THE WaDImena RESEARCH PROPOSAL WORKSHOP Amman Jan METHODOLOGICAL NOTES ON METHODOLOGICAL NOTES ON PARTICIPATION PARTICIPATION Ziad Moussa Environment & Sustainable Development Unit American University of Beirut

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Inspirational Text “… Most professionals assume they know what farmers want and need but are often wrong. Not knowing farmers’ priorities and not putting farmers’ agendas first mean that professionals are likely to address the wrong problems in their research. Conversely, identifying farmers’ priorities and helping farmers meet them leads to innovations which are adopted…” Syria, February 2004: Do THEY seem to care? Algeria, April 2004: there is an evident CHEMISTRY with the local population

Why Participation?  Independent studies (which were conducted simultaneously) by five International Development Agencies demonstrated that while Participatory Methodologies may require greater up front investment in staff training and operations expenditures (up to 15%, on average, according to the World Bank study), throughout the life of programs overall costs average IS ACTUALLY LOWER than in programs that do not rely on local capacities.  Participatory development programs are invariably more relevant and effective at addressing local needs.  the gains made during an intervention are more often sustained using participatory methods and chances are higher that the engagement of local women and youth in the intervention process will improve their status as well…

Participatory Methodologies Participatory Methodologies are a growing family of approaches, tools, attitudes and behaviors to enable people to share, analyze, and enhance their knowledge about life and conditions and to plan, act, monitor and reflect There is a wealth of terms that are used interchangeably when speaking of Participatory Methodologies. Some of these terms - Rapid Rural Appraisals (RRA) - Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) - Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) often used interchangeably with PRA - Participatory Action Research (PAR) - ZOPP from German "Zielorientierte Projektplanung"), etc… The word “Participatory Approach” is best understood from a methodological pluralism perspective, and embraces the principles that are shared by all of the above mentioned methods. RRA PRA PARZOPP

Agreeing on a Definition Out of the many complex definitions of PRA, I would retain the simplest, where PRA is defined “a semi-structured process of learning from, with and by rural people about rural conditions”. It is referred to as process because it is iterative and sustained over time, NOT a one time activity. Algeria 2004: women learning from women

Indicators of Participation A good indicator of participation is when people take responsibility for carrying out a development initiative or a research project. This means that people are not only taking part in the different activities, but also in the decision- making process and the planning of development and/or research initiatives.

Participating for CHANGE Change is most successful when the effort is driven by commitment, and where the initiative is driven by the interest in learning. Participation unleashes the synergies and potentials behind the commitment and how this commitment can be translated into a meaningful action. Various driving forces usually initiate change:   People feel the need for change;   People might be led through an analysis that indicates the need for change;   Circumstances and clients may demand change.

Participating for CHANGE Exercise 1: What was the driving force behind your choice of the research topic, the target area and the target group? Discuss in group for 10 minutes then come back to the plenary on a flip chart

Good Participation Empowers Some underlying principles behind the widespread of Participatory Approaches in general are:   Communities participate genuinely if they will derive benefits aimed at satisfying their real felt needs as they define them themselves.   The innovative dimension of PRA is this combination of attitudes, behavior and methods and the synergies in between them (it is not a new scientific or anthropological invention, but rather a new way of looking at things)   Participation is fostered by putting communities "in the driving seat" with researchers/facilitators taking the passenger seats. Practically, this means the ownership and control of the technical, financial, socio-cultural, and institutional components of a development program should be vested in villagers themselves

Good Participation Empowers   Participation is not normally spontaneous; it must be organized and sustained. This implies that researchers who pursue participatory approaches to community development require skills in communication, management and conflict resolution that are not regarded as essential for performing conventional research.   It is becoming increasingly acknowledged that participatory research need not only to be directed at and with the poor, but also at and with policymakers

Understanding the Research Context In trying to understand the general research context, five key factors were found to affect the research approach: 1. 1.The nature of the research question(s): the problematic behind water pricing is significantly different than that behind the use of greywater Researchers’ views on participation, learning and the role of science. (functionality and/or empowerment): in most instances, researchers privilege “extractive” empirical data which can be compiled in a research report or a scientific paper. Participation is introduced as a complimentary add-in, most of the time under the influence of the donor 3. 3.The social aspects of the system: who are the stakeholders, what are their perceptions, preferences, vested interests, what is their relationship structure, tribal and socio-political composition, who monopolizes visibility and who is marginalized, …

Understanding the Research Context 4. Experience and capacity of the stakeholders. Do they have a history of working together before assuming that the water user association which will be created by the project will be functional within months? Do they need specific capacity development, training, facilitation? 5. External contextual factors which enable or constrain participation: in MENA, experience showed that local authorities become suspicious as soon as we tackle the institutional dimension. They often see participation as a Trojan horse to promote “westernized agendas” when dealing with transparency, inclusion, mutual learning, influencing boundary spheres…

Participation Mobilizes Participatory Learning and privileges that researchers learn from local people (technically called reversal of learning) and the local people taking a lead role in facilitation, investigation, analysis and learning (technically called handing over the stick, much like in a relay race)

Participation Mobilizes Exercise 2: In your teams, try to reflect on how your research proposal intends to put the local community in the “driver’s seat” and how will the local population will play a leading role in the in facilitation, investigation, analysis and learning Think mainly on who takes and controls the decisions in the process

The 3 Pillars of Participation Participation is – first and foremost – a STATE OF MIND that relies on 3 pillars:   Sharing, through which communities themselves share their knowledge, experiences among each other and with the facilitators working with them, internal or external;   Methods: through which the communities can interview, map, model, rank, score, analyze, diagram, present and plan their development;   Behavior & attitudes of the practitioners: listening, learning, observing, embracing one’s errors, facilitating exchange and assisting people in learning while doing.. Practitioners have to believe that big outcomes may be born of small inputs

Some Limitations related to Participation   Believing that participation is a « ready-made » recipe by Betty Crocker in association with Chambers et al (situation specific)   Applying participatory approaches in a mechanical way, just to say/write/report/document that we did it   Taking the means as an end, by stressing on the processes and the techniques – which are nothing but tools – and forgetting that the main objective is to generate information and knowledge and assist in making choices and decisions.   To embrace participation simply because it is a fashion and a requirement by the donors (don’t forget, it is a STATE OF MIND before anything else)   Different stakeholders groups within a community can have different interests and different strategies, which might influence the results (cf the SAGA segment of the training)

Offsetting Biases   Spatial Bias: the most easily accessible locations are visited, dropping out the remote – off the beaten track - ones   Seasonal Bias: the life in a rural village, but also an urban community can be significantly different between spring and winter… there are many participatory techniques to map it through   Socio-economic bias: Across the world but also in MENA, we tend to limit our investigations to the wealthy, politically connected and well established stakeholders… what about the rest (and vice-versa)   Gender Bias: Women AND men (P.S: can a team of all male researchers claim to overcome the Gender bias in a rural conservative MENA context   Politeness Bias: in MENA, we find it difficult to criticize the choices of the (unique) ruling party, or the Imam of the mosque…

What is NOT Participation Participation can range from passive to active, but also interactive… Participatory research focuses mainly on interactive participation, which is situated in the bottom steps of the participation ladder…

The Participation Ladder Passive Participation People participate by being told what is going to happen or has already happened (unilateral) Participation in information giving People participate by answering questions posed by extractive researchers using questionnaire or such similar approaches. People do not have the opportunity to influence proceedings Participation by consultation People participate by being consulted, and external agents listen to views. These external agents define both problems and solutions, and may (with no obligation) modify these in the light of people's responses. Participation for material benefits People participate by providing resources such as labor, in return for food, cash or other material incentives. Much on farm research falls in this category, as farmers provide the fields but are not involved in experimentation or the process of learning

The Participation Ladder Functional participation People participate by forming groups to meet predetermined objectives related to the project. Such involvement tends not to be at early stages of project cycles or planning, but rather after major decisions have already been made. Interactive participation People participate in joint analysis, which leads to action plans and the formation of new local institutions or the strengthening of existing ones.. These groups take control/ownership over local decisions, and so people have a stake in maintaining structures/practices Self-mobilization People participate by taking initiatives independent of external institutions to change systems The closer we get to this part of ladder, the higher are the chances of sustainability and impact on beneficiaries

What is NOT Participation?   We cannot really refer to a participatory approach when researchers and development practitioners use participatory techniques in a context where they have already decided on the issue and where they use the information generated for the purposes of the research or development project itself, rather than for the purposes of a community-owned initiative.   We cannot speak of « participation » if the interface with the local population is used to confirm the integrity of a preconceived idea… This would rather refer to “manipulation” (level 1)   We cannot refer to « participation » if we only aim at convincing the community about the “wisdom” behind a research program in which they have no say, regardless of the technical quality and the appropriateness of this program (in fact who can better tell if the program is appropriate or not? Applicable? Sustainable over time??)   « participation » is by no means limited to a kickoff workshop in the beginning and a validation workshop towards the end.