PRA-PALM Series

PURPOSES:

The main purposes of this note are:

a) To share information (including our most recent experiences) in PRA, with practitioners and those wishing to learn, use and teach PRA methodology.

b) To serve as a basic note from which you can proceed by adapting existing methods and inventing new ones, thereby adding to the PRA approach.

c) To let you know where you can find out more if you wish.

BACKGROUND AND USES:

It is generally becoming accepted that the traditional approach to assessing rural situations have been lacking in several respects.

Rural development tourism, anti-poverty biases (spatial, time and seasonal, people, project and professional) survey slavery, insulation of senior people and alienation of junior ones have all contributed to mis-judgement, mis-interpretation and mis-representations of village situations. PRA helps us to better perceive poverty and survival strategies. It also brings to the surface traditional management systems and the values underlying them. It thus gives us outsiders a better understanding and appreciation of the rural situation.

Thus it allows for infusions of local knowledge into assessments and plans - hopefully leading to better sustainability.

PRA has a range of applications and can be used over a variety of situations. Some of these are:

1. Participatory Planning of Rural Development Programmes, whether of the Integrated Rural Development (IRDP) type or sectoral type. (eg. agriculture, forestry, sericulture, animal husbandry, non-farm activities etc.)

2. Participatory planning or resources development and management programmes. These include wastelands and watershed development, afforestation programmes, etc.

3. Selection of beneficiaries for poverty alleviation programmes. (IRDP, DWCRA, sponsorship etc.)

4. Study of seasonality (agriculture, employment, incomes, debts, diseases, fodder availability, milk, etc.)

5. Study of coping mechanisms/strategies of the rural poor. (Significant in this is the study of the aspect of rural management.)

6. Monitoring and evaluation of development programmes, eg. impact of a road, a watershed development programme, an agricultural research station, an IRDP programme, a family planning programme, etc.

METHODS/STEPS:

Duration:

The duration will vary depending on the purposes/objectives of the programme, the topics or the information that is sought. The range may be from a few hours spent investigating a specific topic such as `Marketing of Groundnut' to a few days (usually 4-5) exploring various aspects of village life Training can be combined with the other purposes mentioned.

(In this note we are making the assumption that we are talking about the longer (4-5 day) duration programme.)

Participant Mix and Numbers:

Preferably a blend of youth and experience - meaning young persons who are sharp and can pick up skills from the experienced ones (skills in protocol, observation, interviewing, etc.). This essentially means that the participants both new and experienced should be keen and willing to learn new things. In the past we have had negative experiences with `experienced' outsiders who knew everything and ended up lecturing instead of learning. Bored outsiders, who joined the programme late and left early were others who did not contribute much. They are a distraction and an unnecessary load on the programme. Apart from this it is desirable but not essential that the participant mix consists of a mix of disciplines (Multi-disciplinary) anthropologists, community specialists, agriculturists, economists, doctors, veterinarians, etc. There may be a predominance of a particular specialisation/discipline where the focus is on a particular area or sector. Eg. if the focus is on health, then the team would be better off with more doctors than veterinarians, and vice-versa if the focus is on animal husbandry.

Ideally the participant mix could also be made up (wherever possible) of staff from Government, Teaching and Research Institutions and NGOs. However, while professionalism is a necessary and welcome quality, professional biases and baggages are not, if they inhibit the way information is received, processed, interpreted, and used.

Numbers would vary depending on the situation and purpose. For a general exposure to PRA methods the group size may go up to 35 to 40 persons. For an intensive planning exercise a team of 10-15 persons is desirable. For the shorter topical investigations (for a single topic) between 2 and 5 persons is sufficient.

Location and Logistics:

This varies depending upon the circumstances. The village selected may be within the given project area or command area of an NGO programme, a Research Station etc., where there is already an established presence and an ongoing programme activity. Sometimes the selected villages may be totally new. The location will depend on the purposes and objectives of the exercise.

Location: The following criteria are helpful in deciding the location of the PRA exercises.

1) Purpose of the Exercise: training or planning? In the case of the former, an older village where the chances are that the villagers would understand, accept and tolerate the presence of large number of outsiders is desirable. In the case of the latter, either an old or a new village may be selected assuming that the exercise is for real.

2. Number of Households: Ideally between 40 and 100 depending on the number of outsiders. But this number is not rigid.

3. Programme Terrain: The topics being investigated and the nature of investigation would determine the terrain. Eg. forestry issues, irrigation issues, etc. would require the relevant villages to be selected. For training purposes, the selection of villages offering a diverse mix of activities would be interesting.

4. Others: Such as the capacity of the village to host such a large gathering for 4-5 days - food, water, accommodation, etc.

Whatever be the case, it is a good idea on the part of those organising the programme, to visit the location and familiarise themselves with the layout and terrain.

Logistics: Are what they normally are when planning an exercise of this nature. Arrangements of food (including morning tea) transport (if necessary) sleeping arrangements, space for working on presentations and notes, space for evening meetings and group presentations, etc. should be some considerations to be taken into account.

Materials and Kit:

These have been detailed out in the note on PRA kits. A few important items are listed here again.

a) Rangoli powder (atleast 1 kg. each of 6 different colours, Green, Red and Blue are essential.)
b) Brown paper sheets (for charts and presentations),
c) Coloured felt pens (the thick ones are better),
d) Gum, cellotape, scissors, coloured paper, pins, note books, pens, etc., things of general stationery in nature.
e) Seeds and counters.
f) Boards - for presentations.
g) Lighting - Petromax, torches, (gensets) etc.

Schedules:

The following programme outline is usually followed (in the 4-5 days' duration exercise). This is not rigid but can be adapted depending on situations and needs. The exercises are aimed at generating information on specific topics (eg. agriculture), issues (eg. access of landless to common property resources) and aspects. To obtain this information various methods need to be used. New exercises and methods could also be evolved or tried out and used as seen fit.

(This is an important part of PRA)
DAY - I
(Usually from the late afternoon onwards).
* Introduction of participants.
* Introduction to PRA
* Warm up exercises.

Time Line - to get a snapshot of the historical background of the
village.

Participatory Mapping - to obtain information regarding resources, layouts and infrastructure, etc.

DAY - II (Whole Day)

* Sharing, reflections and write ups
* Exploratory exercises

* Transects, Historical

} To understand about

   Transects.

} resources and their

* Participatory Mapping
   and Modelling

} management.

*Qualification, and

} To understand about -

* Ranking Exercises

} a) SEASONALITY (Rainfall, agriculture, labour migration, income expenditure, debt, credit, fodder, milk production, etc.) b) LIVELIHOOD ANALYSIS (Agriculture, animal husbandry, sericulture, non-farm livelihoods, etc.)
c) PREFERENCES (for trees and their uses, fodder, grasses, crops and varieties, etc.)

* Others - Linkage Charts
- Venn diagrams Relationship
      charts.
- Flow diagrams
- Pie diagrams
- Bar diagrams
- Graphs
- Wealth Ranking

}To show linkages and
}relationships.
}

} To represent information
} gathered in a concise form.
}
}
} To show economic status.

(A long list indeed to which many more topics can be added! But it is not necessary to do all of them. This is just a menu. Choose what is relevant and appropriate. You may need to split this over 2 days.

DAY - III (Whole Day)

* Sharing reflections and write ups.
* Taking stock of what is done.
* Identifying gaps.
* Briefing of what's ahead.
* Convergence exercises
- Problems, solutions, opportunities
- Resource Development
Management Plan

DAY - IV (Whole Day)

* Sharing reflections and write ups.
* Briefing on how to conclude
* Concluding exercises
- Technical Plan
- Budget Plan
- Time Plan
- Resource
Mobilisation Plan
- Operational Plan
- Management Plan
- Roles and Responsibilities.

DAY - V

* Sharing, reflection and write ups
* Review and discussion of Programmes
* Analysis
* Documentation
* Consolidation and Report Writing.

It is preferable for a PRA exercise to start somewhere in the late afternoon, of day one, say around 4:00 p.m. On subsequent days an early start is recommended. Time wise the following schedule is suggested.

Pre-breakfast session (1 hour)	For sharing of experiences, Reflective writing of process and content of the previous day's experiences and what did I learn that was new?
Pre-Lunch Session (3-4 hours)	Exercises
Post-breakfast session (1 hour)	- Briefing for day's exercises - Buzz sessions - Team formation
Post Lunch session (2-3 hours)	Preparation of Presentations
Post Tea Sessions (1 hour)	Recreation
Pre Dinner session	Group presentations
Post Dinner session	Review of day's work by core group and planning for next day.

NOTE : (This schedule is not a rigid one. It is only a suggestion). It can be altered to suit various situations/needs. Late evening presentations enable a larger village audience to participate. This is good for checking the information collected during the day for accuracy. The discussions are also good.

Planning each day's programme with the participants (from the village/farmers) is also recommended.

BRIEFINGS:

Are usually done soon after breakfast. A short briefing followed by formation of sub-groups for each exercise/topic is ideal. The briefing can be accompanied by supplementary handouts - (notes and illustrations of concepts, methods, outputs of previous PRA exercises). Overhead projector and slide presentations greatly enhance the quality of briefing.

Short `Buzz' sessions of 10-15 minutes are recommended. Topics could vary. Some suggested subjects are "what I do hope to get out of this programme", "How should we plan to go about this exercise", "Do's and don'ts in interviewing", "What went wrong yesterday", etc.

"Why do we need to do this exercise (eg.seasonality)?"

"What method should we use for which topic?"

While sub-groups are being formed, it is useful to compose them in such a way that they have the skill/technical competence to deal with the subject of the exercise. For eg., if the topic is agricultural practices - the sub-group should preferably contain one or two persons with an understanding of the subject. (These persons need not necessarily be graduates of agricultural science). This enhances the quality of the interaction and the output.

INTERVIEWS AND EXERCISES:

`Interviewing' is the subject of another note (Ref. PALM Series 4-B). It is an important aspect of the programme. The exercises are of 2 types. The first is of a mobile nature and consists of visits to the field, walking about in the village, transecting and traversing, climbing a hill, walking down a nulla, etc. all done in the company of the villagers. Resource mapping, agricultural practices, are some of the subjects which are studied in this way. The second is more stationery in nature and involves interviewing in a selected spot. Time line, mapping and modelling, seasonality, are some of the subjects. The selected spots may be of the busy type such as the bus stand, tea shop or market place or they may be secluded in someone's house, the temple, under a tree, etc.

A short conference before setting out helps clarify things in the team's mind. Three useful questions to ask are :

Why are we doing this exercise? (Purpose)
What do we want to get out of it? (Content)
How do we go about it? (Strategy)

Additionally it is a good idea for the sub-group to define the roles of its members - interviewer, observer and recorder. Refer note on Interviewing PALM Series 4-B.)