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This report concerns the Rural Family and Child Welfare Project (RFCWP) of the NGO Enfants du Monde (EDM) in Bangladesh. It is largely concerned with the introduction of participatory processes and institutional changes in the RCFWP. Formerly, conventional survey research methods were used with many shortcomings (cost, time, etc.), so new methods were introduced. Focus group discussions were conducted. ZOPP was used, but found to be overly sophisticated and did not address participation. PRA was later included in field training of beneficiaries, village institutions and project staff, as well as for monitoring and evaluation. PRA methods were used for an internal self-evaluation. Questions of attitude and behavioural change were also brought up, and PRA came to be seen as part of the move towards participation in the whole project cycle. Reflections on the need for changes in the RFCWP are listed. There are also reflections on the limitations of PRA, including: tendency for it to be technique driven; staff determine relevant and accepted knowledge; individual interests may distort data collection; summarizing by outsiders may lead to misrepresentation and so on.

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])

This workbook describes 'systematization' as a method of instituting a continuous process of participatory reflection on a project's processes and results, undertaken by both project staff and participants. The systematic analysis generates lessons which are fed back to improve the project. The final section includes a variety of tools (such as written exercises, worksheets and tables) that may be used for conducting the process.

The paper's objective is to construct a general framework which will increase the useful data, while reducing the cost of data collection in developing countries. The search for useful principles proceeds from the economics of information, via Karl Popper's principle of error reduction, and the use of information cybernetics in public decision-making, to the design of more cost-effective models of development processes, and the significance of alternative hierarchical administrative structures for the utility obtained from primary data. These components are combined into a unified logical framework. An integrated approach to management information is identified as a desirable adjunct for its application in practice.