2. 2
Participatory Rural Appraisal
□ An approach that
■ ensures participation of local communities and groups
■ understanding them and learning from them
□ A set of
■ participatory processes,
■ people oriented principles, attitudes, behaviours and methods
■ congenial to learning and participation
□ A menu of methods which enable local people to
■ participate in knowledge building exercises,
■ investigate and analyze their problems,
■ evaluate constraints and opportunities and
■ take informed decisions for pursuing goals of sustainable
development
3. 3
Participation
Participation in Procedure [Lowest degree]
Participation in Decision Making
Participation in Decision Implementation
Participation in Sharing the Benefits [social/
individual]
Participation in Planning, Implementation,
Monitoring and Evaluation
Control and Ownership and Faith in the
Philosophy of Participation [Highest degree]
6. 6
RRA/PRA/PLA
□ People centered Approach and method to learn
about rural life and conditions FROM, WITH & BY
PEOPLE (Robert Chambers 1992)
□ Rural people do much of the Investigation, presentation,
Analysis, Planning and Evaluation of the study
□ Aims to incorporate the knowledge and opinions of
rural people – Indigenous technical knowledge
(ITK) in the planning and management of
development projects and programmes.
□ Investigators as facilitators enable local people to
share, enhance and analyze people’s knowledge of
life and conditions and to plan, act, monitor and
evaluate
7. 7
Origin and History
□ Developed as a research approach in late 80s
□ As a response to the failures of the development
plans and approach – top-down approach
□ By the early 1980’s, there was growing
dissatisfaction among development experts with
both the reductionism of formal surveys, and the
biases of typical field visits.
□ In 1983, Robert Chambers, a Fellow at the Institute
of Development Studies (UK), used the term Rapid
Rural Appraisal to describe techniques that could
bring about a 'reversal of learning‘.
□ He is considered the father of PRA
8. 8
Origin and History…
□ In 1985 the first international conference in Thailand
to share experiences relating to RRA
□ This was followed by a rapid growth in the
development of methods that involved rural people
in examining their own problems, setting their own
goals, and monitoring their own achievements.
□ By early 1990’s, the term RRA has been replaced by a
number of other terms including ‘Participatory Rural
Appraisal (PRA)’ and ‘Participatory Learning and
Action’ (PLA).
□ Participatory Action Research (PAR) and
Participatory Community Based Action Research
(PCBAR) are in currency
9. 9
RRA To PRA
RRA
□ Late 70s
□ University/research
based
□ Users: funding
agencies/universities
□ Resource: local
people’s Knowledge
□ Innovation in methods
□ Extractive
PRA
□ Late 80s
□ NGOs based
□ NGOs/CBOs & Govt.
□ Local people’s
capabilities
□ Innovation in
behavior and action
□ Facilitating &
participatory
10. 10
The roots:
□ Can be traced to the activist adult education
methods of Paulo Freire (Brazilian
educationist and activist: 1921-1997)
■ Pedagogy of the oppressed (1968)
■ Cultural Action for Freedom (1970)
□ In his view, an actively involved and
empowered local population is essential to
successful rural community development.
□ PRA owes much to the Freirian theme, that
poor and exploited people can and should
be enabled to analyze their own reality.
11. The Shift
□ Development - Empowerment
□ Top down - Bottom up
□ Experts - People
□ Control - Participative
□ Individual - Group/Team
□ Measuring - Meaning/Comparing
□ Reserve - Rapport
□ Boring - Fun
□ Verbal - Visual
11
12. 12
Characteristics
□ Multidisciplinary Team:
■ having different skills and backgrounds;
different viewpoints for deeper and
comprehensive insights
□ Mix of techniques: to be tailored to the
specific requirements of the study
□ Flexibility & Informality:
13. 13
We They
□ Establish rapport
□ Convene
□ Catalyze
□ Facilitate
□ Enquire
□ Choose
□ Adapt
□ Watch
□ Listen
□ Learn
□ Map
□ Show
□ Quantify
□ Score
□ Explain
□ Analyze
□ Model
□ Rank
□ Inform
□ Discuss
□ Plan
15. 15
Four pillars of PLA
Process
Methods
Sharing
Attitudes,
beliefs &
behaviour
16. 16
Behavior and Attitude
⌦ Participation
⌦ Hand over the stick
⌦ They can do it / accepting the creativity of the People
⌦ Respecting the views of others
⌦ Listen more, speak less
⌦ Unlearn – de schooling
⌦ Embracing Errors
⌦ Building rapport with the people
⌦ Openness, objectivity, critical self-evaluation
21. Methods and Tools
1. Observational:
■ Participant/Non-participant observation,
Transect Walk etc
2. Visual:
■ Mapping, Seasonality calendar, Venn
Diagram Daily routine etc
3. Discussion
■ Focus Group Discussion, Case study, Semi
Structured Interviews
21
22. 22
Sharing
• Sharing of each one’s knowledge & experiences
• Analyzing together
• partnership
• Collective learning and action
• Presentations
23. 23
Principles of PRA
● Reversal of Roles [ Learning from the
People]
● Rapid and progressive learning
● Offsetting Biases
● Optimal ignorance
● Triangulation
● Seeking diversity
● Handing over the stick
● Critical self awareness
● Sharing
● Learning by Doing
24. 24
Principles of PRA
Reversal of Roles
❖ The emphasis on learning from
the local people and gaining
insights into the social,
economic, political, technical,
physical etc. indigenous
knowledge of the people
25. 25
Principles of PRA
Learning Progressively
❖ By using appropriate and
flexible methods in a
sequential manner instead of
a blueprint learning program.
❖ The participant will logically
interact in the collective search
26. 26
Principles of PRA
Offsetting biases
❖ Listening not lecturing
❖ probing not passing on
❖ seeking out those who are marginalized,
isolated and remote
❖ Learning their concerns and priorities
❖ Comfortable with limited convenience
❖ Giving priority to the convenient time and
place of the participant
27. 27
Principles of PRA
Optimal ignorance
❖ Optimizing the learning
❖ Not learning more than necessary,
❖ Not measuring what need not be measured
etc.
30. 30
Principles of PRA
Seeking diversity
❖ Seek complex and diverse
information.
❖ Looking for and learning from
exceptions, contradictions and
differences.
31. 31
Principles of PRA
Handing over the stick
❖ Building confidence in the
capability of people becoming
facilitators – facilitating
investigations, analysis,
presentation
❖ Learning by local people
themselves so that they generate
32. 32
Principles of PRA
Self critical Awareness
❖ Continuous and critical
examination of one’s own
behavior by embracing errors,
learning from failure and mistakes
33. 33
Principles of PRA
Sharing
❖ Sharing of information, ideas
and knowledge among local
people, facilitators,
bureaucrats, elected leaders,
experts, professionals and
gaining insights for planning
34. 34
Principles of PRA
Learning by Doing
❖ Most of the information,
knowledge and ideas generated by
doing, performing and strictly
focusing on the interactions,
participation, application of
methods etc.
35. 35
Hence the Process involves
□ Listening & Learning
□ Offsetting biases
□ Utilization of precious community time
□ Seeking diversity (greater the diversity of events and
processes, better the understanding of reality)
□ Cross checking
□ Optimal ignorance (knowing only what is worth knowing)
36. 36
□ Interacting with local communities
□ Establishing rapport
□ Clarifying objectives
□ Identifying sources of local knowledge
□ Developing insights into local culture
□ Understanding the indigenous knowledge base
□ Brainstorming information, ideas, anxieties etc
□ Learning through observation, case studies
etc..
Process (Contd.)
