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This paper discusses the use of qualitative and quantitative methods to eliminate systematic sources of error in quantitative measurement of hygiene behaviours in the Health Behaviour Intervention project in Lima, Peru. The authors argue that the combination of methodologies can give public health better data for the design and implementation of interventions to prevent disease. In relation to qualitative methods, the paper discusses the reliability of structured observation data for health intervention studies. It presents background on structured observation in Lima, reliability of measure across observers and over time, and preliminary significant associations between behaviours and diarrhoeal disease.

Participatory approaches are widely used to encourage group members to become involved in processes. Activities such as drawing, role play and small group work can be particularly useful in HIV/AIDS work when exploring sensitive issues such as sexual experiences, vulnerability and risk. This guide is designed to be an ôideas bookö of shared experiences to help facilitators prepare for participatory workshops, meetings and planning activities with NGOs and CBOs responding to HIV/AIDS in developing countries. Drawing on the practical experiences of the Alliance and its partners, it is packed with effective ideas such as drawing community maps and active listening exercises

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])

Games are group activities that involve learning plus acquisition of skills and competence, building of trust and co-operation, and fun. A game-centred appraoch to development is important because: (i) the reductionist foundation of scientific methods are inadequate for understanding complex livelihood systems; (ii) complexity must be understood explicitly; (iii) the subjectivity of all actors, including investigators, must be recognised. RRA techniques are appropriate to meeting these needs. Games create the conditions that encourage group work, foster efficiency and increase the likelihood of the formatin of sustainable groups and institutions. The order of the book is: a discussion of reductionism, elements of complexity, subjectivity, creating conditions for interdisciplinarity, RRA (principles, techniques and groups), and various types of game. The latter, final, section suggests guidelines for trainers and animators, together with procedures for the conduct of some group processes, analytical and role-paying games.