Resources

The video documents a three-day PRA exercise which was carried out by Activists for Social Allternatives (ASA) with village women in Tamil Nadu, India. The PRA focused specifically on issues relating to women, and also acted as a training exercise for NGO representatives. The exercise began with a discussion of the participant's expectations of the workshop (02). They then divided into four groups to do family profiles, village mapping, village modelling and time-lines, each with a focus on women (03). In the family profiles the status of different generations of women in individual families were investigated. It was found that accross all castes and generations women lacked education and were excluded from decision-making and participation in common issues (05). Maps and models were made of the village and details about the marital, health and family status of women were then added before being transferred onto charts (06). The time-line showed the main events which had occurred in the village during the last 30 years, with a particular focus on the status of women (09). The day ended with group presentation and evaluation of the day's activities (10). On the second day the groups did wealth ranking (12), seasonality diagrams (14), and livelihoods (15). During the final day the women produced venn (or chapati) diagrams and a linkage chart (17). In their discussions the different groups identified similar problems, solutions and opportunities. The women realised their problems were not unique and recognised the importance of solidarity and working together (18).

This document is a report of a workshop held by NEPAN. The role of communication in the development process was discussed and also the experiences of information services adopted by individual members of NEPAN and member organisations. These discussions were then used as the basis for developing appropriate communication strategies for NEPAN.

Despite many initiatives to assure food access, and growing economies, high levels of undernutrition persist in much of Asia.  In this Working Paper Robert Chambers and Gregor von Medeazza explore the increasing evidence that this is due to the continuing high incidence open defecation (OD), combined with population density, which has mulitiple debilitating outcomes.  With the focus on diarrhoea-related ill health, there has been a relative neglect of other often subclinical and continuously debilitating faecally-transmitted infections (FTIs) including environmental enteropathy (EE), other intestinal infections, and parasites. The authors show how institutional, psychological and professional factors interact to perpetuate a blind spot to understanding that OD affects health in many different ways and is a key factor in tackling undernutrition.

The report describes a two-and-a-half day workshop on PRA and poverty alleviation in Mongolia. The workshop focused on issues of local poverty and introduced PRA techniques as a means to identifying causes and potential solutions. It also provided a discussion forum for the exchange of ideas between sum officials, bag governors, representatives of herders and sum centre poor, and outsiders. A brief introduction to participation and PRA and its context in Mongolia was followed by a poverty analysis exercise to establish the local situation. Various PRA techniques were introduced - semi-structured interviewing, mapping, matrix scoring, seasonal calendars and daily activities. The final sessions introduced the SWOT analysis and planning methodology (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to bring the focus from general analysis to planning.