Resources

The Listening to People Living in Poverty Study was undertaken by ActionAid Nepal in order to break away from traditional poverty analysis. It aimed to be an in-depth, wide-ranging investigation of all the details that are usually omitted from reports, and to document poverty from the eyes of poor men and women themselves.  The study produced a number of outputs, one of which was the Nepal Country study which is divided into two volumes.  This first volume is a collection of poor people’s stories: over 60 in total covering 10 districts across Nepal.

This is a report on research undertaken with the objective of gauging real and perceived human insecurity among civilians affected by social violence in South Asia. The project drew on qualitative methodologies to measure æriskÆ and ævulnerabilityÆ in four communities in South Asia affected by small arms-related violence. In determining whether participatory research had any added value to uncover qualitative dimensions of arms related insecurity, it became clear that there is a strong case for expanding participatory action research in the security and disarmament fields, especially in relation to the monitoring and evaluation of violence reduction programmes and security sector reform. The main finding was that most communities felt threatened by the excesses committed by security forces and were particularly worried about being caught in the crossfire between armed forces. Almost without exception, they believed that a political solution to armed violence is the only workable option for redressing insecurity and that preventative and reactive military responses would yield few positive results.

This document presents the proceedings from the three-day National Workshop on Network management organised by the Eastern Region Participatory Action Network (ERPAN) in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), under the Pathways to Participation project. The main objectives of the workshop were to exchange ideas and practices of network management existing in national and international contexts, and to formulate future strategies. A brief analysis is made of the lessons learned from the workshop procedure and structure, and the document goes on to present the daily proceedings of the workshop. The first two days of the workshop were focussed on sharing, concept, history, and present situation of the networks with experiences from Nepal, Bangladesh and Tanzania. On the third day the discussions of the previous two days were summarised by dividing the participants into four groups discussing monitoring, quality and linkages, membership issues, function, and sustainability of networks. The proceedings are followed by 14 annexes comprising some of the presentations made, including: evaluation and feedback; review of the workshop; notes on workshop facilitation; a letter from the ERPAN chairperson reflecting on the workshop; an overview of international participatory networks and their present status; experiences of ERPAN, ActionAid, NEPAN (Nepal Participatory Action Network), PANDA (Participatory Analysis of Needs and Development Action), PARENT (Participatory Resource Network Tanzania); promotion of peopleÆs participation in Bangladesh and the role of PPS (PRA promotion Society); an analysis of networking of civil society, development and capacity building, and challenges encountered by networks and future perspectives; a daily programme schedule; and a list of the participants

Community to community exchanges, which enable poor people to plan, control and negotiate their own development strategies, are the focus of this paper, particularly in the context of squatters/slum dwellers. These exchanges, which spread to international exchanges amongst the urban poor, have birthed a people's movement of global proportions. The paper begins by summarising the urban context in which these organisations emerged, and the scale and nature of the development challenge they face. The emergence of Mahila Milan - a network of women's savings collectives formed by women pavement dwellers in India - is described as a precursor of the initiative, while the need for new models of urban development led to a search for ways of enhancing community learning and hence, exchanges. The ways in which the network can support its members through international exchanges are identified and discussed. A concluding section considers some of the wider implications of the work of Shack/ Slum Dwellers International for people-centred development

In this Feedback section, barriers to the institutionalisation of PRA in NGOs in Nepal are discussed. Concerns are raised about the quality and follow-up of PRA training, in particular that PRA is not used on a systematic basis within organisations that have received PRA training. The lack of process-orientation of many PRA trainers may be a possible cause. Suggestions are made as to how to improve this situation in order to ensure more effective use of PRA in Nepal. In response to this, the second section focuses on NGO and donor roles in institutionalising participation in development, as the issues raised are not only confined to Nepal, but are of wider relevance to the development debate. Whilst good personal practice of trainers is essential, the process should be supported with affirmative action from the NGO and donor communities to institutionalise good practice. Recommendations are made to this effect.