PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES

Participatory approaches are a product of long lasting interaction between researchers, development workers, government agents and local populations. Participatory approaches offer a creative approach to investigating issues of concern to poor people, and to planning, implementing, and evaluating development activities. They challenge prevailing biases and preconceptions about people's knowledge. The methods used range from visualization, to interviewing and group work. The common theme is the promotion of interactive learning, shared knowledge, and flexible, yet structured analysis.

The history of participatory methods in development co-operation began in the late 1970s with the introduction of a new research approach called rapid rural appraisal (RRA), which immediately became popular with decision-makers in development agencies. Building on close collaboration with local populations RRAs were designed to collect first-hand data from the local people about their perceptions of their local environments and living conditions in rural areas. A limitation of RRA, however, was that it was extractive; the role of the local people was limited to providing information, while the power of decision-making about the use of this information remained in the hands of others.

PARTICIPATORY RURAL APPRAISAL

PRA can be described as a family of approaches, methods and behaviours that enable people to express and analyze 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 key elements of PRA are the methods used, and - most importantly - the behaviour and attitudes of those who facilitate it. PRAs use similar methods and tools as RRA, but the underlying philosophy and purpose changed. While RRAs aim at extracting information, often in a single event, PRAs were designed to follow more the peoples’ own concerns and interests.

One of the most important principles in PRA is the sharing of results of analysis, decisions and planning efforts among the community members by open and public presentation during meetings. PRAs strongly supported and facilitated the introduction of more demand-responsive ways of managing development interaction, and process-oriented thinking. It built up rural people's own capacities for analyzing their circumstances of living, their potentials and their problems in order to actively decide on changes.

PRA employs a wide range of methods to enable people to express and share information, and to stimulate discussion and analysis. Many are visually based, involving local people in creating, for example: maps showing who lives where and the location of important local features and resources such as water, forests, schools and other services; flow diagrams to indicate linkages, sequences, causes, effects, problems and solutions; seasonal calendars showing how food availability, workloads, family health, prices, wages and other factors vary during the year; matrices or grids, scored with seeds, pebbles or other counters, to compare things - such as the merits of different crop varieties or tree species, or how conditions have changed over time. PRA activities usually take place in groups, working on the ground or on paper.

The core principles are:

• sustained learning process: enhancing cumulative learning for action by participants is the focus and has three outputs: identifying strategies for improvement, motivating people to undertake these strategies, and enhancing their capacity for solving problems 
• Different perspectives in group-based analysis: PRA explicitly seeks insights from and an understanding of the needs of different individuals and groups, which may be conflicting but will better show the complexity of local situations 
• key role for facilitators: to include different perspectives often means challenging local traditions of communication, which requires sensitive facilitation (often someone from outside the area but also increasingly a role taken on by someone with a local stake in the process); 
•  systemic and methodological basis: creating a structured process that explores problems within the wider context and not just focusing on a narrow slice of reality - from description to analysis and action; and 
•  Context-specific: unique social/physical conditions means building a process of discussion, communication and conflict resolution - which by necessity evolves out of the specifics of the local context.

 PAME

Participatory monitoring & evaluation (PM&E) is a process through which stakeholders at various levels engage in monitoring or evaluating a particular project, program or policy, share control over the content, the process and the results of the M&E activity and engage in taking or identifying corrective actions. PM&E focuses on the active engagement of primary stakeholders.

Participation is increasingly being recognized as being integral to the M&E process, since it offers new ways of assessing and learning from change that are more inclusive and more responsive to the needs and aspirations of those most directly affected. PM&E is geared towards not only measuring the effectiveness of a project, but also towards building ownership and empowering beneficiaries; building accountability and transparency; and taking corrective actions to improve performance and outcomes.

Conventionally, monitoring and evaluation has involved outside experts coming in to measure performance against pre-set indicators, using standardized procedures and tools. PM&E differs from more conventional approaches in that it seeks to engage key project stakeholders more actively in reflecting and assessing the progress of their project and in particular the achievement of results.

Core principles of PAME are;

• primary stakeholders are active participants - not just sources of information 
• building capacity of local people to analyze, reflect and take action 
• joint learning of stakeholders at various levels 
• catalyzes commitment to taking corrective actions 

 PARTICIPATORY POVERTY ASSESSMENT

According to the World Bank, participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA), is an iterative, participatory research process that seeks to understand poverty in its local, social, institutional, and political contexts, incorporating the perspectives of a range of stakeholders and involving them directly in planning follow-up action. PPAs can be defined as an instrument for including poor people's views in the analysis of poverty and the formulation of strategies to reduce it through public policy.

The purpose of PPAs is to improve the effectiveness of public actions aimed at poverty reduction. PPAs are generally carried out as policy research exercises, linked to governmental policy processes, aimed at understanding poverty from the perspective of poor people – and what their priorities are in terms of actions to improve their lives. PPAs can strengthen poverty assessment processes through:

1. ­broadening stakeholder involvement and thereby increasing general support and legitimacy for anti-poverty strategies;
2. enriching the analysis and understanding of poverty by including the perspectives of the poor;
3. providing a diverse range of valuable information on a cost-effective, rapid and timely basis, ­
4. creating new relationships between policy-makers, service providers and people in poor communities

PARTICIPATORY LEARNING ACTION

Participatory learning and action (PLA) can be defined as “a growing family of approaches, tools, attitudes and behaviors to enable and empower people to present, share, analyze and enhance their knowledge of life and condition and to plan, act, monitor, evaluate, reflect and scale up community action.”

Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) represents an umbrella for a wide range of similar approaches and methodologies, including Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), Participatory Learning Methods (PALM), Participatory Action Research (PAR), and Farming Systems Research (FSR)

Local people have a rich knowledge base and experience of making a living in a complex environment. Within PLA the role of outsiders is more of facilitating a process, where by local people identify priorities and analyze their own problems, and develop their own solutions.

Common principles of PLA:

• A defined methodology and systematic learning process: the focus should be on communal learning by the stakeholders through a system of joint analysis and interaction. 
• Multiple perspectives: it is important to reflect the various interpretations of reality and solutions for problems by the different stakeholders (seeking diversity and differences). 
• Group learning process: revealing this complexity of the world can only be done through group analysis and interaction. 
• Context specific: methods and approaches should as much as possible be designed or adapted to the local situation, preferably by the actors involved (ownership). 
• Facilitating experts and stakeholders: the role of outsiders (researchers and/or practitioners who are not members of the community or group with whom they interact) is to act as catalysts (facilitators) for local people to decide what to do with the information and analysis they generate. Outsiders may also choose to further analyze the findings generated by PLA, to influence policy-making processes, for example. In either case, there should be commitment on the side of the facilitating organizations to do their best to assist or follow up on those actions that people have decided on as a result of PLA, if local people feel that such support is needed. 
• Leading to change: the process of joint analysis and dialogue helps to define changes which would bring about improvement and seeks to motivate people to take action to implement the defined changes. 
• Triangulation: It is best to use as many tools as possible while diversifying team members and data sources to cross check information and neutralize biases 
• Multiple Perspectives: Inherent to the PLA methodology is the practice of valuing all participant perspectives and exploring different worldviews. 
• Group Learning Process: A PLA approach to a project should involve a group learning process that mirrors the interactions and reflects the complexity seen in the community. As a result, group learning and instruction will be iterative, changing as people’s perceptions evolve. It is important to remember that communities will not necessarily have homogeneous opinions.