Lecture topic

Participatory Rural Appraisal

PRM Course
Research Methodology

Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan

Institute of Rural Management Anand
Dt. 19-20 Sep 2019
 Participatory Rural Appraisal
Definition
• Participatory - people are involved in the process – a “bottom-up”
approach that requires good communication skills and attitude of
project staff.
• Rural – though the name suggests, the techniques can be used in
any situation, urban or rural, with both literate and illiterate
people.
• Appraisal – The finding out of information about problems, needs,
and potential in a village. It is the first stage in any project.

“an approach and methods for learning about rural life and
conditions from, with and by rural people.”
(Chambers, 1994)
 PRA – basic tenets
• A method of learning rural life, problems and opportunities from
rural people
• Based on the premise that local people are creative and capable
and can do their own investigations, analysis, and planning. PRA
enables local people to carry out own analysis, to plan and to act
• The basic objective of PRA is to learn from local people. PRA
follows participatory learning approach
• In PRA, villagers systematize local knowledge and information and
present it in a cohesive manner with an indigenous flavor
• PRA includes mapping, diagramming and ranking.
• Facilitators initiate a process of participatory analysis and then sit
back or walk away, and do not disturb or interrupt the process.
 PRA – basic tenets

• PRA is a conglomeration of ideas come from activist participatory

research, agro-ecosystem analysis, applied social anthropology,
farming systems research etc.

• PRA derives from RRA [Rapid Rural Appraisal]- a shortcut to get

information – with certain differences

RRA PRA
Rapid learning from villagers Learning with villagers
Extractive –information is used Experience sharing –people to share
according to project staff needs and analyse their
knowledge/plan/act
Plan is prepared by others Plan is prepared by villagers
Outsider team is towards authoritarian Team as a mere facilitator
 PRA – principles
Five principles
• Participation: designed to involve local people, not only as sources of
information, but as partners in gathering and analyzing the information
• Flexibility: Combination of techniques – size, skill, mix, of the team; the
time and resources available; topic and location of work
• Teamwork: Local language, locals with a very few outsiders, a significant
presence of women
• Optimal ignorance: Gather just enough information – not too many, nor
too less. ‘Better to be approximately correct than be precisely wrong’
(what is required for decision making; people may not share the exact
information)
• Systematic: Not statistical; Inference from other techniques; Cross
checking the findings in community meetings.
 Methodological principles of PRA
• Visualization – verbalization – documentation
• Sequencing: PRA tools are combined in a specific order (further
supplementation)
• Triangulation: Using many sources for validation (lot of information
in less time)
 Other principles of PRA
• Offsetting biases
• Reversal of roles
• Rapid and progressive learning
• Be gender sensitive
• Focused learning (relative comparison/ranking)
• Seeking for diversity/differences
• Be aware of biases (seek opinion from women, poorest, power-less)
• Handing over the stick (people take the lead)
• Attitude (respect, humility, and patience)
 Role of PRA Facilitator(s)
• Introduces the PRA tools to the group – then moderate/facilitate
• Acts as a catalyst between individuals of the group
• Finds ways of integrating dominant and quiet people and makes
sure that all group members are able to express their opinion
• Makes sure that the group keeps to the topic but is also flexible in
handling additional important information
• Repeats in own words what people say in order to confirm that
there is a good understanding of the discussion
• Takes care of time management and support the note-taker in
gathering all relevant information
 Role of PRA Facilitator(s)

Cautions/Attitudes:

• Should have flexibility, patience and a sense of humor

• Avoid using complex language and words

• Try to talk in local language

• Keep your profile low during entire process

• Stay neutral (do not assume the answer)

• Listen carefully and do not teach them (do not interrupt)

• Treat and respect people according to local customs and culture

 Starting PRA

• Use secondary information to know more about the village

• Selection of PRA team members, introduce them with the protocol,

procedures etc.

• Formation of sub-topics group:

Social analysis, Agri analysis, natural resource analysis, poverty, basic
amenities

• Rapport Building: An important task to obtain credible information

- Spell out clearly as to why you are doing it
- Show genuine interest in local issues
- Choose time and venue that are convenient for local people
 PRA Tools
• Transect Walk
• Historical Map
• Social Map
• Resource Map
• Seasonal Calendar
• Time-Activity Chart
• Venn Diagram
• Matrix/Preference ranking
• Wealth Ranking
 Transect walk
• Facilitator and participants walk down through the village to obtain
overall understanding of the village
– Explore spatial dimension,
– Physical build and locations,
– Quality of habitation,
– Geographical stretches,
– Availability of resources: soil type, erosion, land use (forest, waste,
grazing, cropping), water, vegetation, crops
– Problems and priorities

• Objective – outlined in the beginning

• Supplementary (Triangulation)
• Route (minimum distance, maximum observation) -
– Small village: make a circle walk
– Big village: make a ‘S’ shape walk
 Historical mapping / Timeline
• To understand the historical
background of the village : how it
has evolved overtime (as per
locals’ perception and priorities)

• Good way to build rapport (non-

threatening starting point)

• Basic events, with timeline, can be

shown, which have brought
immense changes in the village life.

• Involve elders in sketching the

map, as they know the history of
the village much better than
youngsters.
 Social map
• Most popular (synonymous to PRA): depiction of habitation
patterns, nature of housing and social infrastructure: roads,
drainage systems, schools, drinking water facilities, etc.
• Difference with other maps
– made by local (not experts),
– not drawn to scale,
– depicts what locals feel relevant

• Useful in
– Developing a comprehensive understanding of the physical and social
aspects of village life
– Collecting demographic and other required information household – wise
– Providing a forum of discussion in high to unravel the various aspects of
social life
– Serving as a monitoring and evaluating tool
 Social map
How to draw:
• Involves drawing of entire habitation:
* Houses (hut, mud & brick),
* Streets (mud, brick/cemented)
* Water sources, river, canal, ponds, big wells
* School, hospital, Anganbadi, temple/mosque, shops, shared places
• Should be sketched on the ground [chart paper can also be used]
• Women must be involved in drawing the map
• Different colors and materials can be used

Things to be inferred:
* Population spread/no of families/condition of houses/ethnicity/religion
* Services and amenities (access to different locations)
* A tentative idea about wealth and poverty
* Problems
Social map
 Resource map
• While the social map focuses on habitation, community facilities, roads,
temples, etc., the resource map focuses on the natural resources in the
locality and depicts land, hills, rivers, fields, vegetation etc.

• Difference with other maps

– Same as in the case of social map

• Useful in natural resource management

– Topography, terrain and slopes
– Forest, vegetation and tree species
– Soil-type, fertility, erosion and depth
– Land and land use, command area, tenure, boundaries and ownership
– Water, water bodies, irrigation sources, rivers and drainage
– Watershed development, various soil and water conservation
measures, denuded areas, etc.
– Agricultural developments, cropping pattern, productivity, etc.
 Resource map
How to draw:
• Habitation area is kept smaller
• Draw
* River, canals, ponds, mountains, mines,
* Bordering areas (resources and villages)
* Farms, forests, barren, agri and grazing lands, livestock, types of soil
* Roads and habitation
• Same techniques as Social map
• Involve men and women both, because both use separate resources

Things to be inferred:
* Availability/lack of resources
* Patterns of use of resources: Where people go for water, firewood etc.
* Dominance or ownership of resources (though not indicated, but discussed)
* Other issues: flood, drought, community actions etc.
Resource map
 Seasonal map/activity/calendar
• temporal analysis across annual cycles, with months or seasons as
the basic unit of analysis. It reflects the perceptions of the local
people regarding seasonal variations on a wide range of items.

• Difference with other charts

– drawn by local hence depicts what locals feel relevant

• Verify from other sources

• Useful in
– What happens during the year and when; relation among the activities
– Quantification and depiction of the magnitude of the various activities
adds to their utility and richness
– Credit crunch, food security, diseases, wage availability etc.
– Useful in project planning, i.e., when to implement various activities.
– Labour demand (distribution of workload in agri and non-agri works)
 Seasonal map/activity/calendar
How to draw:
• Can be sketched on the chart paper, or on the ground.
• It is a two-dimensional chart with season/month on an axis and activities
on the other axis.
• Year can be divided either in English months/ Hindu calendar/ seasons
• Draw the activities against months/seasons
• Usually start with rainfall pattern- Choose a symbol/stone for rainfall- more
stones means more rainfall- then move to other topics.

Things to be inferred:
* Rainfall, availability of food, income, expenditure, credit availability,
livestock search and rearing, number of holidays, workloads in agri and
non-agri works, diseases, migration, unemployment
* Change in the pattern over the years
 Seasonal map/activity/calendar
CROP CALENDAR
 Seasonal map/activity/calendar
SEASONAL CALENDAR
 Time-activity chart
LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITY CHART
 Time-activity chart
DAILY ROUTINE
 Venn diagram
• An institutional map which indicates social and political relationship, process of
decision making and institutional dynamics.
• Objectives:
– To understand who is influential inside and outside the village (power dynamics).
– To know what extent village is dependent on institutions outside the village

• The importance of group/institution is shown by their relative sizes: Larger the

circle, the more important group.
• The extent to which different groups interact each other is shown by the degree
of overlap each other: the greater the overlap, the more interaction between the
groups
• Institutions that exist outside the village can also be shown
• Ask villagers to discuss, how organizations are important to them
• Men and women can draw it separately, which may reflect different interpretation
of dominance and institutional relationship
Venn diagram
 Wealth ranking
• To determine economic attributes of households
• To determine the extent of poverty in the village

Identify wealth indicators; categorize HHs into rich, average and poor

Alternatively
• Prepare a list of all household heads. Write their names in separate cards.
• Define a ranking in a discussion with villagers [1 to 5; 1 is very poor and 5 is very
rich]
• Ask each individual to pick a card and give a rank
• Get the average of score for each card and arrange them in increasing order.
• The highest score is the most rich. The least score is the very poor.
 Pair-wise / Matrix / Preference ranking
• To know preferences/problems of people
• Group: People with mixed background (old, young, man, women etc)
• People are presented a pair of preferences/facility/problems and asked to give
their preference: which is preferred between the two and why?
• At the end, preferences and problems can be counted and can be ranked.
 Other tools to supplement
• Semi-structured interviews

• Focus group discussion

• Key informant interviews

• Small survey questionnaire to capture basic information

 A basic structure of the report for each PRA tool
1. Introduction: about the activity, broader objective
2. Specific Objectives:
 To understand livelihood patterns in the village
 To understand status of well-being in the village
 To understand seasonal migration

3. About the group: group composition [number, social profile], place,

time
4. Describe the process: How you did, what legends
5. Discuss Issues [during activity discussion and post-activity FGD]
6. Findings
7. Produce artifacts: Map, chart, diagram etc.
 A basic structure of the final PRA Report
1. Introduction: about the village, broader objective
2. Objectives: Why PRA?
 To understand livelihood patterns in the village
 To understand status of well-being in the village
 To understand seasonal migration

3. Collate reports for all PRA activities

4. Discussion (A common picture)

5. Over all findings

 Thank You
Queries and Suggestions

E-mails:
[email protected],
[email protected]