques - such as participatory rural appraisal - through which direct and intensive forms of participation can be encouraged in decentralised planning. This trend is critically examined and potential unintended consequences are highlighted. A broader concept of accountability is outlined to illustrate a more inclusive approach to planning and allocation for more equity and sustainability in rural services.