Resources

An RRA training exercise was conducted by ActionAid staff in Kambai District, Sierra Leone. Four half days were spent conducting intensive fieldwork, a well-being ranking exercise led to the sub-division of the community into better-off and worse-off members of the community. Ranking exercises with the two groups produced very different results. A graphic example of the differences is given in the ranking of disease importance. (p87 provides illustrations). It is concluded that this method offers an excellent starting point for investigation into health issues and socio-economic conditions.

This paper investigates the potential for using various PRA methods in an AIDS-related context. It looks at diagramming and ranking techniques which have been used in community development projects in different countries in Africa and Asia and suggests ways they could be used in AIDS work. The paper focuses on five questions. WHO are the different people who make up the group called the community? WHAT needs do the different sections of the community have? WHEN are different people most in need of assistance? HOW do people view their own lives in relation to the wider social and economic context? WHY are things as they are? It is suggested that PRA methods can help AIDS workers understand the complexity of people's lives and the difficulties and opportunities they face. This in turn can lead to the development of more effective AIDS prevention, care and support projects.

This paper documents the process of irrigation management turnover i.e transfering small irrigation management from government to farmers. The case for turnover is well outlined, and the experience of Indonesia where over 400 systems have been turned over is documented. The Indonesian programme highlights that it is possible to successfully shift reponsibility. The immediate benefits to farmers were physical improvements to the irrigation systems. The Indonesian experience suggests that success is most likely where farmer involvement in participatory design and construction of improvements is substantial. Trained agency staff facilitate local participation in preparation and implementation of turnover. Water users register their associations and receive management authority and ownership rights for the entire irrigation system including headworks. Questions remain over the appropriate role of the government in assisting the process. It is concluded that Government intervention in the turnover process need not result in a loss of control at local level. Handover can restructure the balance between the two parties to restore a greater role for local management and ownership of resources.

This paper reviews efforts in the early 1970s by both governmental and nongovernmental bodies in rehabilitating minor irrigation systems with the aim of enhancing performance, water management practices, productivity and rural living conditions. The strategies adopted varied with each minor irrigation scheme. These variations in intervention methods related to selection criteria, planning and implementing procedures, farmer participation and management practices. Comparative assessments are carried out and recommendations for sustainable improvement and management of village irrigation systems given.

This paper documents the Philippines' National Irrigation approaches in organizing farmers to undertake management in the operation and maintenance of irrigation systems. The experience of turnover in this country is particularly unique in that the approach involved employment of farmers, as opposed to professional community organizers, in organizing co-farmers into irrigator associations. The farmers employed were well trained, and positive results were achieved in the following areas: active irrigators' associations at field and distributary levels; reduced operation and maintenance costs; increased fee collection rates; greater equity in water distribution. This case highlights that organizing farmer activities in this way shorten the turnover process, make it less expensive and, most importantly, be effective.

This paper sets out a series of guidelines with the aim of developing a "model" rapid assessment procedure for the impact of minor system rehabilitation. The content and recommendations leading to the guidelines arose from a one day workshop at IIMI. The methodology is essentially participatory in nature, giving a key role to the view of farmers in its assessment. The questionnaire and the rapid assessment procedure provide a means whereby a post project condition of the scheme can be assessed. The process can subsequently enable periodic monitoring to be carried out with modifications to scheme conditions. The paper documents field reaction to the methodology, having been carried out in two minor schemes in Sri Lanka. The response of field workers to the layout and design of the guidelines was relatively positive with suggestions for fine tuning for particular scheme situations.