Activity Phase
|
Description
|
Examples of operational methods/Participatory tools
|
Examples of output indicators
|
Pre-paratory Planning
|
- Formulating planning goals and objectives
- Preliminary determination of location, extent and boundaries of planning area
- Identifying potential participating communities
- Identifying and securing the manpower, financial and logistical support required by the `external' PRA team
- Preliminary identification of appropriate operational methods and participatory tools
- Coordinating with other interested government agencies and NGOs
- Briefing community leaders, politicians and government officials in planning area
|
- Planning meetings and workshops of technicians and senior officials
- Co-ordination meetings with national and local government agencies and NGOs
- Formation (and when necessary training) of inter-disciplinary `external' PRA team
- Preparation of budget and workplan
- Regional, district and local level briefing meetings /awareness creation workshops
|
- Agreed set of planning goals and objectives (may be modified later in light of PRA findings)
- Agreement on which communities and/or geographic area in which to work (may be modified later in light of PRA findings)
- Approved budget and workplan
- An established inter-disciplinary `external' PRA team
- Agreed set of operational methods and participatory tools to use (may be modified later in light of experience with their use)
- Enhanced awareness amongst local government agencies, NGOs and community leaders as to the nature and purpose of the PRA exercise
|
Pre-liminary Investi-gation
|
- Collecting and reviewing secondary data
- Field reconnaissance
- Validation of (selection of alternative) planning area following rapid community level investigation of interest, capabilities and potential conflicts
- Preliminary characterisation of the planning area's bio-physical and socio-econmic circumstances
|
- Collection and review of secondary data
- Reconnaissance field visits
- Air photo interpretation and map analysis
- Key informant interviews
- Community level meetings
- Report preparation
|
- Final agreement on which communities and/or geographic area will be the focus for the primary data collection work
- A preliminary report detailing the PRA team's initial findings with regard to the area's:
- bio-physical circumstances (climate, soils, landforms, vegetation, water resources etc);
- community structure and organization;
- different land user groups/stakeholders and their socio-economic circumstances;
- nature and extent of current land degradation and its on-site and downstream impact; and
- the key information gaps.
- Terms of reference for the primary data collection
|
Assessment of planning areas bio-physical and socio-economic circum-stances
|
- Primary data collection
- Assessing and describing the planning areas bio-physical and socio-economic circumstances
- Assessing and describing the nature, extent and causes of current land degradation and future risks
- Validation of the `external' PRA team's understanding of the local bio-physical and socio-economic circumstances with the participating communities (restitution of findings)
|
- Participatory mapping
- Participatory transects
- Direct observation
- Group interviews
- Individual interviews
- Participatory seasonal profiles
- Participatory historical profiles/time lines
- Participatory diagramming
- Ranking/scoring matrices
- Use of local value criteria
- Wealth ranking
- Stakeholder analysis
- Gender analysis
- Land suitability evaluation
- Community level presentation and analysis
- Report preparation
|
- Enhanced understanding amongst government line agencies and NGOs as to the realities of farmers' bio-physical and socio-economic circumstances
- Improved capacity of rural communities to inform `outsiders' about their specific local circumstances
- Baseline report characterising the bio-physical and socio-economic circumstances within watershed/planning area to include detailed descriptions of:
(a) The bio-physical properties of each land management unit;
(b) The social structure of, and organizations operating within, each participating community;
(c) the farming system/household characteristics of each common resource management domain*; and
(d) the nature, extent and cause(s) of current land degradation and its on-site and downstream impact.
|
Monitoring and Evaluation
|
- Measurement/obser-vation (monitoring)
- Evaluation
- Revision of project proposals/reformulation of work plans and activities (replanning)
|
- Regular farmer group meetings
- Farmer field schools
- Participatory transects within community area
- Iterative learning
- Community, user, common interest and/or womens group M and E analysis/replanning workshops
- Community presentation workshops/village meetings
|
- Methods and local criteria for monitoring and evaluation
- Enhanced local capacity to monitor and evaluate development activities
- Enhanced local involvement in reformulation of development plans and activities
- Enhanced and stronger exchange and support linkages
|
Sharing experience with the partici-patory planning process
|
- Communicating basic ideas and principles of the participatory planning process
- Communicating results of implementing the participatory plan
- Training in skills, proven technologies and use of planning and implementation methods
|
- Visits to other communities
- Farmer-to-farmer training
- Farmers' manuals and audiovisual materials
- Field workshops
- Case study documentation
- Preparation of guideline manuals/training materials for development workers
|
- Spontaneous diffusion of ideas and technologies
- Enhanced local capacity for farmer-to-farmer training and communication
- Increasing number of communities involved in participatory planning process
- Increasing knowledge of/experience with the participatory planning process amongst local government agencies and NGOs
- Printed case studies
- Guidelines manuals/training materials being used in the field by farmers and development workers
|
Continuation of the process
|
- Creating favourable conditions for ongoing participatory planning
|
- Organizational development
- Documenting the planning and implementation
- Participatory monitoring of impacts on sustainability
|
- Consolidated community networks/organizations for rural self management
- Resource materials
- Consolidated linkages with institutions
- Participatory approach institutionalised within local government line agencies and NGOs
|
