Resources

This 20 minute video focuses on rural communities in the UK. It demonstrates the use of Village Appraisals and Parish Maps, two creative methods which enable village groups to study and express the needs and feelings of local people and then go on to influence the future of their community. Village appraisals are a systematic 'stock-take' of the resources and services in a community using a local questionnaire survey. Two examples are shown, from the Dene Valley near Bishop Auckland, County Durham and from Motcombe, Dorset. Parish Maps use maps, pictures or any form of art and craftwork to illustrate the natural or human-made features of a parish that people really care about. Two examples are given from Buckland Newton in Dorset and Lockwood in Cleveland.

The introductory section of this brief paper discusses the importance of developing an evaluation methodology that is practical and flexible enough to be carried out by the community in the Peoples Participation Programme of the FAO. Uphoff reiterates that in fact the answers arrived at by the evaluation are in themselves not as important as what is learnt from the process of reaching consensus on such answers. An illustration of what the methodology utilised actually constituted is described in the first section of the paper. In the second section, however, the potential benefits of the methodology are discussed and these are categorised as being; i) that the process is self educative ii) the process is self improving iii) the process allows members of the programme to monitor progress and iv) it has the potential to improve training. Each of these potential benefits are discussed in some detail. The third section of the paper outlines a process for introducing the system in a rural setting in a number of steps. The last section, however, concludes by discussing a variety of issues related to the process of participatory self evaluation including problems of objectivity, comparability of numbers and use of appropriate language. Attached to the end of the document is an extensive section that includes an inventory of questions for group self evaluation and a list of questions for self evaluation. (Shorter version published in Community Development Journal Vol 26 No 4 [1991])

In this book, the author seeks to portray the process of community organising as a collective endeavour where the people are the principal actors and the community organisers serve only as facilitators. He proposes that community organising is only meaningful if it promotes the continuing capability building, self reliance and empowerment of the people. The book starts out by giving a historical perspective of community organising in the Philippines, describing the state of the art of community organising and highlighting the ongoing debate on the meaning of development. He goes on to portray the poverty situation in most Philippine communities and provides an over-view of the community organising process that revolves around the lives, experiences and aspirations of the people. Case studies from rural Philippines are used to illustrate processes of community organisation, indigenous technology development, Christian community organising, and community-based education and training. Finally, a synthesis of lessons culled from the experiences gives practical guidance for promotion of community organising.

This paper discusses the concept and practice of public advocacy. It describes the various practices of public advocacy, what advocacy involves, its challenges, and offers a brief look at public advocacy in India. It argues that public advocacy, rather than being a mere fashionable term, should signify a set of planned, proactive and organised actions to address issues of injustice, marginalisation and rights abuse in a more effective and efficient manner. To do so effectively, existing power relations have to be shifted in favour of the marginalised.

The metaphor of the "mirror", constitutes the central theme for this guide to self evaluation [SE] prepared by the evaluation service of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation [SDC]. The "mirror of SE" refers to "a multitude of tools and methods which provide a critical and constructive analysis of our own activities and their consequences". Unlike external evaluation, a SE is always designed to "illuminate" one's own area of responsibility to help find possible improvements. 18 practical examples of SE are introduced in chapter 2, which are divided into three main groups; Externally initiated SE; SE involving partners; and Autonomous SE - which occurs entirely independently of outside influence (the key case study given in the latter group is the SE deployed in the Federation of Senegalese NGOs in Senegal, 1989). In chapters 3 and 4 respectively, an "analysis" and "valuation" of these case studies is carried out, with 8 "fundamental questions" providing the framework for discussion [questions include; "what is being evaluated?", "How is success being measured?", "who are the participants?", "how can SE be implemented?"] In chapter 5 the analytical concept of the "wheel with 8 spokes" is introduced as a specific approach through which SE can be conceptualised and put into practice. Although no mention of PRA is made, this guide does provide some relevant and stimulating discussion which is based around the large number of case studies. Certainly, the 56 arguments - or "excuses" - listed on p.32, which "are used to evade an SE" are equally likely to be employed with reference to the use of PRA methods for M&E. (61 pp)