This document discusses techniques for community engagement, participation, and accountability in international development projects. It provides examples of participatory methods like problem ranking, capacity assessment, transect walks, Venn diagrams, social mapping, and preference ranking matrices that can be used to facilitate community participation. Ensuring accountability to beneficiaries through downward accountability is emphasized, with recommendations to provide information, represent the vulnerable, involve communities in decision making, establish complaint procedures, and foster the right attitudes among staff. Transparency and participation can be achieved through measures like public meetings, media outreach, and inclusion of stakeholders in oversight bodies.

1. Practical Approaches to Managing
International Development Projects in
the Face of Complexity
SESSION 2: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT,
PARTICIPATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY
EMANUEL SOUVAIRAN
JANUARY 2014
THIS PRESENTATION WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS VIA SLIDESHARE

2. Participatory approaches
“PEOPLE CANNOT BE DEVELOPED.
THEY CAN ONLY DEVELOP THEMSELVES.”

3. Conducting a household survey
YOU ARE PART OF A SMALL RURAL COMMUNITY IN
TANZANIA.
THE COMMUNITY LEADERS (COMMUNITY COUNCIL) IS
MADE UP OF 6 MEN FROM THE COMMUNITY AND 2
WOMEN

4. The cultural
‘iceberg’
Most things in a
community are BELOW
the surface – just like
an iceberg!
It takes a long time to
get to know another
culture.

5. What do we mean by
Participation?

6. Do we actively facilitate
participation?

8. Techniques and methods
DIAGRAMMING, MAPPING AND MODELING
- TRANSECTS
- MAPS (RESOURCE, SOCIAL, FARM)
- VENN DIAGRAMS
- SEASONAL ANALYSIS
- HISTORICAL ANALYSIS (TIME LINES, TREND LINES, ACTIVITY PROFILES)
RANKING AND SCORING
- PAIR WISE RANKING
- MATRIX RANKING
- MATRIX SCORING
- WELL-BEING ANALYSIS AND WEALTH RANKING
- PROPORTIONAL PILING
- PIE CHARTS
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
- IDENTIFICATION AND SPECIFICATION
- CAUSAL CHAINING
- PRIORITIZATION

11. Handing over the stick
THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP IN THE PRA
PROCESS IS “HANDING OVER THE STICK”
TO THE PEOPLE. THE PEOPLE ANALYZE
THEIR OWN SITUATION. PLAN ACTIONS
AND IMPLEMENT. PEOPLE ARE CREATIVE
AND CAPABLE, AND CAN AND SHOULD
DO
MUCH
OF
THERE
WON
INVESTIGATION,
ANALYSIS
AND
PLANNING. OUTSIDERS HAVE ROLES AS
CONVENORS,
CATALYSTS
AND
FACILITATORS.

12. Three types of participatory
planning
EXPLORATORY: PRA TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES CAN BE USED TO DIAGNOSE THE
CURRENT SITUATION SUCH AS FARMING SYSTEM, HEALTH AND HEALTH
FACILITIES, HYGIENE AND SANITATION, GENDER ANALYSIS LIVELIHOODS ETC.
TOPICAL: APPLICATION OF PRA TO SPECIFIC AREA OF CONCERN I.E. SOIL
FERTILITY SURVEY, WATER, SPECIFIC DISEASE, DIET INCOME SOURCES ETC.
DETAILED STUDIES.
PROBLEM SOLVING: DIAGNOSIS OF PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS OF SOLUTION
WITH PARTICIPATION OF PEOPLE.

13. Participatory Programme Development (PPD) is
the process of working in partnership with
communities to develop feasible, desirable and
sustainable programmes.

14. Participatory methods

15. The art of facilitation
1. THE FACILITATOR HOLDS THE POWER
USE LOCAL LANGUAGE SPEAKERS AS FACILITATORS, FACILITATORS ALSO NEED
CULTURALLY SPECIFIC FACILITATION SKILLS
2. FOCUS ON THE PROCESS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
3. USE TRIANGULATION
AIM TO GATHER AT LEAST THREE PERSPECTIVES ON ANY ISSUE OR PIECE OF
INFORMATION. TRIANGULATION HELPS TO VERIFY DATA, MINIMISE BIAS,
PROBE DEEPER INTO AN
ISSUE, AND TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN FACT, OPINION AND RUMOUR.

16. The role of
facilitators
A good facilitator:
- strives to foster everyone’s
participation
- is a patient and active listener
- is willing to learn
- projects self-confidence
without arrogance
- respects all ideas raised by
participants
- encourages women, poor and
other often-marginalized groups
to voice their
ideas
- adapts methods to situations
without clinging to rigid
agendas
- expresses sensitivity to the
mood and sensibilities of
participants
- creates a warm atmosphere
- has a sense of humour—
participatory learning is
enjoyable!

18. Examples of
participatory
methods
#1: Problem Ranking

19. Examples of
participatory
methods
#1: Problem Ranking

20. Examples of
participatory
methods
#2 Capacity Assessment

21. Examples of
participatory
methods
#3: Transect Walk
PROCESS
• Identify 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 a transect to the people. In consultation with the community
members, define the list of indicators that will be analysed during the walk. Involve them in
the decision-making process regarding the transect path you should take.
• Let the people show you their village by following the transect path that was agreed upon.
Do not hesitate to make modifications if it is required. Also carry the list of parameters and
preferably the resource map for the walk. It is a useful reference during observation and
discussions en route.
• Observe the surroundings. Encourage people to explain things as you move. Take detailed
notes.
• If necessary, stop at certain locations for detailed discussions on emerging issues. Use this
opportunity to clarify issues emerging from the social map, resource map and other
methods.
• Collect and bring some leaves, grass, etc. which you find interesting but are not familiar
with. It helps to refer to them in discussions that will follow and also in documentation.
• After returning, draw the 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.
• Show the transect to others in the locality and ask them to give their opinion.
• Triangulate the findings and thank the participants for their active involvement.

22. Venn diagram
Institutional map of a
Zambian village, as seen
by a focus group of 17
women
MPEWA Village, Eastern
Province, 28.9.93
Drawn on ground with
chalk.
The women explained their Venn diagram, saying for example:
the headman is seen as very important--he helped bring the grinding mill to the village; he settles
social conflicts and mobilizes the community to help the needy.
the traditional healer is seen as more accessible (drawn inside the community) than the hospital
(drawn outside).
the chief is drawn outside the community since he does not visit.
the church is placed outside the community as it "doesn't seem to be helping much anymore" though
its spiritual function is still seen as important.

23. Venn Diagram
Hand-drawn facsimile
of a Venn diagram done
in Sutukunding, The
Gambia, during
discussion of land
tenure, livestock
ownership, and
livelihood security.

24. Social map
showing
wealth ranking
in a village in
West Bengal,
India
A PRA in West Bengal focused on
learning about local people's
perceptions of rural poverty. Social
mapping was used to enable
villagers to identify the poorer
households and to rank them using
their own indicators of poverty.
The social map of one village,
Berapal, was drawn by a group of
villagers gathered in a central
meeting place. Once the map was
drawn, the participants identified
four different wealth groups, from
the poorest of the poor to the
richest. The locally determined
indicators of poverty included
households headed by widows and
agricultural laborers who had no
land and no regular source of
income or food.

25. Preference
Ranking
Matrix (India)
A group of village women ranked
their preferences for a number of
different income-generating
activities using a simple matrixranking technique. After selecting
the items to be ranked, the women
identified their own criteria,
including the amount of time
required by the activity and the
level of profit possible. Pictures
and symbols were used to
represent the different items and
criteria, and the women used a
five-point scoring system to
compare the different options. The
outcome, shown below, reveals, for
example, that brick making is one
of the most profitable activities but
also requires additional labor and
a lot of hard work by the women
themselves. Other activities, such
as selling leaves as plates, are less
profitable but also less timeconsuming and labor-intensive
ways of earning cash.

26. Daily activity charts
drawn by a group of
widows in Zambia
The women who drew
these charts described the
differences between the
rainy and dry season
patterns. In the dry season,
the women must spend
much longer getting water
from the well and collecting
firewood every day to
stockpile it in readiness for
the rainy season. When the
rains come, things are
much busier and the
women's days are much
longer because of all the
work to be done in the
fields.

27. Seasonal calendar of
poverty, drawn by a
group of villagers in
Nyamira, Kenya
* Zeros (0) in table represent stones
used by participants to indicate the
degree of change by month. Thus,
three zeros in the January column for
"Light Meals" means that light meals
are three times more likely that month
than they are in March or April.
This calendar was constructed using
leaves, stones, and symbols to identify
each item, and participants then used
a stick to mark the seasonal
differences on the ground. The
greatest stress was found to be from
December to May, a period when food
stocks, employment opportunities, and
income are at the lowest. People cope
by begging for food and eating "lighter
meals." During this period, men and,
to a much lesser extent, women engage
in seasonal migration to bigger farms,
tea estates or wherever they can find
work. The highest incidence of disease,
especially malaria and diarrhea,
coincides with the long rainy season
from April to July.

28. The cultural
‘iceberg’
Most things in a
community are BELOW
the surface – just like
an iceberg!
It takes a long time to
get to know another
culture.

29. Community Feedback
EXPLICIT EFFORTS TO LISTEN TO AND RESPOND TO LOCAL
FEEDBACK, REPRESENT A SMALL STEP TOWARDS THE
PARADIGM SHIFT THAT NEEDS TO OCCUR WITHIN
INDIVIDUAL AID AGENCIES AND IN THE AID SYSTEM AS A
WHOLE. IF ORGANIZATIONS CAN LISTEN WELL, THERE IS
HOPE THAT WE CAN MEANINGFULLY ENGAGE PEOPLE IN
EFFORTS THAT ARE MEANT TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVES IN ALL
CONTEXTS.

30. Accountability

31. How can we ensure that aid
meets the needs of
the population?
1. MAKE TIME TO LISTEN
2. SLOW DOWN.
TAKE TIME TO UNDERSTAND PEOPLE’S CAPACITIES, PRIORITIES, PREFERENCES, AND IDEAS.
THROUGHOUT ALL STAGES AND TYPES OF PROGRAMS, LOCAL PEOPLE WANT DONORS AND AID AGENCIES
TO BE OPEN TO LISTENING AND DISCUSSING:
•THE LOCAL CONTEXT AND REALITIES;
•EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL AGENDAS;
•EXPECTATIONS;
•ASSUMPTIONS AND DEFINITIONS BEHIND APPROACHES;
•PROCESS OR CRITERIA FOR SELECTING WHAT TYPES OF ASSISTANCE WILL BE PROVIDED AND WHO
SHOULD BENEFIT FROM IT;
•EXIT STRATEGIES.

32. How can we ensure that aid
meets the needs of
the population?
3. BE ACCOUNTABLE TO THOSE AFFECTED BY THE DISASTER, NOT JUST TO DONORS.
MECHANISMS THAT AIM TO IMPROVE ‘UPWARD ACCOUNTABILITY’ UNDERMINE THE CORE PROCESS OF
EMPOWERMENT.
THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF UPWARD ACCOUNTABILITY IS TO MEET DONORS’ IMPORTANT NEEDS TO
UNDERSTAND HOW THEIR FUNDS ARE BEING USED, AND HAVE CONFIDENCE THAT THEY ARE BEING USED
EFFECTIVELY AND APPROPRIATELY.

33. Three Goals of Accountability
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
HAVE FUNDS BEEN PROPERLY USED OR HAS THERE BEEN
FRAUD?
EFFECTIVENESS ACCOUNTABILITY
HAVE OBJECTIVES BEEN ACHIEVED? ARE BENEFICIARIES
PLEASED WITH THE PROCESSES AND OUTCOMES?
EFFICIENCY ACCOUNTABILITY
HAVE THE LIMITED RESOURCES BEEN PUT TO THE BEST
POSSIBLE USE TO PROVIDE VALUE FOR MONEY? WERE THE
ACTIVITIES THE BEST OPTION FOR CONTRIBUTING TO THE
MISSION?

34. Upward vs Downward
Accountability
IN UPWARD ACCOUNTABILITY, TYPICALLY SUCCESS IS JUDGED BY
COMPARING ACTUAL ACTIVITIES TO THE PRE-DETERMINED ANALYSIS
AND BUDGET.
IT IS NOT HARD TO FIND POWERFUL EXAMPLES OF THE DELETERIOUS RESULTS OF
THIS EFFECT. FOR
EXAMPLE, THE TSUNAMI EVALUATION COALITION’S REPORT DESCRIBED
INSTANCES OF HOUSES BUILT
THAT LOCAL PEOPLE WOULD NEVER LIVE IN, THE RESULT OF NGOS FOCUSING ON
COMPLETING
ACTIVITIES WITHOUT FULLY UNDERSTANDING LOCAL PEOPLES’ PRIORITIES (TEC,
2006).
THE PURPOSE OF ‘DOWNWARD ACCOUNTABILITY’ IS TO RELEASE POWER TO THOSE
FURTHER DOWN THE
AID CHAIN, FOR EXAMPLE FROM AN NGO TO ITS INTENDED BENEFICIARIES.

35. Accountability to Beneficiaries
Checklist
IN PRACTICAL TERMS, ACCOUNTABILITY TO
BENEFICIARIES IS MADE UP OF FIVE COMPONENTS:
1.PROVIDING INFORMATION
2.REPRESENTING THE VULNERABLE
3.INVOLVING PEOPLE IN MAKING DECISIONS
4.A COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
5.THE ATTITUDES OF NGO STAFF

36. Accountability to Beneficiaries
Checklist
ACCOUNTABILITY TO BENEFICIARIES BRINGS IMPORTANT
PRACTICAL ADVANTAGES, INCLUDING:
1.INCREASING THE CHANCE THAT AN NGO’S ACTIVITIES MEET
BENEFICIARIES’ REAL NEEDS
2.INCREASING THE OWNERSHIP THAT BENEFICIARIES FEEL
TOWARDS AN NGO’S WORK, WHICH
3.IMPROVES THE CHANCE OF LONG-TERM IMPACT
4.SUPPORTING BENEFICIARIES’ SELF-RESPECT AND SELFCONFIDENCE
5.REDUCING THE RISK OF FRAUD, OR OF FUNDS BEING USED
INEFFICIENTLY

37. Downward Accountability
THIS GOES BEYOND INCREASING THE ABILITY OF BENEFICIARIES TO
INFLUENCE AN NGO’S ACTIONS, FOR INSTANCE BY PARTICIPATING IN
MAKING DECISIONS ABOUT PROJECT ACTIVITIES. IN ITS MOST EXTREME
FORM, THE RELATIONSHIP IS REVERSED, SO THAT THE NGO EXPLICITLY
AIMS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BENEFICIARIES’ ACTIONS – CRUCIALLY,
THE ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT ARE LED AND OWNED BY THE
BENEFICIARIES THEMSELVES.

38. Providing
Information
Good practice is to
make information
available Publicly,
where local
circumstances permit it.
Providing information
is a demonstration of
respect. It also allows
people to hold
community
representatives and
NGO staff to account.

39. Representing
the vulnerable
Some community
leaders may represent
their interests; others
may not. NGO staff
need to identify
representatives who
speak for the specific
groups of people they
aim to help. They also
need to design NGO
activities to make it easy
for busy or low-status
people to get involved,
and to help them
strengthen their
influence in local
decision making.

40. Making
decisions
Encouraging people to
be involved in making
decisions, helps build
the confidence and
skills to influence other
political decisions

41. Complaints
procedures
Successful businesses
see an effective
complaints procedure
as an important way to
get feedback and
improve on meeting
customer needs. Since
NGOs exist to meet the
needs of their
beneficiaries, this is
even more relevant.

42. Staff attitudes
Our attitudes and
beliefs affect our
behaviour. It is very
difficult for a person
who does not feel
respect to behave
respectfully on a
consistent basis.

43. Ideas on how to ensure
transparency
• POSTERS, LEAFLETS OR SIGNBOARDS OUTSIDE THE OFFICES
• PRESENTATIONS AT REGULAR PUBLIC MEETINGS
• USING MEDIA SUCH AS RADIO AND NEWSPAPERS
• RIGHT TO INFORMATION POLICY OF THE ORGANISATION
• PROVIDE INFORMATION ON LOCAL WEBSITE
• PUBLIC AUDITS/ SOCIAL AUDITS
• FACTSHEET WITH ANNUAL KEY INFORMATION
• MULTI-STAKEHOLDER FORUMS

44. Ideas on how to ensure
participation
• ANNUAL MEETINGS WITH LOCAL PEOPLE
• PUBLIC AUDITS/ SOCIAL AUDITS
• INCLUSION OF PRIMARY STAKEHOLDERS IN STEERING COMMITTEES
• COMMUNITY SCORECARDS
• COORDINATING CALENDARS (FARMING AND HOUSE CHORE CALENDAR
WITH THE ORGANISATION’S AVAILABILITY)
• RADIO
• PARTICIPATORY RURAL APPRAISAL TOOLS
• STAFF TRAINING IN PARTICIPATION, FACILITATION AND SOCIAL
INCLUSION

45. Ideas on how to ensure
feedback mechanisms
• PARTICIPATION IN MONITORING AND EVALUATION EXERCISES,
• PUBLIC AUDITS
• COMPLAINT BOXES IN PROJECT AREAS
• COMPLAINT COMMITTEE
• COMMUNITY SCORE CARDS
• REGULAR FIELD VISITS OF PROJECT STAFF
• REGULAR MEETINGS
• SATISFACTION SURVEYS
• INTERNET ONLINE COMPLAINT MECHANISM (INCLUDING CORRUPTION
CASES)
• STAFF ATTITUDES, MANAGERS TAKE THE LEAD IN CREATING OPEN AND
LISTENING CULTURE.