Participatory rural appraisal: A brief introduction

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is an approach to facilitating community development whose family of techniques such as Ven diagrams, matrix ranking, and matrix scoring - rely heavily on visualization and diagramming. However, what distinguishes PRA more than any of its techniques is its emphasi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGroup facilitation no. 4; p. 29A
Main Author Robinson, Lance
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published St. Paul International Association of Facilitators 01.04.2002
Subjects
Anthropology
Community action
Community development
Community organizations
Developing countries
Farming
Group dynamics
LDCs
Meetings
NGOs
Nongovernmental organizations
Organizational learning
Participation
Participatory research
Questionnaires
Rural development
Studies
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Summary:Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is an approach to facilitating community development whose family of techniques such as Ven diagrams, matrix ranking, and matrix scoring - rely heavily on visualization and diagramming. However, what distinguishes PRA more than any of its techniques is its emphasis on participation. PRA practitioners generally believe that only when participants are in full control - of needs assessment, goal-setting, planning, policy-making, implementation, and evaluation - can a process be considered fully participatory. PRA, which emerged first in the global South, is increasingly being used in developed countries, and it is in this commitment to participation that PRA has the most to offer facilitators practicing in the North. Facilitators using any approach are encouraged to ask themselves reflective questions such as, Are my actions and methods as a facilitator contributing to the ability of the participants to take control? [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1534-5653
1545-5947