Resources

This book is intended for all who are committed to human wellbeing and who want to make our world fairer, safer and more fulfilling for everyone, especially those who are ‘last’. It argues that to do better, we need to know better.

It provides evidence that what we believe we know in international development is often distorted or unbalanced by errors, myths, biases and blind spots. Undue weight has been attached to standardised methodologies such as randomised control trials, systematic reviews, and competitive bidding; these are shown to have huge transaction costs, which are rarely if ever recognised in their enormity.

Robert Chambers contrasts a Newtonian paradigm in which the world is seen and understood as controllable with a paradigm of complexity, which recognises that the real world of social processes and power relations is messy and unpredictable. To confront the challenges of complex and emergent realities requires a revolutionary new professionalism.

This is underpinned by a new combination of canons of rigour expressed through eclectic methodological pluralism and participatory approaches that reverse and transform power relations. Promising developments include rapid innovations in participatory information and communication technnologies (ICTs), participatory statistics, and the Reality Check Approach, with its up-to-date and rigorously grounded insights. Fundamental to the new professionalism, in every country and context, are reflexivity, facilitation, groundtruthing, personal mindsets, behaviour, attitudes, empathy and love.

This folder, produced by the Jamaican Social Investment Fund, consists of seven short handbooks on CBOs . They are the result of observation of many Jamaican CBOs and they seek to address some of the common problems addressed by these organisations. These practical handbooks cover a number of topics: 1 The Community Based Organisation: looks at issues such as what a CBO is, how to get started, membership types, CBO structure, how to encourage new people, principles of evaluation and accountability, and registration. 2 Leadership and Motivation: here several issues are considered such as who the organisation belongs to, the constitution, job descriptions, meetings, how to stimulate creativity, building consensus and decision making, delegating and dealing with conflict. 3 Money Management and Fundraising: this handbook looks at the role of the Treasurer, the types of funds needed, different ways to raise funds, budgeting, accounting, financial reports, audit, credit and investment. 4 Planning Community Projects: various issues are considered such as developing a vision, identifying priorities, analysing the problem, analysing resources, analysing the past, analysing alternative solutions, analysing risk, planning activities and writing project proposals 5 Implementing Community Projects: this handbook takes the community project further by addressing implementation challenges, identifying beneficiaries, mobilising people to provide services, detailing the action plan, identifying the best time for implementation and monitoring of the project. 6 Evaluation of Community Projects: the issues around evaluating projects are looked at in this handbook and include questions such as why evaluate, who should evaluate, what should be evaluated and how should it be done. Evaluating people, planning and reporting are also addressed. 7 CBO Publicity and Networking; this last handbook looks at promoting the image the CBO through newsletters, press releases, presentations and by phone then goes on to consider communication in meetings, invitations and requests, and representation outside the community.

This sourcebook forms part of a wider initiative to promote easy access to systematized information on field-tested participatory research and development concepts and practices. The sourcebook aims to identify and consolidate tested practices and concepts relevant to managing natural resources for agriculture and rural livelihood. The primary audience for the sourcebook are field-based research practitioners in developing countries. The sourcebook is divided into 3 volumes: Understanding, enabling and doing participatory research and development. Volume 1, understanding participatory research and development, looks at typologies and concepts (such as indigenous knowledge, property rights, monitoring and evaluation), approaches, participatory technology development and natural resource management. Volume 2, enabling participatory research and development, looks at capacity building, networking and partnerships, scaling up and institutionalisation. Volume 3, doing participatory research and development, looks at technology development, strengthening local organisations and multi-stakeholder based natural resource management.