The document provides an overview of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools and methods that can be used for participatory land use planning. It defines key terms like PRA and participatory land use planning. It then describes several commonly used PRA tools - focus group discussions, social mapping, historical profiling, seasonal calendars, wealth ranking, Venn diagrams, impact diagrams, case studies, and SWOT analysis. It provides details on how each tool is conducted and the types of information it can provide. The document concludes with proposing the structure and content for final group reports on participatory land use planning exercises.

1. PART 3 - PARTICIPATORY RURAL
APPRAISAL (PRA)
Training Workshop on Participatory Land Use Planning – 6th – 7th
December 2021 at SLFI, Colombo
• P.B. Dharmasena
• 0777 - 613234, 0717 – 613234
• dharmasenapb@ymail.com , dharmasenapb@gmail.com
• Links to publications:
https://independent.academia.edu/PunchiBandageDharmasena
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Punchi_Bandage_Dharmasena/contributions
http://www.slideshare.net/DharmasenaPb
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_PFqwl0OqsrxH1wTm_jZeg

2. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)
Lesson-8
 There is a general impression that
getting data is a complicated
process such as formal survey,
questionnaire, analysis etc.
 Although there is truth in this
statement, data can also be
collected from simple methods
such as talking to the people,
walking through the community,
observation etc.
 There are many ways of gathering
data.
 This presentation is made to make
the point that informal methods are
as good as sometime better than
formal methods

3. Definition of Participatory Rural Appraisal
It enables them to go for a process to plan, implement,
monitor and evaluate their nature of life and the
living environment.
S.V.P.Nilame
PRA is a set of tools that can be adopted to increase the
ability of the community to analyze, understand
and share with others of the life and their living
environment.

4. Definition of Participatory Land Use Planning
• Participatory Land-use planning is a
systematic and iterative procedure
carried out in order to create an
enabling environment for sustainable
development of land resources which
meets people's needs and demands.
• It assesses the physical, socio-
economic, institutional and legal
potentials and constraints with respect
to an optimal and sustainable use of
land resources, and empowers people
to make decisions about how to
allocate those resources
- FAO/UNEP/GTZ (1999): The Future of
Our Land - Facing the Challenge
• .

5. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)
A tool to identify the insightful understanding of land-use
problems in a mini watershed that cannot be gained through large
meetings or surveys.
1. A focus group discussion (FGD) is a group discussion of 6-12 persons guided by
a facilitator, during which group members talk freely and spontaneously about a
certain topic. The purpose of an FGD is to obtain in-depth information on
concepts, perceptions, and ideas of the group. It aims to be more than a question-
answer interaction.
2. FGD techniques can be used to:
1. Develop relevant research hypotheses by exploring in greater depth the
problem to be investigated and its possible causes.
2. Formulate appropriate questions for more structured, larger scale surveys.
3. Supplement information on community knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and
behaviour already available but incomplete or unclear.
4. FGDs are not used to test hypotheses or to produce research findings that
can be generalized.

6. Functions of the facilitator:
1. Introduce the session
2. Encourage discussion
3. Encourage involvement
4. Listen carefully and move the
discussion from topic to topic.
Subtly control the time
allocated to various topics so
as to maintain interest.
5. Take time at the end of the
meeting to summarize, check
for agreement and thank the
participants.
In general, the facilitator should not act
as an expert on the topic. His or her
being there is to stimulate and support
discussion.
Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)

7. Social Mapping
Shows where resources, activities, problems, and opportunities are located. It also
provides the dimension and scope of issues to be investigated. This exercise can be
improved now by using enlarged satellite images of the village/mini watershed.
Topographical information, information on soils, vegetation, agroecological zones,
water availability, distribution of infrastructure facility, natural disasters, etc. can be
included into this map.

8. Social Mapping
Social mapping is one of the most commonly
conducted mapping exercises in
participatory methodologies. In this
exercise, a group of people who are familiar
with the area and who could understand the
mapping objective and, are willing to
participate is selected from the community.
A trained facilitator directs them to draw a
sketch of the particular village marking the
general features such as houses, existing
infrastructures, available resources etc.
Also, the map should include other important
aspects, which are already determined in a
check-list prepared according to the
objective.
In this way, a social map can be used for
special analysis of a wide range of topics
and identification of key elements important
to different groups of people.

9. Historical Profile
• Historical profile is also a participatory technique
that has been used widely at present.
• The purpose of using this tool is to create the basis
for discussing the negative impacts on the people
lived in a particular situation over a period of time.
• In order to facilitate the exercise, a structured
format is prepared including sub topics such as
years of the drought or flood or any other disaster
records, magnitudes of damages, No. of days the
event prevailed, No. of persons / families affected,
damage to physical assets, problems / constraints
experienced, actions taken to overcome the
problems, supporting persons or organizations
intervened and the assistance received.
• The resource persons represent the community in
this exercise may mostly be older people who could
recall their minds on past disaster events.
Village history reflect time -related changes in the past especially
for land-use changes

10. Seasonal Calendar
Main purpose of using this tool is to identify the
pattern of the fluctuations of significant factors
such as rainfall, wind, drought, cold, income,
expenditure, births, deaths, diseases, etc. that
happened / took place in a periodic manner
through discussions carried out on a monthly basis
for a period of one year.
In this exercise the community participants are
allowed to undergo a brainstorming session to
visualize trends and changes occurred with the past
disaster events on their lives and environment.
One of the outcomes of this work is to disclose how
they could experience various constraints such as
less income, diseases, food shortage, lack of
drinking water etc. during high risk times and
effect of such factors on the lives of the people.
It gives information about connections over time. It also helps to manage natural
disasters. It shows the seasonal changes in cropping calendars and farmers'
expectations.

11. Wealth Ranking
• Wealth ranking is a PRA method that
determines the economic attributes of
households in a village.
• It shows information on the relative wealth
and well being of households in a village.
• It helps in determining the social and
economic status of households in a village.
• The information generated by the wealth
ranking exercise helps in identifying the poor
households in the village.
• Ranking is done by villagers themselves. It
serves as baseline and as an opportunity to
identify indicators for planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation
of village development activities (including
selection of village organizing strategy).
An important tool that explains various poverty classes in the
planning area and the needs and opportunities of each class.

12. Venn Diagram
• Venn diagram is a participatory tool that is commonly
used to assess relationships among various actors /
stakeholders who hold a task / responsibility / stake in
order to address / attend a given issue or a situation.
• It is of twofold; first is a comparative assessment
among identified set of stakeholders & institutions in
terms of their importance in addressing a given
situation or issue. Second is also a comparative
assessment about the quality of service delivery of the
same stakeholders or institutions.
• Once the stakeholders & institutions are identified,
the discussion takes place to rank these according to
the value / importance of the services delivered in
relation to the situation or issue needing attention.
• Once the ranking is complete, the second stage of the
discussion on closeness / satisfaction begins. Each of
the stakeholder / institution will be assessed in terms
of satisfaction of the service they deliver and the
closest ones will be kept very close.

13. Lesson-8
Midwife
Agrarian
Service
Centre
Bank
Police
Station
Agricultural
Instructor
Village
Dispensary
School
Grama
Niladhari

14. SWOT Analysis
• SWOT analysis is a tool that is commonly used to assess options available to
overcome identified impacts/ effects prior to determining an action / solution for
these. The term ‘SWOT’ stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats respectively.
• Strengths & weaknesses are the internal assessment, where the reflection would
focus on ‘what are the strengths within us that we can use to overcome / address a
certain issue’ and ‘what are the weaknesses lie within us that hinder overcoming /
addressing a certain issue’.
• Likewise Opportunities & Threats are the external assessment, where the reflection
would focus on ‘what are the opportunities that are there in our environment, that
we can use to overcome / address a certain weakness lie within us’ and ‘what are the
threats that are there in our environment that are beyond our control’.
• Ultimately, this analysis allows a self-reflection on the possibility of acting on /
overcoming a certain issue, thus enables finding feasible solutions for
implementation.
• In this study, SWOT analysis is used to reflect on the current situation prior to
determination of action for implementation, to reduce the effect of negative impacts
on lives of people.

15. • The participatory tools/ exercises discussed above are used
to generate a situational analysis, which is then used as a
base to discuss impacts/ effects of the issue on people’s
lives. ‘Impact diagram’ is the tool that was used for this
purpose.
• Impact diagram is used to identify the psychological and
physical damages as well as other losses of the affected
people due to a disaster in selected locations of the five
districts. Further, the diagram could reveal the negative
effects socially and culturally faced by the people due to
the disaster.
Impact Diagram

16. Lesson-8

17. Case Studies
A case study means a review of past event, which needs special attention
or differs from standard way/ system. It is an in-depth discussion on a
particular event with the people who experienced it.
In case of disasters topics of major concern are how they identify the
warning signals of the disaster, how they could respond to or face the
disaster, and what changes occurred with respect to social, economic
and environmental situations etc.
Most important part of the exercise is to identify desirable and
undesirable features they had in the past and ways and means to
improve the situation, so that the community could respond the
disaster with minimum effect to them from the disaster.
However, there is a need to consider the changes occurred with time and
discuss how they could adjust to the present time.
The group selected for the discussion should be the people who really
were affected by the disaster. In the discussion the most familiar
questions are begun with what?, how ?, when ?, where?, who? and
why?.

18. • Preparation of a semi-structured
format.
• Introduce the objective of the
discussion correctly.
• Encourage more detailed
descriptions than short answers
• Review of social status before the
disaster
– Land area, population, houses
etc.
– Agricultural and economic
status
– Public facilities (transport,
health, education etc.)
• Reasons for occurrence of disasters
– Environmental factors
– Human activities
Case Studies - Steps

19. • Pre-disaster signals
– Days/ hours before the disaster occurs
– Just before the disaster
• Preparedness for the disaster
– Storing food, water etc.
– Collection of medicines
– Attention to pre-disaster warning signals (natural/ media)
– Preparation of temporary huts, required implements etc.
• Response to the disaster
– Protection from and been organized for the disaster situation
– Taking affected people to a safe place
– Seeking assistance from Government and other organization
Case Studies - Steps

20. • Situation after disaster
• Rehabilitation activities
• Relief aids/ support services
• Recovery of the losses.
• Damages due to disaster
• Social (families, houses, life and
properties)
• Economic (agricultural and economic
losses)
• Damage to public properties (canals,
bridges etc.)
• Duration for restoration
• Time spent
• Amount of restoration
• Amount not being restored
• Suggestion to reduce the effect of
disaster
Case Studies - Steps

21. Group Exercises
• Step 1 - Preparatory works for PLUP –
Composition of participants (Land
users, Agencies (forest, agriculture,
irrigation, livestock, wild life, CBOs),
other service agencies, NGOs)
• Step 2 - Resources availability (land,
surface water, springs, groundwater,
land uses, ecosystems, biodiversity,
heritage areas)
• Step 3 – Selection of PRA tools
(SWOT, social mapping, historical
profile, seasonal calendar, wealth
ranking, Venn diagram, impact diagram,
case studies)
• Step 4 - Legal aspects of PLUP (land
tenure, reservations, land uses)
• Step 5 – Factors to be considered in
planning (Poverty, Climate change,
sustainable land management, clean
water, water for cultivation, food
security, special features in the focus
location, etc.).

22. Final Group Reports
• Cover Page: Title, Location, Team of Experts, Month and Year
Content
1. Introduction – Background, problems and issues, Objective and specific
objectives of the exercise, funding source
2. Description of the Site – demography, socio-economic status, employments,
available maps, industries, tourism, culture and heritage
3. Composition of the Participants – Institutes, land users, individuals
4. Natural Resources in the location – land, surface water, springs, groundwater,
land uses, soil, ecosystems, biodiversity, heritage areas
5. Methodology – Tools adopted (SWOT, social mapping, historical profile,
seasonal calendar, wealth ranking, Venn diagram, impact diagram, case
studies)
6. Physical features – land use types, reservations, settlements and other
important features such as temples, schools, community centres, markets etc
7. Planning Criteria - Poverty, Climate change, sustainable land management,
clean water, water for cultivation, Food security, special features in the focus
location, etc.
8. Existing land use map - land use, land productivity, threatened areas
9. Land use plan - (including maps – land use, land management)
10. Recommendations – Legislations (Policies, Acts, Regulations), land use,
restoration activities, reservations, decision making authorities