Unit 12 Participatory

Methodologies of Working
with Communities
Evaluation approaches of community work settings

• Two approaches are particularly useful when framing an evaluation of

community programs; both engage stakeholders.
• In one, the emphasis is on the importance of participation; in the
other, it is on empowerment.
• The first approach, participatory evaluation, actively engages the
community in all stages of the evaluation process.
• The second approach, empowerment evaluation, helps to equip
program personnel with the necessary skills to conduct their own
evaluation and ensure that the program runs effectively
Participatory Evaluation
Participatory evaluation can help improve program performance by
(1) involving key stakeholders in evaluation design and decision making,
(2) acknowledging and addressing asymmetrical levels of power and
voice among stakeholders,
(3) using multiple and varied methods,
(4) having an action component so that evaluation findings are useful
to the program’s end users, and
(5) explicitly aiming to build the evaluation capacity of stakeholders
• Characteristc
• The focus is on participant ownership; the evaluation is oriented to the needs of the
program stakeholders rather than the funding agency.
• Participants meet to communicate and negotiate to reach a consensus on evaluation
results, solve problems, and make plans to improve the program.
• Input is sought and recognized from all participants.
• The emphasis is on identifying lessons learned to help improve program implementation
and determine whether targets were met.
• The evaluation design is flexible and determined (to the extent possible) during the group
processes.
• The evaluation is based on empirical data to determine what happened and why.
• Stakeholders may conduct the evaluation with an outside expert serving as a facilitator.
Empowerment Evaluation
Empowerment evaluation has four steps:
(1) taking stock of the program and determining where it stands, including
its strengths and weaknesses;
(2) establishing goals for the future with an explicit emphasis on program
improvement;
(3) developing strategies to help participants determine their own strengths
that they can use to accomplish program goals and activities; and
(4) helping program participants decide on and gather the evidence needed
to document progress toward achieving their goals
Characteristics
• Values improvement in people, programs, and organizations to help them achieve results.
• Community ownership of the design and conduct of the evaluation and implementation of the findings.
• Inclusion of appropriate participants from all levels of the program, funders, and community.
• Democratic participation and clear and open evaluation plans and methods.
• Commitment to social justice and a fair allocation of resources, opportunities, obligations, and
bargaining power.
• Use of community knowledge to understand the local context and to interpret results.
• Use of evidence-based strategies with adaptations to the local environment and culture.
• Building the capacity of program staff and participants to improve their ability to conduct their own
evaluations.
• Organizational learning, ensuring that programs are responsive to changes and challenges.
• Accountability to funders’ expectations.
Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation
Transformation (PHAST)
• The approach is a participatory learning methodology that seeks to
empower communities to improve hygiene behaviours, reduce
diarrhoeal disease and encourage effective community management
of water and sanitation services
• It uses a participatory approach to community learning and planning
that follows a seven step framework
The Concept of PHAST
• PHAST works on the premise that as communities gain awareness of their water, sanitation and
hygiene situation through participatory activities, they are empowered to develop and carry out
their own plans to improve this situation .
• Besides, PHAST seeks to help communities to improve their hygiene behaviours, to prevent
diarrhoeal diseases and to encourage community-management of water and sanitation facilities.
PHAST hence demonstrates the relationship between sanitation and health status.
• Furthermore, the method tries to enhance the self-esteem of the participating community
members by involving them into the planning process. Empowering the community helps to plan
environmental improvements and to own and to operate water and sanitation facilities. For the
achievement of these goals, the PHAST approach is using participatory methods to encourage
the participation of individuals in a group process .
• PHAST is based on another participatory methodology called SARAR, which stands for self-
esteem, associative strengths, resourcefulness, action-planning and responsibility.
The Seven Step Participatory Approach
• PHAST uses a seven-step participatory approach to facilitate a
community planning process .
• Each step contains between one to four activities a group has to go
through to improve their community planning on hygiene and
sanitation. These activities shall take place in a participatory manner
to enhance the participation of individuals.
Development issues, problems and
policies in relationship to health and
Environment
• The basic needs strategy of development is directed toward helping poor nations meet
requirements for adequate food, shelter. sanitation. health, and education; thus, health
becomes an objective of development.
• Basic needs strategy is most effective when viewed as a means to increase individual and
national productivity. not merely as a welfare services program.
• Expenditures on health are considered as an investment in human resources. contributing lo
productive capacity, but empirical studies on the contribution of health lo per capita economic
growth are largely anecdotal. marred by poor design and insufficient data.
• A similarly perplexing problem is the extent to which improved health is the result of specific
health program interventions as compared to improved economic and social conditions.
• Both are important. but their relative importance differs from country lo country and from era
lo era.
• Better data and analysis are necessary, not only 10 elucidate the interrelationships between
health and development. but to measure the costs and benefits of specific health interventions
• Dicussiom
The development process, population, health and environment:
trends, policies and Implications for development