Resources

A review of recent developments in health interview procedures within decentralised health planning emphasising the importance of beneficiaries' perceptions of their health problems in the success or failure of primary health care. The methodology used is that of 'indirect' health interviews channelled through existing administrative systems and self-administered by recipients. The article describes ongoing research designed to test this approach in seven African countries and discusses methodological problems and limitations.

Verbal autopsies are widely used to describe the causes of death in individuals who die outside of hospital or clinic settings, but are seldom validated. The technique assumes that disease which cause death can be easily distinguished from one another by distinct syndromes and that these are reported accurately by lay respondents. The article describes the potential problems of syndrome definition and the likely biases from poor recognition and recall by bereaved relatives; how these might be tested and what can be done when verbal autopsy cannot identify the cause of death.

Discusses the methods of collecting information during a field-study carried out in Brazil, in the health district of Pau da Lima. It was intended to provide a learning experience for students as well as to explore the local potential for Primary Environmental Care (PEC) and to produce a number of recommendations to local bodies. Possible actors, conditions, means and resources to promote PEC within the Pau da Lima district were investigated. PEC integrates three components: empowering communities, protecting the environment, and meeting needs. The first step was a preliminary identification of present and future potential actors in PEC in the Pau da Lima district. A Rapid Appraisal (RA) was conducted in three squatter communities within the district, focusing on felt problems; interests and priorities in PEC; forms and conditions of community organisation; and instances and conditions of community-based action. Methods used include: review of secondary data, informal disucssions with informants, direct observations, laboratory analysis of water samples collected during the observation walks, life history interviews, focus groups and ranking exercises, semi-structured interviews. While the study found the RA methods useful, it suggested that they may not be sufficient to identify community-based solutions to specific problems. The techniques in "Making Microplans" (Goethert and Hamdi 1988) provide an example of how this action-oriented phase could proceed.

PIDA (Participatory and Integrated Development Approach) has been used in four pilot projects in Kilifi district, Kenya. PRA is an integral part of the PIDA approach : an initiating phase is followed by a PRA phase, then a follow-up phase. This volume discusses in detail the institutionalisation of the PIDA approach within Kilifi district structures. The process of running PRA training, developing community action plans and implementing follow-up is described, with the emphasis on the latter which 'has so far been totally neglected in the PRA literature'. The report is written from a planning and organisational angle, concentrating more on the process of producing plans and reports than on training methodologies.

This note describes the use of force-field analysis, a technique originally used to analyze the forces which keep an institution in its present state. It was used in a modified form in two projects - a non-formal education project in Bangladesh and an urban environmental project in India - to provide a way of drawing staff and stakeholders into the planning process, defining possible objectives and how to attain them. It was found to be a useful way of involving different people in the analysis of objectives and how they can be achieved.

This document suggests the uses of pre-phases as a participatory planning tool in development projects. Pre-phases can be used to enhance mutual understanding among project partners. Such understanding is a precondition for successful planning of relevant, need-based and area-specific project interventions. They can also serve as a framework to developing partnership. Characteristics include: a workshop-culture, joint planning exercises, continuous interaction and dialogue and decentralised decision-making. Potential drawbacks are also listed. The first part discusses the planning process in an animal husbandry project in Orissa (Chs. 3-4) and in Sikkim (Chs. 5-6). The second part provides a comparison of the two planning approaches. The potentials and risks of pre-phases as instruments in project planning are discussed in Ch. 8. Ch. 9 suggests areas for improvements.

This booklet systematises 12 years of the work of ORCA (the Riparian Organisation Against Contamination of Lake Patzcuaro), a regional organisation of 23 mainly Indian peasant communities living in Patzcuaro Basin, Mexico, since 1982. It reveals how a well organised and highly motivated regional popular organisation, in collaboration with committed social and natural science researchers, can mobilise local populations to influence local government environmental policies and acquire greater control over the sustainable management of fragile ecosystems such as Lake Patzcuaro.