Resources

This report presents the results of a village appraisal questionnaire conducted in a community in northern England. The questionnaire addressed health, education, elderly, transport, housing, services, employment and village life issues in the community. The tabulated responses to the questions on local people's opinions on these issues are presented. There are also short discussions of particular issues such as road safety, litter etc., and of what should be done.

This paper presents a micro-planning methodology developed for use in Ford Foundation social forestry programmes in India. The methodology is presented in six steps: (i) team preparation (preparation of maps and materials, initial site visit, community profile, planning data collection strategy); (ii) community orientation (introduction, review forest management problems with foresters and villagers, explain facilitator's approach, mapping and planning methods); (iii) sketch mapping exercises at a fixed strategic location and (iv) transect, (v) preparation of map; (vi) community meeting to discuss problems and how they might be solved (discussing options from a pre prepared menu).

This brochure describes how to do village appraisals in twelve sequenced steps. The methodology and material is aimed at rural communities in the UK. Such appraisals are aimed at describing local resources and facilities, assessing the options for achieving resources currently not possessed, and planning for the future. Village appraisals can involve parish councils and other local organisations such as schools, Women's Institutes etc. Everyone's opinion can be taken into account through this simple survey technique. A computer programme helps users choose questions from a menu, print a questionnaire and analyse replies.

This document reports on an RRA conducted in the Upper Mille and Cheleka catchments development project in Wollo province, Ethiopia. Its goals were (i) to test the applicability of RRA to the work of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, and (ii) to analyse two peasant associations and suggest possible innovations to benefit their members. This introduction outlines a form of RRA known as agroecosystem analysis (AEA). Its methods and procedure of implementation are described: sub-groups examined diversification in space through mapping, transects, and analysing home gardens, and diversification in time through seasonal calendars. A second section examines the importance of diversification for security, improvement of production and purchasing power, and to act as a catalyst for overall development. The results of the RRA's in two peasant associations comprise the bulk of the report. For each, key issues are identified (e.g. land use, water resources, livestock, crops, health, forest resources), and strategies for diversification are examined (e.g. irrigation, land use patterns, revegetation, experimenting with new crops, clean water supply, development of home gardens, reforestation, credit etc.). The report ends with comments on the use of RRA in development planning and the role of RRA in developing management concepts and process in peasant associations.

These documents consist of two books about a programme managed by LATIN, an Indonesian NGO, aimed at the conservation of the Javanese Rhinoceros through community approaches. This programme is in the early stages of developing an integrated conservation and community development programme. Book I describes the programme and the communities around the Ujung Kolon National Park and the problems they face. Book II reports on the community action plan developed in one village using PRA methods. These documents are in Bahasa Indonesia.

This document is an abstract from the executive summary of a larger report on participatory village planning in Indonesia. It assesses GTZ's experiences with participatory village planning in six programmes (in area development, food security, social forestry and farming systems development). The participatory planning methods used include ZOPP, Poster Analysis and gender analysis. Strengths and limitations of the participatory planning processes and methods used in each programme area are discussed in detail. Overall, it is concluded that the institution building approach to village planning supports existing regulations on bottom-up planning (an objective decided without villager participation in overall project planning); and, no systematic analysis of the weaknesses of village institutions was conducted before attempts were made to strengthen them. Key questions which emerge from the analysis are: Who needs to now what for which type of planning? Who needs to participate in which type of planning? Which type of planning procedure is appropriate to a given situation? How can facilitator quality be ensured? How much may a planning process cost in relation to the programme being designed? The paper ends by considering minimally required steps to institutionalise villager participation in routine bottom-up planning:

This paper concerns PRA capacity building in the implementation and monitoring of the Village Development Programme of Kalam Integrated Development Project (KIDP) in northern Pakistan. It discusses the adoption and institutionalisation of PRA in village planning activities of the programme, which has involved the training of village extensionists to participate in PRA teams. The selection of these persons is discussed. Among the many comments on this innovative approach, the author notes that the pace of adoption has been appropriately slow given the experimental nature of this approach. Developing an understanding of PRA before any field work begins is important, particularly since it differs from conventional prescriptive interventions. Identification of initial activities, and the involvement of women are discussed. The need for caution in developing village action plans is noted, as is the importance of follow -up to PRA activities, particularly as expectations may have been raised. The need for monitoring structures and the possibility of future training are explored.