2. Overview of presentation  Introduction and Definition of PRA  Origin of PRA  Principles shared by PRA and RRA  Exclusive principles of PRA  What it is?  Definition  Principle Components  Precepts of PRA  Evolution in Details  What’s in it?  Where it is Applied?  Practical Example  Criticism  Bibliography

3. PRA: Introduction and Definition  PRA : Participatory Rural Appraisal  Components:  People  Knowledge  Participation  Planning  Action  It is a combination of different approaches to  Share  Enhance  Analyze  Plan  Act For the betterment of the rural people with their participation  The secrets behind the success of PRA are  Decentralization  Empowerment

4. PRA: Origin  PRA has been evolved from RRA (Rapid Rural Appraisal)  In mid 80’s the necessity of participation in rural development became evident and the term PRA was born  The understanding of PRA came mostly from field rather than academia  PRA mostly focuses on the empowerment of people through participation  The sustainability rate of PRA is high due to the participation of the local people  The sense of ownership and belongingness helps to the success of PRA

5. Principles shared by PRA & RRA  Reversal of learning  To learn of the local people  Learning rapidly and progressively  Exploration, flexible methods, adaptable  Offsetting bias  To be receptive rather than preconceived ideas  Optimizing tradeoffs  Understanding the usefulness of information  Triangulating  Crosschecking and approximation

6. Exclusive Principles of PRA  Empowerment  The authority to local people through decentralization and confidence building  Self critical awareness  Mistakes are lessons to learn and to do better next time  Personal responsibility  The belongingness and ownership to the participants  Sharing  To discuss and argue about ideas in open forum with all stakeholders

7. What it is?  Participatory research is not an alternative research method, but an approach that can be applied to any methodology – survey, experimental, qualitative (Lilja and Bellon 2008).  “PRA methods, as they are often called, are visual and tangible and usually performed by small groups of people”. (Chambers 2007)  PRA comprised of different research tools to facilitate local people in  Analyzing information  Practicing critical self-awareness  Taking responsibility  Sharing their knowledge of life and conditions to plan and to act.

8. Definition  As it has diverse application and has been changing rapidly any effort to define it might be folly and ‘unhelpful’.  “ An approach and methods for learning about rural life and conditions from, with and by rural people”. (Chambers 1994)

9. Principle Components of PRA Source: Chambers 2007.

10. Adopted from Chambers 2007

11. Evolution  Originally evolved from Rapid Rural Appraisal and spread fast in the 1990s.  Shift in rhetoric: “from top-down to bottom up, from centralized to local diversity, from blue prints to learning process”. (Chambers 1994)  Learning is two way system and respondents know better his/her daily encounter.  Emphasis on the power relation between the researcher and ‘researched’.  Practicing participatory research started since 1983 in Bangladesh.

12. Evolution  Five streams which stand out as sources and parallels to PRA are, in alphabetical order:  Activist participatory research;  Agro-ecosystem analysis;  Applied anthropology;  Field research on farming systems;  Rapid rural appraisal. (Chambers 1994)

13. Activist Participatory Research  The contributions of APR to PRA are more through concepts than methods:  Common ideas:  Poor people are creative and capable;  Can and should do their own investigation, analysis and planning;  Outsiders have roles as a convenors, catalysts and facilitators.  The weak and marginalized can and should be improved.

14. Agro-ecosystem Analysis  Gordon Conway developed this approach in Thailand at the University of Chiang Mai around the year 1978.  It contributed much in current RRA and PRA through:  Transects (Systematic walks and observation);  Informal mapping (Sketch maps drawn on site);  Diagramming (Seasonal Calendars, flow and causal diagrams, bar charts, van or chapati diagrams )  Innovation assessment (scoring and ranking different actions)

15. Applied Anthropology  “PRA represents an extension and application of social anthropological approaches, insights, and methods, cross-fertilized with others.”  Insights and contributions from Applied Anthropology:  Field learning is flexible art rather than rigid science;  The value of field residence, unhurried participant observation, and conversations;  The importance of attitude, behavior and rapport;  The emic-etic distinction;  The validity and importance of ITK.

16. Field Research on Farming System  Have contributed to the appreciation and understanding of  Complexity, diversity and risk-proneness of many farming system;  The knowledge, professionalism and rationality of small and poor farmers;  Their experimental mindset and behavior;  Their ability to conduct their own analysis.

17. Rapid Rural Appraisal  Has three main origins:  Disappointment: anti-poverty bias, rural development tourism.  Disillusion with questionnaire surveys and their confusing results;  Cost-effective.

18. From RRA to PRA

19. What’s in it?  Secondary sources  Semi-structured interviews  Key informants  Groups of various kinds  Do-it-yourself  They do it  Participatory analysis of secondary sources- aerial photographs  Participatory mapping and modeling  Transect walks  Time line and trend and change analysis  Oral histories and ethno-biographies  Seasonal Calendars  Daily time use analysis  Livelihood analysis  Participatory linkage diagramming  Institutional or Venn Diagramming  Well being and wealth grouping and ranking  Analysis of difference  Matrix scoring and ranking  Estimates and quantification  Stories, portraits and case studies  Team contracts and Interactions  Presentation and analysis  Participatory planning, budgeting, monitoring  Group discussions

20. Where it is applied?  PRA applications include:  Natural Resource Management;  Agriculture;  Poverty and Social Programs;  Health and  Food Security Analysis.  Project Cycle  From inception to end.  Participatory projects pull methods, attitudes and values from PRA.  ‘Micro projects’

21. Practical Example  VGDUP- Vulnerable Group Development for Ultra- poor  What are the indicators?  Owning less than 10 decimals of land(0.04 ha)  No ownership of production assets  There are no active adult male house hold members  Employment, if any is limited to day-laboring or domestic help  The household is de facto headed by a women (divorced, abandoned, widow, unmarried)  PRA in this project  Wealth ranking among the candidates

22. Whose Participation?: The criticism  “... much of what currently passes as 'participatory' involves local people taking part in other people's projects, according to agendas set by external interests.” (Cornwall 1996)  Remained donor driven and ‘imposed’.  Lack of proper training distorts the overall objectives of this approach.  Methods are often used to extract info’s rather than to empower.  Even the term ‘carpet-bombed with PRA’ came forward due to its over utilization.  Shortcomings of some methods like community meetings and widespread use of group discussion.

23. Bibliography  Lilja, Nina and Mauricio Bellon ; Some common questions about participatory research: a review of the literature, Development in Practice, Volume 18, Numbers 4–5, August 2008.  Chambers, Robert; The Origins and Practice of Participatory Rural Appraisal. World Development, Volume 22, No 7, pp 953-969, 1994.  Chambers, Robert; From PRA to PLA and Pluralism: Practice and Theory, Working Paper 286, IDS, 2007.  Cornwall, Andrea; Towards participatory practice: participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and the participatory process in De Koning, Korrie and Martin Marion (1996). Participatory Research in Health: Issues and Experiences. Zen Books Ltd., London.