Resources

Discussing participation and intermediary NGOs from the point of view of the World Bank. Presents ways in which the Bank may involve and support 'participatory NGOs' in its development agenda. Includes interesting examples from different countries and contexts.

The Rapid Appraisal of Fisheries Management Systems (RAFMS) is among the RRA-affiliated methodologies being developed at the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), which is specific to the fisheries. It is a semi-structured research tool designed to quickly document and evaluate the existing local-level fisheries management systems in a given fishing community. Undertaking a rapid appraisal approach is deemed useful to provide a general description of basic physical and fisher/community characteristics and institutional arrangements RAFMS then gives the direction for undertaking more formal research or quantitative surveys. The approach is participatory because it is designed for the joint use of the RAFMS practitioners and the local researchers in collaboration with the local fishing communities. The emphasis is on the evaluation of the rights and rules system governing the use of the fisheries resources at the local level. This handbook is divided into six parts: 1) introduction to rapid appraisal 2) research/survey framework 3) procedures and methodologies 4) afterword 5) references 6) an appendix of six matrices used for the research.

This short paper argues for decision-making on local issues in community-managed programmes to be left to local collective processes. The paper also argues that for development workers to support such programmes implies long-term committment and the adoption of management styles that coach and facilitate rather than supervise and dictate. For local leadership to flower, the paper recommends a ten year period of support, in the form of advice or patronage from a development organisation, for each community-managed programme to ensure continuity and consistency regardless of changes of staff or structure.

This paper describes how the Indonesian government incorporated elements of PRA to launch a nation-wide programme of participatory village planning in 60,000 villages to be completed within the 1995-1996 budget year ending in March 1996. The article analyses the mistakes committed in attempting to scale up too fast in the face of too many constraints: too few sufficiently experienced trainers resulting in poor quality training, unrealistic budget and time constraints imposed by government, and the pre-existing top- down culture of development planning in Indonesia. The article shows in very clear terms that participatory approaches cannot be tagged on to existing national programmes, and that scaling-up will fail if it is rushed.

In this paper, the author describes his involvement since 1993 in the spread of PRA in Ethiopia, focusing on the work of Save the Children Fund. Despite his general belief in the usefulness and effectiveness of the methodology, the author also expresses some doubts: the difficulty of tackling behaviour and attitudes training when time is short; the lack of clearly defined bottom lines for good practice; and the danger that rapid spread could discredit the approach if quality issues are not tackled rigorously. Finally, the article recommends that for PRA to survive and thrive it must be introduced into mainstream education and training establishments. Influencing top decision-makers may create the space to work with PRA, but it is argued that high quality training over time can only be sustained if the approach enters the formal education arenas.

This brief paper argues that a participatory monitoring (PM) system is meaningful and effective only when people are involved right from the inception of the project, given a free hand in setting their own objectives and monitoring indicators. The outsider should aim at developing the institutional capability of local organisations, instead of overburdening them with data collection to fulfil the monitoring requirements of outsiders. The effectiveness of a PM system is questioned when people have to participate in a project designed by the outsiders often using indicators that are alien to them.

This document chronologically lists the evolution of PRA, based on the personal accounts of the author. The developmental context in which PRA was first born is briefly outlined. The widespread interest in PRA leading to its expansion across institutions, sectors, project life cycles, information/experience sharing and in training is discussed. A brief comparison between ZOPP and PRA is made. Finally, the documents lists in detail the evolution of PRA in the Indian context and the increasing involvement of OUTREACH in PRA.