II
RAPID APPRAISAL
and
SMALL WATER BODY DEVELOPMENT

1. THREE RAPID APPRAISALS
in
ZIMBABWE

1.1 OBJECTIVES of the APPRAISALS

In order to assess the suitability of Rapid Appraisal in the design of development activities for small water bodies, ALCOM planned the implementation of three Rapid Appraisals in Zimbabwe. These were meant to form an integral part of a project designed for the development of reservoir fisheries in Zimbabwe. The Rapid Appraisals were intended to help in the preparation and design of this project.

The overall objectives of these three appraisals obviously reflected these two sets of interest : one to do with the methodology and approach of Rapid Appraisal, another concerned with the development of viable development activities for small water body development.

The following objectives were identified :

1. Identifying fisheries development activities on small water bodies

   The Rapid Appraisals were to investigate the conditions of communities living around three different small water bodies and, where appropriate, recommend activities aimed at the development of fisheries on those water bodies. “Appropriate”, in this case, would be defined by the physical potential for fisheries development and the interest and capacity of the community to take a leading role in any development activities there.

   The physical potential of the water bodies would be rapidly assessed by test-fishing using multi-mesh fishing gears. This method aims at catching as wide a spectrum of fish as possible in order to obtain a picture of fisheries resources in the water body.

2. Testing a Rapid Appraisal approach for small water bodies and developing an appropriate Rapid Appraisal package

   The appraisals also aimed at testing the Rapid Appraisal approach, distinguishing elements in the approach which were appropriate for use on small water bodies and using them to develop a Rapid Appraisal package for small water bodies in Southern Africa.

3. Training ALCOM and counterpart staff in Rapid Appraisal methods

   The teams were made up of staff from ALCOM and counterpart agencies of the Government of Zimbabwe which would be trained in the use of Rapid Appraisal techniques and, subsequently, be able to make use of those techniques in other locations.

4. Training trainers for future Rapid Appraisals

   Selected participants from ALCOM would be prepared for training other Rapid Appraisal teams in Zimbabwe and in other countries participating in ALCOM.

5. Developing training materials for Rapid Appraisal

   The experience of training the appraisal teams would be used to develop and refine training materials for Rapid Appraisal of Small Water Bodies which could be used to train other appraisal teams in the region.

1.2 SELECTION OF LOCATIONS

Small water bodies in Zimbabwe occur in a vast array of environments and are exploited by a wide range of different communities. Given this situation, it is very difficult to choose three water bodies which can, in any sense, be regarded as “representative”. As a result, the selection of water bodies looked at during the three Rapid Appraisals was inevitably very purposive.

The three water bodies selected, based on the observations of a mission carried out beforehand by ALCOM in conjunction with their counterparts, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management, were as follows:

Chichewo Dam, Chivi District, Masvingo Province.
Taru Dam, Chivi District, Masvingo Province.
Mwenje Dam, Mazowe District, Mashonaland Central Province.

Chivi District is a priority area for development activities for the Government of Zimbabwe as it is in the grip of acute water shortage and recurrent drought. The district falls within Natural Region V, defined as suitable for extensive agriculture and livestock raising, where soil and rainfall conditions make the raising of permanent crops difficult. There is heavy pressure on land and water resources and most of the district is “communal land,” where no title deeds define land ownership and land distribution is decided upon by district authorities and, to a lesser extent, by traditional community leaders.

In terms of size and characteristics, the two dams chosen in Chivi District are fairly typical of the many small reservoirs built in the area for water conservation. Chichewo Dam is very recent (only one year old) while Taru Dam is much older (filled 1951). They would therefore represent very different biological characteristics which would be of relevance in planning fisheries development activities.

The third dam selected, Mwenje Dam, represents a far bigger water body, covering about 500 hectares when full. Two commercial fisheries cooperatives were known to be functioning on the dam and it therefore could be expected to represent a very different level of fisheries activities.

1.3 APPRAISAL PLANNING

One week was allotted for each appraisal on each dam. On the basis of experience of past Rapid Appraisals in small communities of comparable size, one week was considered sufficient for a team of 6–8 people to cover the communities in question.

The appraisals were carried out during a six-week period during which the work was arranged as follows :

Apart from the original mission which identified possible locations for the various appraisals, preliminary visits were made to each location in order to assess the areas to be covered, the size of the communities involved and the time requirements for each appraisal. These visits were also used to contact potential team members and to elicit the participation of relevant local agencies.

The basic plan for the week of work taken up by each appraisal was as follows:

This basic plan was adhered to for all three appraisals with some variation in the amount of time spent in the field collecting information and the timing of workshops for the team to review their findings and plan further field work.

2. APPRAISAL FINDINGS

Details of the findings of each appraisal and the recommendations they came up with are included in the reports on individual appraisals. Here, the main findings and recommendations are reviewed for each appraisal. These will illustrate the extent to which the Rapid Appraisal activity realised the first of the overall objectives set for it by ALCOM i.e the identification of fisheries development activities on small water bodies in Zimbabwe.

For each water body where the Rapid Appraisals were undertaken, the activities identified and recommended are listed below, along with a review of the principal findings which justified those recommendations.

2.1 CHICHEWO DAM

Chichewo Dam was constructed by the community living in the immediate vicinity with assistance from the local government and an NGO. The dam was constructed primarily for water storage for irrigation. It was stocked with fish by the local agricultural extension agency but fisheries represents a secondary use and is not a priority for local people. Interest was expressed by local people in maximising fish production (they wanted a “second crop” from the dam) but the productivity of the dam is still relatively low as it was only filled a year ago. With time, productivity may increase naturally but this process could possibly be speeded up by adding nutrients to the water. This would, however, involve competition for the already scarce supplies of the only readily available source of natural nutrients, cow manure.

The community has also received special training in resource management from the Provincial-level agricultural extension agency. This training and the presence of very strong and effective leadership in the community has led to a high degree of organization and mobilization. The community is currently heavily involved in various communal activities which are aimed at addressing the priority issues for local people i.e. increasing agricultural production through irrigation and land conservation through a grazing scheme for large livestock.

While potential probably exists for improving fish production from the dam, the appraisal suggested that any additional activities would probably involve conflicts in time-use for local people and, as mentioned above, conflicts over the use of scarce resources of nutrients. Given the priority attached to agriculture by local people, it is also logical that agriculture be given priority in the use of cow manure.

The community is already receiving apparently effective support from local agencies and appears quite capable of addressing problems without further assistance from outsiders.

As a result, the appraisal team limited its recommendations to a proposal that the community try to keep a record of fish production from the dam in order to monitor changes in productivity. It was made clear that this would enable the Programme to help the community to improve fish production from the dam whenever the community was able and willing to devote time and effort to such activities. ALCOM would be able to provide assistance in monitoring and would provide a scale for weighing fish. This monitoring programme should be feasible as the committee in charge of the dam has imposed very strict controls on fishing activity in the dam which are apparently largely observed.

2.2 TARU DAM

Taru Dam was found to be very productive and probably capable of sustaining greater fishing effort than at present. The priority uses of the dam are undoubtedly the watering of livestock and the irrigation of nearby vegetable gardens. However, fisheries appears to be seasonally important as a food source for households living nearby. Although the appraisal team identified scope for introducing new fishing methods on the dam, it was difficult to recommend any activity focusing on fisheries in the light of the far more serious problem of siltation threatening the future of the dam.

Farming activities and lack of maintenance of land contours to prevent soil erosion in the catchment area of the dam, combined with recurrent drought over the last ten years, have led to serious siltation of the dam. Without action to prevent further siltation, the dam will probably silt up over the course of the next five to ten years.

Clearly, action on land conservation is outside the scope of ALCOM's competence and the appraisal team could make few recommendations relevant to this problem. However, having identified the seriousness of the problem through discussions and observations in the community, the appraisal team was able to call a meeting of the community with representatives of those local agencies directly concerned with land management. The presentation of the appraisal's findings focused attention on the siltation issue and the community and concerned agencies were able to discuss possible action in detail. Both groups agreed to prioritise the problem and work together to improve the management of the catchment area of the dam. Future action will be coordinated at local level.

2.3 MWENJE DAM

The last dam investigated differed considerably from the others. It was both larger and subject to far greater and more commercially oriented fishing effort. Two licensed fishing cooperatives are operating on the dam along with an undetermined number of unlicensed fishing units using both legal and illegal fishing methods. According to many people in the area, this sustained fishing effort is beginning to have a negative effect on fish resources in the dam. A large number of undersized and juvenile fish are reportedly caught as a result of the use of small-mesh nets of various types in known nursery grounds for fish around the dam.

The fish produced from the dam are at the centre of a considerable marketing network that extends as far as Harare and fishing provides an important source of food for local people.

Another important feature of Mwenje Dam is the lack of any coordinated management effort. This can be attributed, in part, to the fact that the dam falls into several administrative jurisdictions. One shore of the dam is commercial farming land under the jurisdiction of Mazowe Rural Council, while the other shore is communal land under Chiweshe District Council. While both these Councils report to one District Administrator it would appear that the centre of decision-making is relatively remote from the dam itself. The people from the communal lands who make the most use of the dam for various purposes come under several different wards and the communities involved have relatively little formal contact with each other as a result.

The size of the dam and the wide range of people using it creates considerable potential for conflict which has already been seen on occasions in the past. Any management measures will probably have negative effects on some groups. In particular, there seem to be indications that some of the more vulnerable sections of the community, such as female-headed households, may be more dependent on illegal fishing activities for a livelihood and for food. However, to minimise possible negative impacts, it is clear that the people and groups concerned have to be involved in decision-making about fisheries management on the dam.

Therefore, to improve the management of the dam and ensure the sustainability of the fisheries resources there, the appraisal team suggested the setting up of a dam committee containing representatives of all the concerned communities and affected groups. The creation of such a committee was agreed to in principle, by local administrators, subject to approval by the local council.

At the community meeting organized at the end of the appraisal, members of the communities involved and representatives of local government agencies were able to discuss various options and eventually agreed on the form of such a committee.

The eventual creation of such a committee was to be referred to a local council meeting the following week and the setting up of the committee would be handled by the competent local authorities. A role for ALCOM was proposed in organizing the training of local communities, dam committee members and local authorities concerned in order to raise awareness of the issues involved in fisheries management and conservation. This training would be vital in ensuring that local-level people were in a position to take informed decisions regarding dam use. ALCOM would be in a good position to identify suitable trainers and prepare training materials for such an activity.

The appraisal team also made several other recommendations based on the findings of the appraisal. Further research is required to obtain an in-depth picture of the people currently involved in fisheries on the dam and their degree of dependence on fisheries. This is particularly important to ensure that future management measures do not have undue negative impact on vulnerable sections of the local community.

There is also a need to assess more accurately the state of fisheries resources in the dam. Test fishing was not carried out in Mwenje Dam prior to the appraisal, as in the case of other appraisals. Mechanisms for monitoring the fishing effort and catches would also be needed in order to help any eventual dam committee to design appropriate management measures. Such monitoring would require full cooperation from the community as much of the fishing effort currently comes from activities officially defined as “poaching”.

2.4 DISCUSSION of FINDINGS

The wide variation in the type of recommendations made by the three appraisals carried out can be seen from this review. In the case of Chichewo Dam, a fisheries-related activity of very limited scope (for the present) was identified, while in the case of Taru Dam, no fisheries development activities at all could be recommended for current implementation. Only in the case of Mwenje Dam were activities proposed which were directly related to fisheries and which fell fully within the scope of ALCOM.

It should be emphasised that, in all cases, activities were identified which could have in the short term raised fisheries production. However, in the context of the ecological, social and economic systems surrounding the water bodies, the raising of fish production was placed in perspective and generally accorded a relatively low priority. This perspective was obtained as a result of the use of Rapid Appraisal techniques and, most importantly, through the involvement of the community in formulating the findings of the appraisals.

3. LESSONS LEARNT

Apart from the investigation of the three small water bodies themselves and the identification of development activities, all the other objectives set for the Rapid Appraisal activity concerned the Rapid Appraisal approach itself and its suitability for use on small water bodies. The creation of a Rapid Appraisal package and the form of such a package all depended on the lessons learnt from the appraisal activity as a whole.

3.1 A RAPID APPRAISAL PACKAGE

Based on the experience gained during the three appraisals carried out in Zimbabwe, a package is in preparation which will include a manual on Rapid Appraisal for small water bodies in Southern Africa and training notes on Rapid Appraisal. These documents, produced in addition to this report, contain detailed presentations of the techniques involved in conducting a Rapid Appraisal. These details are therefore not presented here.

What follows is a picture of the basic components of the Rapid Appraisal package and their role in the appraisal process. Much writing has been done on Rapid Appraisal, and different people and institutions tend to emphasise different elements in Rapid Appraisal. The following are the elements, which our experience with Rapid Appraisals on small water bodies in Zimbabwe suggested are most important.

Many specific criticisms and suggestions regarding the techniques used, the organisation and other features of the appraisals were made by team members during the appraisals in Zimbabwe. Short evaluations of the appraisal were also held among team members at the end of each exercise and the results of these appraisals are incorporated into this discussion. In addition, the consultant's own observations during the course of the three appraisals are discussed here.

i. Preparation

The preparatory steps for a Rapid Appraisal are crucial in ensuring that the activity is effective, even if it is “rapid”. It needs to be emphasized that proper preparation will often require considerably more time than field work.

The preparatory steps for a Rapid Appraisal consist of :

Secondary data review

This means a thorough review of all possible existing sources of information about the area, community or subject which is to be investigated. It may well turn out that it is not necessary to do a Rapid Appraisal at all. In the case of the Zimbabwe appraisals, a review of some secondary sources had been carried out by the mission which identified the locations for the appraisals.

Could more information have been located on the dams in question? It is difficult to assess. Some documentation, notably a report on a resource analysis of the area around Chichewo Dam, turned up during the course of the appraisal. More time could certainly have been spent getting data from government departments. But such work is very time consuming, and limits have to be set on the amount of manpower and time that this type of secondary data review takes up.

The availability of excellent maps of the area was a great bonus. In looking at water bodies, many of which are artificial, maps can tell what was there before a dam was constructed, and can clarify the relative positions of different water bodies and their relationship with other key features of the area. Maps can also be crucial for checking the distances reported by local people, as concepts of distance outside of a person's immediate community are often very vague.

One point raised by appraisal participants was that team members from the area could be used more systematically as sources of information about the area.

Contacting local authorities and concerned agencies

It is obvious that, in most countries, the local authorities have to be contacted before hand to carry out a field activity. This is fundamental for a Rapid Appraisal, as local agencies, government departments and NGOs are all necessary parts of the appraisal process. They have particular viewpoints which need to be incorporated into the Rapid Appraisal, and they may have a direct interest in the topics being looked at.

Many of the agencies contacted may need to have representatives included in the appraisal team. Thus these contacts need to be started long before the field work is due to begin.

During the appraisals in Zimbabwe, the local authorities and concerned agencies played a vital role through their support of the activity and their willingness to make quick decisions on issues raised by the appraisals. Not all local authorities are so responsive. The ideal means of ensuring their support would be to make time during workshop appraisal planning to brief key people in the local administration so that they are fully aware of the appraisal's aims and expectations and their roles in it.

Contacting local people and leaders

The people of the communities where the appraisal is going to take place need to be informed, in advance, both as a matter of courtesy and as a matter of efficiency to make sure that the appraisal will take place at a convenient time and will not cause any disruption to daily life in the village.

Creating an appraisal team

Team size
Team size for the appraisals undertaken was largely dictated by availability of staff at various levels. The size of the various teams proved to be more or less ideal for the water bodies covered. The first two appraisals in Chivi District looked at small water bodies and communities for whom the 8–9 people involved were ideal. Bigger teams in these relatively small communities would have led to overcrowding.

For the larger dam, Mwenje, a bigger team was formed in spite of some doubts that it might be more difficult to handle. Some logistical problems were experienced, simply in moving large numbers of people from one place to another. However, the much larger area covered by the appraisal fully justified the use of a bigger team. In addition, the interaction within the team proved to be more stimulating with a larger team at work. In particular, the larger proportion of local level people involved seemed to encourage greater participation by them in discussions and planning activities.

Gender mix on appraisal team
In most rural societies in most countries, a mix of genders on an appraisal team is crucial if all members of the community have to be contacted properly. This usually means making a special effort to find female team members and accommodating them in the planning of the appraisal.

The importance of this cannot be over-emphasized, as there is almost always some reticence among rural women when talking to men, whether they are alone or not. If men from the village are present, they may tend to dominate the conversation. If they are not present, women may be suspicious of an all-male team. Certain issues may be absolutely impossible for a male team to discuss with women. So all possible efforts should be made to have a team representative of both sexes, as evenly as possible. In many areas of Southern Africa, there is a large proportion of female-headed households in the community due to labour migration. This makes the balance of women and men on the team even more vital.

Multi-disciplinary teams

One of the guiding principles of Rapid Appraisal to date has been that it should be carried out by multi-disciplinary teams. This is one of the means by which Rapid Appraisal attempts to overcome the problem of carrying out an in-depth investigation rapidly. By putting together a team of people who can look at the same situation from a variety of viewpoints, the picture obtained will be more profound and, hopefully, less subject to individual biases.

In talking about multi-disciplinary teams the emphasis has usually been placed on technical multi-disciplinarity. In particular, the importance of a team which has a balanced composition in terms of technical specialists and social scientists. In the case of an investigation of a small water body, this would mean a basic team made up of at least an aquaculturist, an aquatic biologist or inland fisheries specialist and a social scientist such as an anthropologist or a rural sociologist.

It is undoubtedly very important for an effective appraisal to have in the team enough technical expertise to appraise the small water body itself and the community around it.

Multi-level teams

However, the experience of the three appraisals indicated another factor in team composition which is as important as a multi-disciplinary character. This factor is the representation of a variety of hierarchical levels on the team, in the sense that people who operate at national, provincial, district and local levels should all be represented in some way.

This spread can usually be combined with a multi-disciplinary spread as long as a sufficient variety of agencies at the various levels are contacted beforehand regarding the appraisal and invited to participate.

This multi-level element in the appraisal team not only increases the range of viewpoints and experiences being brought to bear on a particular set of problems, it can also greatly facilitate the success of any follow-up recommended by the appraisal. Multi-level involvement ensures that information about the recommendations of an appraisal can be directly communicated back to key figures in the planning process at various levels.

The use of multi-level teams can also give higher level planners a valuable opportunity to meet field workers and learn first hand about local conditions. ALCOM, as a regional programme of an international organization, could play an important role in motivating higher-level staff to participate in appraisals and thus provide important inputs which reflect the concerns of higher planning levels, as well as gain direct knowledge of the concerns of lower level and field staff.

The appraisals in Zimbabwe all brought together, at some stage or another, administrative levels which did not usually meet directly. This occurred both within the teams and during community meetings organised by the appraisal.

The team composition for the three appraisals in terms of hierarchical and technical characters, is shown below.

Composition of appraisal teams by level and discipline

As can be seen from this table, what was most glaringly missing in the appraisals was Provincial level representation. In at least one case it was subsequently discovered that provincial level staff had already done a similar sort of rapid diagnostic study of the same community some years before. Their participation in the present exercise could therefore have been a great asset.

Teams contacted and briefed in advance

The team members for the appraisal should be identified well in advance. This means getting relevant local agencies to decide which of their staff will participate, meeting them and briefing them properly about what the appraisal is going to do, what it involves and what their role in it would be.

In the appraisals carried out, it was apparent that some local-level staff had been assigned to take part at short notice, and they had arrived at the preliminary training session with little idea of what they were getting involved in. This could have been avoided by allotting more time during the preliminary visit to the appraisal locations, to meeting those who would take part in the appraisal and briefing them thoroughly.

This would obviously also depend on the heads of local agencies nominating people well in advance. So to meet the appraisal team members, one would have to contact local authorities well in advance and get them interested and involved in the appraisal.

Preparing for the follow-up

If the contacts with local agencies are done well in advance, the chances for better follow-up are all the better. There will be time for local administrators to discuss the appraisal and its topics with their staff, and decide how it should fit into their existing programmes for development. They might even request that the appraisal focus on some topics which are of special concern to them. During the course of preparation, the appraisal organisers can meet those who will be responsible for follow-up action and prepare the ground, so that the appraisal findings and recommendations can be put into effect as quickly as possible.

Logistics

Accommodation

In addition to these matters, proper attention needs to be given to the logistics of the appraisal. Appraisals usually take place under time pressure; the relatively short time in the field must be put to the best use. The appraisal organizers would do well to spend some extra preparation time fixing accommodation close to the “target” area for the team. This will pay rich dividends, dramatically increasing the amount of time the team spends in the field and the type of contacts they will have with local people.

Accommodation was a drawback in all the appraisals in Zimbabwe. Team members from outside the area stayed some distance away from the location and used up a lot of time in travel to and fro. Assembling team members from different locations every morning took considerable effort and required the full-time use of two vehicles. If the team had found accommodation nearer to the appraisal location, far less time would have been used up on travel and on assembling the team.

Staying in the area would also undoubtedly have enabled more information to be collected through informal contacts during the evening. This type of information can be invaluable.

Payments to local staff

One important issue in ensuring a smooth appraisal is remuneration for local staff taking part in the appraisal.

When a group of people works together very closely as professionals for an extended period of time, as in a Rapid Appraisal, one should make sure that questions such as disparity in earnings or daily allowances are not allowed to become an issue as they can affect the working of the team.

Taking part in a Rapid Appraisal sponsored by an international organization can be regarded as a valuable training opportunity for local-level staff, but much of the work in a Rapid Appraisal is actually very similar to what a lot of village-level extension and community development workers do every working day. It perhaps calls for longer work days and work on weekends as well. For international staff this may well seem normal when they are out on missions or duty travel. For local staff working in their own areas, this simply represents unpaid overtime. To ensure that this does not become an issue, the organisers of a Rapid Appraisal should ascertain, as part of the preparation of the appraisal, what the normal procedure is for remunerating local-level staff for extra working hours, and budget for overtime payments. They should not wait for the question to be raised but should clarify at the start of the appraisal that local staff will be paid for working overtime.

For staff above the local level i.e. District or Provincial level staff, the leading agency should try to find out what is normally done in such situations, and try to do the same.

A general point to be made about preparation of an appraisal is that it should probably take up more time than the appraisal itself. Manpower should be allocated on a full-time basis before starting the appraisal. If the preparation to the appraisal is organized in such a way that the team meets at an early stage, well before the appraisal itself begins, tasks can be divided up between members. Otherwise, one person is probably going to have to devote most of his time to preparing the appraisal well in advance of it.

ii. Intensive discussions with local people

The principal part of the field work of a Rapid Appraisal will be spent talking to local people. The experience of the three appraisals in Zimbabwe emphasized that, over and above the techniques used, the quality of a Rapid Appraisal depends on the quality of this basic interaction between local people and outsiders. If the team is able to put people at their ease and get them to talk (i.e. not just answer questions), the appraisal should yield good results. This interaction takes place not only between team members and the community they are investigating but within the team itself, which should be made up of both local-level people and “outsiders”.

It is quite possible to imagine a very effective Rapid Appraisal being done by a team with little knowledge of “Rapid Appraisal” techniques but endowed with simple communication skills which enable them to get the most out of straightforward discussions with people. Most of the other features of Rapid Appraisal are a matter of common sense, organization and being systematic. But the “key” is a team member being able to sit down with people they have probably never met before and get them to talk freely.

Having said this, several of the techniques used by team members helped the teams to both plan their discussions with local people properly and helped them when actually talking to people.

Topics for discussion

During the initial planning session and all the subsequent workshops held by the appraisal teams during the course of the field work, lists of “topics for investigation” were drawn up. These were usually divided into groups according to the objectives set for that particular appraisal.

Before each period of field work, these topics were distributed among team members who were divided into pairs for the field work. Usually, the topics handled by each pair would all relate to one objective, for instance topics which would help identify the uses and users of the local water body.

These lists of topics provided the team members with a guide for their discussions with local people. It was reiterated that they should not necessarily talk only about those topics but try, by the end of the day, to discuss those topics with a cross-section of people in the community.

In addition, for each topic, possible “key informants” who might be particularly knowledgeable on the subject were identified beforehand, along with communication tools or techniques which might be well-suited to discussing that topic.

These guidelines were not followed religiously by all team members, but they gave the team a framework within which to work. Not least, when analyzing findings during team workshops, the lists of topics provided a guideline for the group to work with and put information in a usable order.

These discussions with local contacts helped to focus the attention of the community on the issues the appraisal team is interested in addressing. Once the team has aroused people's interest in a specific topic, the local people will inevitably discuss the issues raised among themselves. This discussion within the community can become the basis for group discussions during community meetings held later in the appraisal. Taken as a whole, these consultations can start off the process of people's participation in the planning process.

iii. Use of communication tools

Rapid Appraisal uses a selection of communication tools to help an appraisal team communicate with local people and vice-versa. These tools help to structure information and make it easier to report findings at the end of the appraisal.

Most of the tools commonly used in appraisals seemed to be applicable in the context of an appraisal of small water bodies. However, some were seen to require considerable practice in order to use them well. Other new ways of organizing information were also created by appraisal participants.

A brief review of the various techniques employed is given below, with a short description of the technique, how it was used during the three appraisals, who used it and at what stage of the appraisal.

Appraisal techniques

By no means were all the techniques which make up the Rapid Appraisal “repertoire” employed during the three appraisals. In the training notes and manual on Rapid Appraisal being prepared for this consultancy, several techniques not used during the course of the three appraisals in Zimbabwe are suggested. When the work is being performed by a large appraisal team, it is probably preferable to have as large a selection as possible of communication tools available so that individual team members can use the techniques they feel most comfortable with.

iv. Repeated workshops for the appraisal team

A basic feature of all Rapid Appraisals is that they are “iterative”, that is they develop upon what they learn as they learn it. The initial objectives may turn out to be irrelevant or unobtainable and therefore should be changed. The focus of the appraisal may need to be shifted to take account of new information obtained during the course of the appraisal. The main means by which this process takes place is regular workshops during the course of the appraisal when team members report back their findings, discuss them, adjust the focus of the appraisal and plan further investigations.

These workshops also serve to ensure that the appraisal process is rapid, as data is effectively being processed as it is collected. This can speed up reporting procedures at the end of the appraisal.

The regular workshops are also a forum for discussion which bring together team members from outside the area and from the local community to compare their impressions and viewpoints and use them to construct a complex picture of local conditions.

These workshops can play a crucial role if they are well-organized and well-controlled. The main danger appears to be that every team member wants to recount all that he or she has learnt at each workshop. The result can very easily be that more time is spent in the workshops than is spent in the field. This can be avoided in several ways :

Timing

Workshops can be held any time. They do not have to be held immediately after team members come back from the field. They do not always have to be held at the same time of day i.e. in the evening after field work. The timing can and should be flexible. The team leader needs to judge when people will best be able to contribute properly to a workshop. Sometimes the morning before going to the field might be the best time to review the previous day's findings and plan further field work.

It must be borne in mind that local staff who take part in a Rapid Appraisal in their own area would regard the Appraisal as just another day's work. Taking part in a workshop until late in the evening is overtime and, no matter how enthusiastic these staff might be, they would probably prefer to be home with their families. Staff from outside the area are part of a mission and probably would work in the evenings anyway. However, they should be aware that not everyone will feel the same and should not force people to work late unnecessarily. Rapid Appraisals are intensive but do not have to drive people to exhaustion.

Use topic lists

For the workshops held during the three appraisals in Zimbabwe, the lists of topics for investigation prepared for each day's field work were subsequently used as a guide to review the teams' findings. This proved invaluable for keeping discussions on track and collecting the teams' findings in a systematic fashion.

Hold workshops close to the field

The workshops during the three trial appraisals were held in various locations including the teams' lodgings, hotel meeting rooms, local government offices and local schools. The last two seemed to be the best suited as they were closer to “the field” and they were more familiar to local-level staff who were therefore more at their ease during the workshops.

Keep general discussions strictly under control

“Experts” tend to analyze all the findings of an appraisal in the maximum depth possible, including comparisons with their previous experience and learning. This type of general discussion should be kept to a minimum during the workshops which should aim strictly at reviewing the current findings, deciding on their immediate implications and using these to design and plan further appraisal work.

Recording of workshop proceedings

Someone should be assigned to keep track of the proceedings of the workshop. These do not need to be “minutes” recording everything said, but a record of the main points, the findings presented by team members, any graphics used, the decisions taken and the plans for the next day's work.

v. Participatory discussions and planning sessions

Any appraisal should aim not just at a collection of findings but at practical proposals for action and at a consensus among the community in question regarding that action. This can be achieved through various techniques depending on the time available and on how the appraisal has been planned to link up with subsequent follow-up work.

Ideally, the appraisal can lead to an extended and detailed planning process involving the community and local administrators which will lead directly on to development activities in which the community play the leading role. Clearly, this kind of process requires very careful preparation, an open-ended time frame and considerable flexibility on the part of the leading agency and local agencies.

The approach taken by the appraisals in Zimbabwe was for the team to present back their “findings” to the community and use these as a basis for discussing the issues associated with local small water bodies. A key role was played in all these community meetings by local extension workers and administrators. Their presence meant that the community did not regard the meetings as mere “talking shops” but as an opportunity to make their views known to people who mattered. The meeting could also create a solid basis for further action provided the right people were present.

These five components are key elements in the Rapid Appraisal package developed for small water bodies. The ways in which they are used are elaborated upon in the Training Notes for Rapid Appraisal of Small Water Bodies and the Manual on Rapid Appraisal for Small Water Bodies being prepared in association with the report.

vi. Test-fishing

The other important element which is not discussed here is test-fishing using multi-mesh fishing gear. This activity falls outside the competence of this consultant. For two of the appraisals undertaken, the test fishing was carried out immediately before the implementation of the Rapid Appraisal proper.

The activity consisted, in the case of the two dams in Chichewo District, of fishing using multi-mesh gear for two consecutive nights on each dam. The gear used catches fish of different dimensions at different depths and gives a picture of the distribution and the conditions of different species in the water body. Obviously the bigger the water body, the more extensive test fishing activities would have to be. In any case, the method does not pretend to provide anything like a definitive picture.

However, for the two appraisals where it was utilised, the information provided by the test fishing helped considerably in enabling the team to discuss fish resources in the dam with local people.

3.2 TRAINING ALCOM and COUNTERPART STAFF

All the team members involved in the three Rapid Appraisals took part in a half-day training session held on the first day of each appraisal. Altogether 23 team members took part in the training sessions and an additional two people from concerned local agencies took part as “observers” in one of the sessions.

i. Staff trained

The various trainees and the number of training sessions they took part in are listed below :

6 ALCOM staff :

2 National-level government staff :

1 National-level NGO staff :

5 District-level government staff :

In addition 2 District-level government staff participating in training but not as appraisal team members :

8 Local-level government staff :

Of the total of 24 people who took part in the various training sessions, 15 came from district- and local-level agencies, 6 from ALCOM (including one who represents ALCOM's counterpart agency in Zimbabwe, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management), and 3 from National-level government and nongovernment agencies.

The training carried out in preparation for each Rapid Appraisal occupied one half-day session and was followed by a further halfday session preparing the Rapid Appraisal.

The form that the training took was dictated by the amount of time available and the general principle that the best way to learn about Rapid Appraisal is to get out in the field and do it. Given the one-week period allocated for each appraisal, the time spent in training in the “classroom” was kept to an absolute minimum.

In addition, the consultant had planned the training bearing in mind that many of the participants would be local-level workers and that the training had to be “pitched” at their level rather than at the level of international agency staff. This was reflected in the emphasis on practical techniques in the training rather than on some of the guiding principles of Rapid Appraisal. In the event, this attitude turned out to be very condescending and all participants seemed to feel that more time could have been spent in discussing the principles of Rapid Appraisal.

The training consisted of a very brief introduction to the background and principles of Rapid Appraisal and an outline of the justification for using the approach on small water bodies, followed by a more extensive review of the principal techniques. The preparation of the current appraisal which followed each training session became a means of reviewing the content of the training proper as one of the important preparatory activities was deciding which topics needed to be investigated and which techniques to use to investigate them.

In retrospect, and based on the criticisms of participants, this training was too concentrated. Trainees appreciated and agreed on the whole that the best way of learning was to spend time in the field doing the appraisal but made various suggestions on improvements for the formal training.

ii. Timing

It was generally agreed that more time was required to cover the issues and techniques involved in Rapid Appraisal. Most participants felt that the training simply tried to get across more material in a short time than the participants would be able to absorb.

Obviously, this means that more time has to be found for the training activities and that this needs to be taken into account when planning the appraisal.

In preparing the revised training package for Rapid Appraisal, the presentation of the approach has been considerably expanded and would now require at least two days to be covered thoroughly. Even this represents a fairly concentrated training package. Time has been “saved” by turning the training on Rapid Appraisal and the preparation of the current appraisal into one activity. As the various elements and techniques in Rapid Appraisal are presented they are related directly to the actual appraisal for which participants are preparing. This represents both an improvement in terms of training, as participants can immediately relate some of the principles which they are presented with to practical situations, and a saving in terms of time.

iii. Group activities

Another criticism made by some participants was that the training was too “teacher-oriented”, with participants not asked to contribute enough to the training process. This was primarily a result again of the short time allocated to training and the effort to present the necessary materials in a short time span.

In the revised training package, the greater space given for the training activity has allowed for the inclusion of many more participatory activities for training participants, working in groups and as individuals. In addition, the feature mentioned above, whereby each element of the training, as it is presented, is immediately used for planning the current appraisal means that the teacher-based presentations alternate continually with trainee-based activities which make use of the materials just presented.

iv. Balance between techniques and issues

The training given to the appraisal team members was primarily aimed at providing them with the basic tools necessary for them to be able to go into the field and carry out a Rapid Appraisal. The training placed emphasis on the techniques used in Rapid Appraisal and how they might be adapted for use on small water bodies.

Once again, this emphasis was in part dictated by time constraints and in part by the principle that, for many local staff, the practical techniques would be of more interest and use than the principles behind Rapid Appraisal.

This approach turned out to be unbalanced. Some participants appeared to feel that they were being given a series of techniques to use “in a vacuum”, without a proper understanding of the context. A more extensive discussion of the issues raised by the Rapid Appraisal approach could also have created a better interaction between local-level team members and “outsiders”. It needs to be remembered that Rapid Appraisal developed as an approach to help “outsiders” understand the conditions and priorities of rural communities. This needs to be made explicit for the appraisal team, so that local-level staff understand that their role in the appraisal is not simply to chaperone outside “experts” around the village, but to act as a bridge between outsiders and local people and correct the biases to which outsiders are prone.

v. Involvement of local authorities

The training activity was originally designed for appraisal team members. In the case of the last appraisal on Mwenje Dam, two additional people representing local authorities came and participated in the training, largely as a result of their own personal interest. One of these was a key figure in the local district council, the Executive Officer (Administration), who had been contacted beforehand as part of the preparation of the appraisal.

This officer subsequently took part in the final workshop of the appraisal in which the findings and recommendations of the team were discussed and the presentation of the team's findings back to the local community planned. The officer also took part in the community meeting where he played a key role in lending authority to the meeting as a whole and in clarifying for the community what options were possible for managing the local water body within the existing administrative structure.

The importance of getting such key figures involved at least in the training and planning of the appraisal was thus highlighted. In the other appraisals carried out, similar key roles were played by local extension officers who did not always take part in the actual appraisal. These officers had usually been briefed after the appraisal on the appraisal findings, as opposed to taking part in the formulation of those findings. While this mode of involvement did not compromise their effective participation, greater involvement and understanding from the beginning would have been a great advantage.

As described above, the revised training package combines a training and a planning function. In this context, the participation of local administrators who might not necessarily be taking part in the appraisal would be even more appropriate as they may have valuable contributions to make to the planning process.

3.3 TRAINING of TRAINERS

Two of the ALCOM staff members involved in the activity took part in all three appraisals from start to finish, as well as being involved in the planning of the whole appraisal activity. The training for the last of the appraisals undertaken was planned and implemented entirely by these staff who will, in future, be able to train other appraisal teams both in Zimbabwe and in other countries participating in ALCOM.

Participation in three appraisals would seem to be a minimum for ensuring that people have the understanding and the experience necessary to undertake training of appraisal teams themselves. This experience is mainly necessary simply to enable the trainers to have sufficient mastery of the various components and alternatives available within the Rapid Appraisal framework to be able to adapt the training package to the conditions they find themselves working in. In addition, it is clear that it is a great advantage for trainers to be able to refer to their personal experience when training a prospective appraisal team.

On the other hand, it should be emphasised that Rapid Appraisal consists of a systematic application of techniques which are generally familiar to many development field workers. As has already been mentioned, the critical aspect of any Rapid Appraisal is the interaction between an appraisal team and local people and this may depend less on experience than on a general ability to communicate effectively. The revised training package tries to get the training participants to use their own experience (whether of Rapid Appraisal or other types of development work) to “construct” an appropriate appraisal approach themselves. Where necessary, this can be supplemented by Rapid Appraisal techniques which have been used elsewhere.

In this type of training, it is conceivable that an effective training could be carried out by someone with less experience in Rapid Appraisal, but who has training experience and is good at eliciting the maximum participation from training participants. Obviously, sound experience in Rapid Appraisal is very important. However, people should not be afraid of trying out Rapid Appraisal when a Rapid Appraisal “expert” isn't on the scene.

3.4 TRAINING MATERIALS on RAPID APPRAISAL

Training notes on Rapid Appraisal for small water bodies have been prepared on the basis of experience in training three appraisal teams. These have been produced separately from this report. However, the main features of these training materials are reviewed below.

i. Users

These training notes are aimed at two sets of users:

• ALCOM staff who may be involved in organizing Rapid Appraisals during the course of implementation of the programme's numerous sub-projects.

• ALCOM's counterpart staff in participating countries in the SADCC region, from the departments of fisheries, natural resources, water resource management or national parks and wildlife.

It has been assumed that many of these staff may have one important feature in common : very limited experience in training. This rule does not hold true in all cases but it has been taken as a safe “bottom line”.

Bearing this “bottom line” in mind, the emphasis throughout the training notes has been on providing a practical set of guidelines for people who are not familiar with the role of the trainer. Many of the conventions of training materials have been ignored in order to give step-by-step guidance. Likewise, jargon has been eliminated as far as possible to ensure that the notes can be easily understood by everyone who is likely to want to use them.

The risk in this approach is that those who do have experience as trainers may find the notes simplistic. For these people it is hoped that the materials contained in the notes can be of use as a resource on Rapid Appraisal.

ii. Contents

These training notes are relatively concentrated. They attempt to introduce participants to the basics of Rapid Appraisal, so that they can get out into the field quickly and do most of the real “learning” there. This point needs to be emphasised : it is difficult to “teach” someone how to do a Rapid Appraisal in a classroom. The only way to properly understand how to use Rapid Appraisal and the techniques which make it up is try it out in the field.

At the same time, the combination of the training of participants with the planning of the appraisal they are going to carry out tries to make the content of the training as practically oriented as possible. Wherever possible, each element in the training is “applied” as soon as it has been presented.

Considerable space has been given to activities in which training participants must contribute to the training as individuals or in groups. Most of these activities encourage participants to come up with their own contributions to the Rapid Appraisal. This approach has been used to emphasize to participants that Rapid Appraisal is not one definitive methodology but a semi-structured and adaptable approach to learning which requires the contributions of participants. In effect, the training package gets the training participants to “construct” their own appraisal from their own experience and expertise. Where required, the trainer can provide additional inputs based on the experience of other Rapid Appraisals and his or her own experience.

iii. Organization

The training will require at least two days for implementation in the form provided in the notes. The timings suggested for each session and section are indicative.

The notes have been divided into four “sessions”. The term “sessions” has been used to indicate parts of the training where the materials are closely connected. It does not necessarily mean that the material in each “session” has to be covered all at once, without a break.

The sessions are as follows :

Each of these sessions is broken up into sections which address particular aspects of these questions. These sections are laid out in easy-to-follow lesson plans which can be used by trainers while they are actually leading the training to keep track of the materials they are covering. In addition, each session has a list of possible tools which can be used as teaching aids as and when they are required.

The training notes on each section contain the following:

• a step-by-step guide to the activities which can be used for presentation in that section

• boxes explaining aspects of Rapid Appraisal to be presented in that section

Copies of some visual aids (pictures, diagrams, tables or lists) which might be useful for presenting the materials are provided in the appendix. They are referenced in order to relate them to the places in the training where it has been suggested they be used.

iv. Using the training notes

The step-by-step guide to each section and the boxes on different aspects of Rapid Appraisal need to be studied thoroughly by the trainer before the training begins. Trainers need to know what the content of their presentation is, how they are going to organize activities for participants and what materials are required at each point of the training.

Once the training starts, the trainer, ideally, should not have to consult the detailed descriptions of activities and the training content. The easy-to-read plans of sessions and some sections and the lists of teaching materials should be sufficient as a reference for trainers to remember what they have to do and when to do it during the training session. The idea is for the trainer to avoid having to leaf through detailed notes while trying to present materials, as this interrupts the flow of the presentation.

It would be very contrary to the spirit of Rapid Appraisal to suggest that anything written on the subject can be definitive. Likewise these training notes should be a jumping off place for people who are involved in carrying out appraisals and training others to do them. They will always need to be updated, revised, adapted to personal tastes and to the conditions in which they are going to be used. Not least, every single country has its own norms when it comes to training activities which may have to be observed, at least in part. It is hoped that people using these notes will change them, add to them and improve them for their own use.

v. Training tools

“Training tools” are the means by which a trainer tries to get his message across and get trainees to do what he would like them to do. Tools can range from writing something on the blackboard to getting participants to play a game, from using videos or other relatively sophisticated media to getting participants to write things down on a piece of card with a pencil.

The tools kit for which these training notes have been designed could be described as “intermediate” and is probably what most projects or programmes would be able to obtain if they were organizing a Rapid Appraisal and the training necessary to carry it out. The basic tools would consist of :

• Something or somewhere where sheets of paper and pieces of card can be pinned up - a wooden wall, a portable bulletin board, or a felt board.

• A flip chart with sheets of paper. This could conceivably be substituted by a whiteboard or blackboard, but it is difficult to conserve whatever is written on a board.

• An overhead projector. This is highly recommended as a means of presenting images and messages. It is relatively portable and versatile. The only drawback is that it requires a light coloured wall or screen and electricity.

• Pieces of card and felt-tip pens. These are invaluable for getting participants in the training to do work themselves which can be presented directly.

Some of the visual aids suggested for use in the training (mostly diagrams or tables for used as overhead transparencies) are provided. These are marked with an asterisk in the lists of materials provided at the beginning of each session.

Each trainer inevitably prefers some training tools over others. The materials provided are intended as a basic training kit for trainers who feel happy with them or for those who have not yet had sufficient training experience to be able to come up with their own materials and tools.

4. WHAT IS RAPID APPRAISAL FOR ?

The implementation of three Rapid Appraisals in Zimbabwe on small water bodies and their surrounding communities provided a great deal of learning about the approach which has been reviewed above. In general, the experience of using Rapid Appraisal in the particular context of small water body development was positive. The use of Rapid Appraisal techniques enabled a multi-disciplinary team to quickly obtain an in-depth picture of the communities in question and come up with practical recommendations which had been discussed with the community and planned in conjunction with them and local authorities.

However, the use of Rapid Appraisal raises an important issue for any development agency like ALCOM. Planners who are preparing a Rapid Appraisal must be clear about what they are using the Rapid Appraisal approach for. This needs to be emphasized because, as mentioned earlier, Rapid Appraisal is a very flexible and adaptable approach which can be interpreted and used in many different ways. In most cases, people or agencies who are responsible for organizing a Rapid Appraisal will set clear objectives for the appraisal, but these will tend to affect the content of the appraisal (i.e. what the team talks about). What the organizers also need to be clear about is what kind of rapport the appraisal is going to establish with the local community.

As outlined earlier, this question of the relationship between development planners and the people affected by their plans has always been a central issue in Rapid Appraisal and the tendency has been for people who organize appraisals to try to get local people more involved in the planning of their own development. However, before a development agency commits itself to undertaking an activity which will mean accommodating the points of view, the priorities and the demands of a local community, the agency must decide very clearly whether it is in a position to make those accommodations.

Being committed to full community participation in development requires great flexibility. Rapid Appraisal, as an approach, tries to create the flexibility required for participation but place it into a practicable framework. The work that follows from a Rapid Appraisal may require much greater adaptability. Therefore any organization embarking on development work and considering using Rapid Appraisal as a tool in the process needs to decide how it is going to use it and whether it has understood the implications of using it.

There are many possible models for how the Rapid Appraisal approach could be used. Three of them are given here which entail varying degrees of participation by the local community.

RAPID APPRAISAL
as a
TOOL for DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES

In this model, the planning process is still very much controlled by the leading agency involved. There might be perfectly valid reasons why an agency might want to adopt such a “top-down” approach. Perhaps they are introducing a relatively complicated technology which requires careful monitoring and maintenance while it is being tested out. Perhaps local conditions mean that there is simply no existing mechanism for local people that can take on a role in planning activities. Perhaps the agency itself is structured in such a way that it simply cannot adopt a fully participatory approach.

Rapid Appraisal can still be useful for such an agency as an efficient tool for carrying on its work which will allow it to at least understand local people's conditions and points of view and incorporate them into its plans, even if the direct participation of local people in planning is limited.

Where such an agency also requires quantitative base-line data such as can only be provided by formal surveys, Rapid Appraisal techniques can also be used to establish ahead of time which local criteria should be measured and used for monitoring and evaluation purposes. More cost-effective surveys can be designed to collect data on those criteria alone.

Rapid Appraisal can also be used as a catalyst, bringing together the various parties concerned in a particular issue and motivating them to find solutions to common problems. In this model, the leading role could conceivably be played by any of the agencies or groups involved, depending on local circumstances. Depending on the types of activities identified during the appraisal for future action, other agencies could take on advisory roles in their areas of competence.

RAPID APPRAISAL
as
INTERACTION

In the last model, the main focus of the appraisal has shifted from the development activities resulting from the appraisal to the process which the community goes through during the course of the appraisal. Here, the real intention of the leading agency is the empowerment of the community to undertake its own development, entirely on its own terms. The role of any outside agencies would, ideally, diminish steadily until their only responsibility would be to respond to the requests of the community for technical advice.

While the role of outside agencies in this model seems limited, this form of intervention is actually far more demanding as it would require long term commitment by an agency to an activity which might achieve few results that are easily measurable. Above all, any agency undertaking this type of activity requires extreme flexibility in planning and carrying out activities.

RAPID APPRAISAL
as
EMPOWERMENT