Content

Key Concepts

Definition

History

Degree

Scope of Action

Project Cycle
Management

Methods

Approaches to
Participation

Rapid Rural
Appraisal

Participatory Rural
Appraisal

Participatory Action Research

Principles, Attitudes

Participatory
Project Cycle
Management

Type of Participatory
Projects

Application of participatory tools in the different project stages

Sector Specific Use
of Participatory Tools

List of Documents

Exercises

Strong or weak
participation

Stakeholder analysis

Participatory Rural Appraisal

Participatory rural appraisal evolved from rapid rural appraisal-a set of informal techniques used by development practitioners in rural areas to collect and analyze data. Rapid rural appraisal developed in the 1970s and 1980s in response to the perceived problems of outsiders missing or miscommunicating with local people in the context of development work. In PRA, data collection and analysis are undertaken by local people, with outsiders facilitating rather than controlling.

Chamber and Blackburn (1996) state that "PRA can be described as a family of approaches, methods and behaviours that enable people to express and analyse the realities of their lives and conditions, to plan themselves what action to take, and to monitor and evaluate the results. Its methods have evolved from Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA). The difference is that PRA emphasises processes which empower local people, whereas RRA is mainly seen as a means for outsiders to gather information."

PRA is generally a continuing participatory process, unlike RRA which is more a one-off process. PRA supports the direct participation of communities, with rural people themselves becoming the main investigators and analysts. Rural people set the priorities; determine needs; select and train community workers; collect, document, and analyse data; and plan and implement solutions based on their findings. Actions stemming from this research tend to serve the local community. Outsiders are there to facilitate the process but do not direct it. PRA uses group animation and exercises to facilitate information sharing, analysis, and action among stakeholders.

PRA is an exercise in communication and transfer of knowledge. Regardless of whether it is carried out as part of project identification or appraisal or as part of country economic and sector work, the learning-by-doing and teamwork spirit of PRA requires transparent procedures. For that reason, a series of open meetings (an initial open meeting, final meeting, and followup meeting) generally frame the sequence of PRA activities. A typical PRA activity involves a team of people working for two to three weeks on workshop discussions, analyses, and fieldwork.

PRA techniques can be combined in a number of different ways, depending on the topic under investigation. Some general rules of thumb, however, are useful. Mapping and modeling are good techniques to start with because they involve several people, stimulate much discussion and enthusiasm, provide the PRA team with an overview of the area, and deal with noncontroversial information. Maps and models may lead to transect walks, perhaps accompanied by some of the people who have constructed the map. Wealth ranking is best done later in a PRA, once a degree of rapport has been established, given the relative sensitivity of this information.

The current situation can be shown using maps and models, but subsequent seasonal and historical diagramming exercises can reveal changes and trends, throughout a single year or over several years. Preference ranking is a good icebreaker at the beginning of a group interview and helps focus the discussion. Later, individual interviews can follow up on the different preferences among the group members and the reasons for these differences.

Although originally developed for use in rural areas, PRA has been employed successfully in a variety of settings. The purpose of PRA is to enable development practitioners, government officials, and local people to work together to plan context-appropriate programs. More then anything else, PRA is an approach for shared learning between local people and outsiders, but the term is somewhat misleading. PRA techniques are equally applicable in urban settings and are not limited to assessment only. The same approach can be employed at every stage of the project cycle and in country economic and sector work.

After years of advocating for PRA, and after seeing the contribution of this technique in enabling the poor to articulate their needs and to act on them, Robert Chambers would prefer PRA to be remembered as participation, reflection and action. This places PRA in the company of other pioneering explorations of how to mainstream the interests of the disadvantaged groups by putting the "farmers first". This approach, which is more focused on the empowerment component of participatory approaches is often more referred to as Participatory Action Research or Participatory Learning and Action.