Evening hours (after 6 p.m.) are the times usually set aside for presentations of the day's findings. These are the times when most of the villagers are comparatively free after the day's work is done. (The time selected should also be of convenience to women, who may have finished their wage work but then have to get involved in house work). Each sub-group in turn presents the information it has gathered. Presenting this information in a large evening forum has the advantage that the information is up for everyone's scrutiny and is subject to correction. Thus there is a reasonable chance that at the end of the day, we have an end product that is accurate and reliable, having been refined several times over from the sub-group discussion stage to the final presentation. Such gatherings are lively, with the village folk correcting one another and arriving at a consensus on issues/events/practices and other information.

a) Photographs, slides and films : serve as an important form of documentation of the PRA exercise. They also make valuable training material. Slides are probably the most effective though slightly costlier than photographs.

b) Charts : The outputs of the exercises copied onto charts are another excellent form of documentation. Translated from English to various languages and vice-versa and transcribed onto A4 size paper, they serve as a record of the programme. In this way, they can be replicated and widely used as training material and for information dissemination.

c) Individual and Group write-ups : These constitute reflective write ups on the PROCESS or How of events, the CONTENT or the What of the subject matter and NEW THINGS LEARNT. These are found to enhance individual and group learning.

They also act as a record or document of the entire proceedings.

In all probability you will find that no two PRAs will be alike. There is always something new that crops up and something new to learn. The final outputs fall into several categories. Before these are listed out an exhortation is being made to all practitioners.

For wider dissemination to institutions, students and other practitioners. Send them to the following address :

MYRADA
No.2, Service Road
Domlur Layout
Bangalore 560 071.
KARNATAKA. INDIA.

a. New Methods

Ones that you did not know of before and which emerged accidentally or were `discovered' or they may be methods developed concisely by you and your team. For example, one group recently `hybridised' the social mapping exercise with the wealth ranking exercise and evolved a method which is now spreading in use. The houses are marked on the map and given different colours according to economic status. In this way it is easy to spot who the poor families are and where they are located.

b. New Information

About traditional customs, practices, management systems etc. It may be new information about a crop variety for instance - characteristics which the farmer sees but which the outsider is blind to or does not know about. (For eg. till recently we did not notice that farmers were practicing their own clever methods of soil and water conservation and management. Soil harvesting, diversion drains, nulla training and several other measures are widely in practice. This became evident only after we participated in one PRA where we consciously looked for traditional technology. Now we are able to spot these technologies quite easily in every village we go to. Another good example is when we discuss seed selection from the point of view of grain output and discover that straw output is also a major consideration in the farmers' choice of seeds, since animals have to be fed and fodder is rarely bought; it has to be generated).

c. New Insights

For example women know a lot about agriculture and soils. In one PRA an old women told us about 7 different types of soils. And yet they tend to get left out of discussions. A conscious effort must be made to involve them. The same is also true of children, who file away vast quantities of information in their heads and interpret them most interstingly (for eg. in one village it was the children who provided the most accurate information on the number of people with physical diasbilities in the village. In another village the children made a map while the adults were making theirs, and the children included an aeroplane. When they  were interviewed it turned out that a 'plane flew over their village every afternoon and for the children it was an important event!)

d. New ways of representing information

Charts, diagrams, etc., which bring out new ideas and ways of thinking about and interpreting things.

e. New or additional data

Which emerges inspite of questionnaire surveys having been carried out previously or our presence in the village having been established for several years. For eg., in one PRA, one team was carrying out a study of school going children and drop out rates. They found that the drop out rate was related to the number of IRDP loans given in the village. With every dairy loan, one child dropped out of school to look after the new buffalo. The project team was not aware of this - even though the project had been in existence for the past 10 years. As they explained to us -they always felt that the IRDP programmes that they helped implement was a great success.

f. The Master Plan

This is the major output if the exercise is for planning a programme. It will arise out of the information generated during the exercise and will be pieced together during the convergence exercise. Various elements of this plan are, a chart for problems, treatment opportunities, a time plan, a budget plan, a responsibility chart, a resource mobilisation chart and an operational plan (if such is the case, it is desirable that action/implementation should follow through as per the plan. This helps reinforce credibility, confidence, motivation and good will of the villagers.) [Refer PALM Series 4-F for more details on implementation.]

g. Co-ordination

This is an important function, it is better achieved with a core team of up to six persons. The functions of this team are usually to plan the programme and to carry out the various functions which are listed above. For the latter it is desirable that each core team member selects one area to be her/his responsibility i.e., food arrangements, accommodation, transport, forming sub-groups, allotting the day's exercises, chairing/moderating sessions, documentations, etc. Another important function of the core group could possibly be to keep pulling the group together at all times. This helps to prevent the participants from getting dispersed, disorganised/alienated during the exercises and the programmes from getting diluted. If done well and involving the community it creates a positive atmosphere of learning, cohesion, motivation and enjoyment. Participation levels are high. Appropriate breaks with songs and other cultural items play an important role here.

Finally, it is also helpful if the core group meets at the end of each day to review the day's programme (both the positive and negative points) and plan for the following day.

SOME ADVICE:

There is a separate note on this (PRA-PALM Series 4-C). In a nutshell, the following items are important and found to be of help in conducting a PRA exercise.

a) Protocol - i.e. introducing ourselves and explaining the purpose of the exercise to the important segments of the village population. This helps to obtain legitimacy for our presence and participation from the villagers. This could be done over a period of time starting with the preliminary village visits.

b) Village Camping - to enhance rapport building and our own understanding of the village situation. Usually a vacant house, a school room or temple is a good spot to camp. And if it is not raining why not under the stars or under a large tree or on top of a hill? Shamianas (marquees) serve a useful purpose - though they tend to look like wedding pandals.

c) Eating - with the villagers is another important key to the making of a good PRA. It definitely enhances participation. Simple village food - bread from millets, lentils, greens and fruit - what more does one need? (A few sweets or puffed rice which can be distributed to the village kids now and then, is a useful item to carry along or obtain locally.)

c) Insider:Outsider Ratios - Preferably of atleast 1:1 if not 2:1 or 3:1. This greatly enhances the quality of participation as the villagers would have confidence of numbers and talk more freely. Experience shows that a one time telling is not enough to obtain a gathering/participation of villagers in large numbers. It has to be a constant and continuous exercise with one or more persons in charge of contacting villagers and inviting them to participate. Someone from within the community, eg. school teachers, are extremely helpful in this regard. But remember that people also have their own agendas and priorities. Select a time when they are relatively free.

d. Ice-Breakers - games, cultural items and fun things. We usually start with a prayer and move on to folk songs and other popular songs. Street theatre, mimicry, mono-acting, are also good ice-breakers. Games - local village games like kabbadi and kho-kho and other games which you may want to try out to raise a laugh help everyone to relax. Football and volley ball are also popular (and cheap). Try not to leave the girls out; plan something separately for them if necessary.

e. The mode of enquiry - (For more details on interviewing techniques see PALM 4-B.)

The mode of interviewing should be friendly and interested rather than lecturing or being aggressive.

This is extremely important : Throughout the PRA exercises it is essential to keep a watch on what is happening in the interviews and pull people up for not following the `rules'. One way of doing this is to keep observers in each group who `Umpire' and who would later objectively report on the interview.

f. Starting on the Right Note : Exercises such as time line and participatory mapping are good starting points. They are easy and generate a lot of interest and discussion. Both sides seem to enjoy them. It is preferable to start your PRA exercise then. The stage is then set for proceeding into the more subject-oriented and complex exercises such as seasonality, livelihood analysis, modelling, resource management, wealth ranking, etc.

And finally, are you a beginner? Does all this stuff seem very complex and difficult? Don't worry. Get started. It becomes easier and clearer once you begin to practice it. Don't be afraid of making mistakes - provided you learn from them.