Participatory Resource Appraisal is a way of learning about natural resources from local community. A field-based methodology evolved in1990’s- involves local community participation in study on natural resources. Participatory Resource Appraisal (PA) enable local people to identify their own priorities and make their own decisions about the future. The organising agency facilitates, listens and learns. PRA uses visual and flexible tools to ensure that everyone can join in regardless of background. It can be carried out in a place familiar to local community. PRA can help utilise natural resources on a sustainable basis.
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Participatory - People are involved
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Resource – source of supply of something that is available for
use
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Appraisal-finding out of information about problems,
needs etc-
PRA was developed in Africa and Asia and is now used across
the globe. A multitude of acronyms are used to describe it: e.g. PLA
(Participatory Learning and Action), and PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal).
PRA is an assessment
and learning process for participatory planning and action. The
approach aims to incorporate the knowledge and opinions of rural people in
the planning and management of development projects and programmes. Participatory
Appraisal is an empowerment approach that seeks to build community
knowledge and encourage action at grass root level.
PRA is used when you are willing to let the community take
control, when you want to base your actions on local knowledge and when you
want to reach out to very diverse members of a community. The long-term goal of
this approach is to empower and enable people to analyse and tackle their
problems themselves.
Principles of Participatory
Resource Appraisal
1) Listening and learning -
through participation
2) Offsetting biases – which
generally arise with “rushed proposals”
3) Proper utilization of
community time – in the best possible way
4) Seeking diversity – learning
from diverse conditions and people
5) Crosschecking – to minimize
errors in the results obtained
PRA uses a lot of visual
methods making it especially useful for participants. Various techniques are used including
community/participatory mapping, diagramming (resource mapping, Venn diagrams
etc.), focus group discussions, interviews, ecosystem mapping, etc. Oral and
visual communication using diagrams, pictures etc. are prioritized to overcome
literacy divides.
Techniques used include:
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Ø Surveying and sampling, e.g. transect walks (systematic
walk along a defined path (transect) across the community/project area together
with the local people to explore the water and sanitation conditions by
observing, asking, listening, looking), wealth ranking (information on the
relative wealth and well-being of households in a village -helps in determining
the social and economic status of households in a village), social mapping.
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Ø Interviewing, e.g. group discussions,
semi-structured interviews
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Ø Community mapping, e.g. Venn diagrams, matrix
scoring, ecograms, timelines.
The critical aspects of
PRA are
1) Proper attitude and
behaviour- for approaching and establishing links with local communities
2) Process of participation- process
of rapport building, process of learning, pace of participatory process,
broadening and deepening participatory process
3) Methods for interactive
participation-interview, walks, etc
4) Sharing-information
obtained from local communities should be shared for further learning to occur
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is thus an assessment
and learning approach that focusses on empowering local people to actively
involve in analysing their living conditions, problems, and potentials and
bring about changes required. Changes are to be achieved by collective action
and the local communities are encouraged to assume responsibilities for
implementing appropriate actions. PRA follows the principles of decentralization
and empowerment and ensures accountability to stakeholders. PRA is an
exercise which transfers the role of planning and decision-making,
traditionally taken by government institutions and development agencies, to the
target group or community itself.
- PRA can be
expensive at first as it is very important that people running the process
are properly trained in the approaches and its values. If local community
members learn the approaches themselves and become more confident, the
costs of hiring external help may be reduced.
- PRA should be
an ongoing process to ensure you are getting the most out of it.
- PRA can be
extremely inclusive, flexible, and empowering. The knowledge produced by
local community researchers will be highly reliable, and can help to
identify and tackle underlying issues.
- When local
community members have been trained to facilitate a process, this capacity
remains within the community for the future.
- PRA is a
creative and flexible approach that can complement and draw in other
techniques as and when needed throughout the process.
PRA
Techniques
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Timeline
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Social Mapping
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Seasonal mapping
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Venn diagram
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Matrix ranking
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Pair wise ranking
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Well being ranking
• It
is mostly used for the appraisal of natural resources in terms of status,
problems and potential. It provides a cross-sectional representation of the
different agro-ecological zones.
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This has also been used for the depiction of various social aspects, such as,
the caste and ethnic determinants of a settlement.
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Walk from a high point across to a low point in the area
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Just a straight line walk from one extreme point of the area to the other.
• To
get more detailed view of the area, an S-shaped transect walk is also
undertaken
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Locate a group of local people having some knowledge of the area and who are
willing to walk with you for the exercise. Explain the purpose of the study.
• Go
along with the people at the prefixed time on the already decided transect
path.
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Observe the surroundings. If necessary, stop at certain locations for detailed
discussions on the points emerging. It also gives you a breather and time to
note down details.
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After returning, draw a transect on a large sheet of paper. Let the local
people take the lead in drawing the transect diagram. Use your notes and the
notes of other members of the transect team while making the diagram
• It
is not uncommon to have two transects done for the same area- one by local men
and another by local women. What is very striking s the different perspectives
the two transect produce.
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The path, as far as possible, should remain the same for different transect
walks. It helps in making the date more comparable. If you want the coverage to
be detailed, you can select more than one path and have the same and different
team do the transect walk.
Timeline
• It
captures the chronology of events as recalled by local people
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Time line provides an aggregate of the various landmark events as perceived by
the local people.
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Helps to learn from the community what they consider to be important past
events, the historical perspective on current issues and to generate
discussions on changes with respect to issues you are interested in.
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Identify some elderly persons in the village, explain the purpose of the
exercise.
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The key questions:
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When was the village established? What are the important events in the history
of the village? What major changes took place? What are the reasons for these
changes?
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Make a note of the key points in brief in cards in bold letters.
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Once you feel that the list is more or less complete, keep the cards in a
chronological order- the earlier events on the top and the later events lower
down.
• Add years to the left side of the list of
events.
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Triangulate with other elderly persons in the village to see the correctness of
the information given in the time line. Secondary sources of information can
also be used.
Venn
Diagram
Venn
diagram is useful to study and understand local people’s perceptions about
local institutions, individuals, programmes etc. Particularly useful to study
and analyse:
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Various groups and individuals in the locality and their influence.
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Relative importance and usefulness of services and programmes
Eg.,
1) Ask the participants to list the various institutions , which are assigned
in different sizes of the circles. Size of the circle is proportionate to
perceived importance- i.e., big circle more important
2) Distance
from the centre is proportionate to access, i.e., less distance means easier
access
Well
being ranking
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Used for ranking and grouping households and communities on the basis of
income/livelihood, wealth and other perceivable well being criteria such as
educational attainment, food security etc.
• It
is based on the perception of the local people. It helps to understand the
local people’s conceptions of wealth, well-being and their views on
socio-economic disparities between households.
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Helpful to explore issues like: livelihood, vulnerability, constraints to
development as people perceive them, and to design intervention strategies in
line with people’s aspirations.
• To study inter-household and inter-group
socio-economic disparities and to understand how the local people view them.
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Well being ranking is generally done with key informants. The selection is made
based on the basis of their knowledge about the different households.
Make
a list of households. The names of the head of households are written on
separate cards. A group of key informants with good knowledge of the village
are then asked to rank the household. Let the participants do the ranking on
their own. Ask the participants to sort out the household cards into
representatives categories of well- being. Ensure that the participants discuss
among themselves and arrive at the well-being categories.
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