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A Non-threatening Approach to Gender Awareness Training? Some possibilities
Abstract
Reflections around the tensions between male fieldworkers and Women's Project Officers on an Oxfam project, lead to the idea that RRA training can help to raise gender awareness. The RRA approach encourages fieldworkers to listen, to see that communities are not "homogenous blobs" and to abandon preconceived ideas. A case-study from Sierra Leone shows how a social map drawing activity done separately by men and women revealed their different perceptions and needs. The second case-study shows how RRA work in Ghana caused male fieldworkers to change their views of women's position in the community. The next most important step would be to "transform fieldworkers' anger and resentment into positive pride in their awareness of difference".
Publisher
ActionAid
An End To Isolation: The Report of the Ogaden Needs Assessment Study 1991
Abstract
The Ogaden Needs Assessment Study was undertaken as a joint exercise between SCF(UK) and the Pastoral Surveillance Team of the RRC Early Warning and Planning Services. The trigger for the study was the influx into the Ogaden of thousands of returnees from Somalia and concern about capacity of the region to support the growing population. A rural sample survey was carried out using two helicopters. The objective was to establish the nutritional status of children and also to get data on grain production, consumption, sale and exchange, and the prospects of the food economy. The health data was obtained using standard anthropometric procedures, while socio-economic data was gathered by the use of questionnaires on key informants. The survey showed that the combined effects of the collapse of the livestock/grain trade and the continuing burden of the returnee population could result in a food crisis during the following dry season.
Publisher
SCF
Interviews with key informants and household surveys: Central Ethiopia
Abstract
Nutritional surveillance, as part of, or complementary to, the famine early warning system in Ethiopia, has been used to collect reports on local food security from community leaders using structured interviews. It is important to assess the extent to which this information reflects the food-related behaviour of the community. Information on various socio-economic variables related to nutrition was collected at the household and community level through interviews in western Shewa Province. The data was compared and generally the correspondence between the two was good. Information topics which might be missed using only the local leader, and ways to improve collection are discussed.
Monitoring Food Security and Coping Strategies: Lessons Learnt From The SADS Project of Save The Children Fund (UK), Mopti Region, Mali: Field Report on Methodological Questions
Abstract
SCF(UK) established a local food security monitoring project called SADS in the Mopti region of Mali, which has been operational since 1987. It aimed to identify who was vulnerable, where, when and why, and to provide appropriate information to decision makers. This working paper describes some of the lessons learnt from the experience of monitoring food security and coping strategies. Information was collected by field staff from rural people, and this paper examines the use of such qualitative and semi-quantitative data, and the problems associated with using local knowledge systems. The approach to data collection belongs loosely to that associated with RRA. Information was collected by project staff using checklists and semi-structured interviews with key informants, listening to oral histories and discussions at village meetings. SADS also uses sentinel sites called 'listening posts' which are located in positions to gain insight into larger areas. Information was collected on agricultural and fish production, on-farm stocks, off-farm employment, consumption and migration. This was supplemented by secondary data, particularly on rainfall. Seasonal calendars were drawn up to show food access, activities and coping strategies for different producer groups, and this has led to the use of seasonally specific monitoring indicators. SADS shows that a relatively low cost methodology for monitoring food security can be established, based mainly on socio-economic data, that can provide timely and reliable warnings of localised food insecurity.
Publisher
Save the Children
Needs Assessment in Changara District, for Development in the Resettlement Programme in Tete
Abstract
This was essentially a two-week evaluation of the current programme of resettlement in Tete, Mozambique started in September 1994. The aims were to assess the needs of older people, particularly the most vulnerable, in two communities of Changara district, Tete province; to use the exercise as a planning tool to determine priority areas and appropriate strategies for developing the Resettlement and Community Development Programme with older people in the district, fostering the empowerment of participants; finally, to make recommendations for future resettlement programmes by Helpage International. A participatory methodology was employed in order to analyse change in community and family structures, as well as the position of older people in the community and how this affects the support and care the community can provide.
Publisher
HelpAge-International
Operational Research Project on Community Based Food Security Monitoring and Responses
Abstract
This reports on ActionAid's project aimed at strengthening emergency preparedness and responses in famine vulnerable areas in a number of African countries. It examines the setting up of Community Based Food Security Monitoring Systems (CBMS) that help field staff make timely predictions about impending food shortages. One of the principles of a CBMS is that it is 'people-centred', and the community should be involved with data collection, interpretation and response. The aim is to build up a picture of the way peoples' livelihoods operate and what constraints and stresses they face. To assess the food security situation, PRA techniques are used including semi-structured interviews with key informants and group discussions with farmers and village leaders. PRA is also used to collect data on early warning indicators. The paper comments however that it is best not to take a full community-managed approach in circumstances where a number of participatory prerequisites are not in place.
Publisher
Action Aid Emergencies Unit
Overveiw: tales of shit:Community-Led Total Sanitation in Africa
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Publisher
International Institute for Environment and Development
PRA assessment: a case of ZOA Refugee Care Rwanda
Abstract
This paper presents some basic challenges faced by ZOA-Refugee Care, an international Christian NGO, in Rwanda in recent years. The organisation has been working in the post-1994 genocide and war period to provide emergency aid, and now increasingly focuses on community development work. The paper reports on the background of the project, issues around institutional environment and organisation change of ZOA-Rwanda, notes from the PRA sessions held, and follow-up processes. Along with specific recommendations, it is seen that the decentralisation policy of the Rwandan government offers a good opportunity for a participatory approach, particularly as local authorities have a large impact on the progress of a development programme and are crucial to inducing change.
PRA for people and parks: the case of Mole National Park, Ghana
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Abstract
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was used to assess people's perceptions of the benefits and difficulties of their life near Mole National Park in northern Ghana. PRA was frequently the only approach acceptable to villagers biased by years of mistrust and conflict with the Ghanaian Department of Game and Wildlife (GWD). The paper briefly recounts the methods used and problems encountered, the most significant of which was the suspicion and antagonism towards GWD by the villagers. Reviewing some of the lessons learned, the paper concludes that 'if obtaining community participation is crucial to ensuring the sustainability of protected areas then PRA must be viewed as an important component of any conservation approach'.
Publisher
International Institute for Environment and Development
PRA for self-reliant rural development: the case of a resettlement area in Ethiopia
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Abstract
This paper focuses on the Tana Beles area in Gojam, Ethiopia, where in the mid-1980s almost 80,000 people were resettled from different parts of the country. Many of the settlers experienced severe difficulties in adapting to the new environment . These difficulties, combined with the implementation of a large-sc ale infrastructure project with a very top-down approach, resulted in a strong material and psychological dependency on external aid and assistance. Following the suspension in 1991 of all foreign projects in the area, the challenge has been to enhance the transition from emergency aid to self-reliant and self-sufficient development. The paper describes how PRA techniques were used to explore general adjustment problems and constraints, needs and priorities, as well as the expectationsand aspirations of the settlers. It was found that 'in this specific context of general upheaval, PRA represents a particularly useful approach to understand how people react to such disruption and develop new coping strategies'. Furthermore, in development projects characterized by 'project dependency' PRA introduces a valuable external stimulus favouring self-awareness and a crucial means for encouraging people to become self-reliant.
Publisher
International Institute for Environment and Development
PRA, social tremors and rolling heads: thoughts on PRA and empowerment
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Abstract
The article discusses the issue of conflict and the skills required to deal with it, in the context of two FAO projects in Guinea and Tanzania. In the Guinea example an exploratory RRA investigating food security issues in a fishing community revealed conflict between the project credit scheme and the local community over the repayment of loans. In the second example an exploratory appraisal focusing on nutrition and food security in fishing communities in Tanzania uncovered layers of corruption and manipulation in the management of the credit team. This was the cause of conflict between the communities and the project. Although in these examples a constructive resolution to the problems was found, it does raise questions about whether facilitators and researchers have the skills to deal with such situations.