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1Introduction to Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)
Naoto Noda
Hitonomori Co. Ltd.
1. What is PRA?
“The term Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) describes a growing family of approaches
and methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyse their knowledge of life andconditions, to plan and to act.” (Chambers, 1992)

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iPRA is sometimes called PLA, whish stands for the Participatory Learning and Action. Thisrenaming is due to the common confusion with RRA (Rapid Rural Appraisal) and for theclarification of the meaning of the approach.
2. Basics of Participatory Approaches

Taking the example of PLA as the most popular participatory approach, we now discuss
what a participatory approach all about is. Chambers (1997) identified that ‘behavior andattitude’, ‘sharing’ and ‘methods’ as three pillars in PLA. Following is my understanding,though, you may understand that people’s physical participation is not enough to realize theparticipatory approaches.
2.1.

Behavior and Attitude

Good behavior and attitude are the prerequisites for any development workers. How anoutsider behaves influences the people’s participation seriously. This means that therelationship between people and outsiders are critical.
(1) Make rapport
Before anything, rapport between people and facilitators should be made.
(2) See the process
Facilitators help the process in which people recognize their situation, share therecognition, seek the solution and act for improvement. It is not that the outsiders define
goals and mobilize people for that.
(3) Hand over the stick (give up the leading role)
Outsiders give up the leading role and stop wagging the stick. Give the stick to people inboth symbolic and practical meanings.
2.2.

Sharing

Sharing does not only mean the sharing of information and experience but also the sharingof sentiment and feelings.
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(1) Sharing among people
It is ideal that all the people share same knowledge, same analysis, same planning andsame practical process. Since most of the societies are divided gender, wealth, ethnicity,
caste and other differences, outsiders can play a big role to involve disadvantaged groups
in the society. Also often more important is the recognition of the difference between
people than finding common grounds.
(2) Sharing between people and outsiders
By sharing same information and experience, both people and outsiders can understandand agree on the process of development. Although people are capable enough to develop
themselves, they still need certain assistance from outside. Each side should understandwhat they can and they cannot.
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i2.3.

Participatory approaches are too often misinterpreted as methods. In participatory
approaches, methods are not approaches but tools to be used in the approaches.
Followings are some characteristics of the PLA tools.

(1) OpenTools are used with group of people rather than certain individuals. Also efforts are to bemade to invite people. For example, group discussions are preferred to individualinterviews. Maps are not drawn on a paper on the wall but on earth because it enables
many people to work together.
(2) Visualized
Most of the tools are visualized. Discussion should also be visualized somehow so thatthose who cannot read also have access to the results. When there are many illiterate
people, analysis that requires writing skills should be avoided. Pictures, graphs andmodels are understandable by almost everyone.
(3) Compare rather than measure
Results of a measurement is expressed numerically. However, numbers are meaninglessfor those who cannot understand them. If comparative differences are visualized,everyone can understand them. Numerical data are usually required by outsiders but
not people themselves.
2.4.

Facilitators

In PRA/PLA, filed workers that directly work with community are called facilitators.
Facilitator means a person who facilitate. A facilitator simply helps people’s own efforts but
3he/she does not teach, does not order, does not guide and does not instruct people.
It is recommendable to form a team of facilitators to carry out workshops and other events.
Facilitators are preferably from different gender and professions. So, facilitators can crosscheck their behavior and attitude each other.
Big effort and time is necessary if you assign existing filed workers as facilitators. Existing
field workers such as extension staff often have established certain relationships withpeople. Such relationships are usually, an upper-lower relationship. It may be very difficult
for filed workers to change their behavior and attitude as uppers, and it is often equallydifficult for people to consider the field worker well known to them as facilitators.
3. Process of Participation
Tools for Learning

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i3.1.

As the name PLA implies, people are expected to participate in the process of learning andaction. Physically attending to a workshop is not necessarily participation. Outsiders
facilitate people to realize real participation by using a series of tools. People will learn thesituation surrounding them and realize their potential by using tools.
There are countless tools for PLA but there is no rule of using them. Tools should be selected,combined and developed on the spot according to the situation. Fixing procedure to use tools
should be avoided.
Combining some tools enhances the effects. Observing something from multi-viewpoints bycombining tools is called ‘triangulation’. Combination makes information more reliable. Also
combining tools in sequence is very effective. Following are the most popular tools and theirexplanations. Although tools are sequenced in the most likely order, this should not becopied anytime.
Direct observation
Direct observation is always the basic. Environment surrounding people, people’s life,relationship between people, all these are observing points. Observation helps to choose theselection of right tools and the use of them.
(1) Ice breaking
When outsiders are entering into a community, people may or may not accept them.
Sometimes people are very cautious and it takes time to make a good rapport. Therefore,
ice breaking here means possibly a long process of making rapport rather than games
used in workshops.
(2) Mapping
4Mapping is a tool to help people visualize their surroundings. Houses in a village,available resources would emerge on the map. When the different groups of people, suchas men and women, and children and adults, maps often indicate the difference ininterests and the mobility of each group.
Social map usually indicates each household and other important places/buildings in thecommunity. If additional data such as household members are added to the map, it could
be used something like a census.
Resources map indicate available resources in and around the community. Women, forexample, may draw the forests for firewood collection, water points and local markets tosell their vegetable from kitchen gardens. While women often draw near-by resources,
men usually draw wider areas.
Access maps indicate important places in their lives. Relative distance and/orCoHi pyt
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importance can also be expressed by changing the size of circle, length of lines, etc.
Mapping in PRA uses symbols, which are understandable for all community members,
rather than letters.
Mapping is usually practiced on the soil. If uneducated people are given with paper andpen, they often fear to make mistake. Soil and stick are more comfortable for thembecause it is very easy to make corrections. This is often called ‘democracy on theground’.

Figure 1: Resource map （Slocume et al., 1995）

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iFigure 2: Women's access map(3) Transect
The word ‘transect’ came from the vegetation research.
For example, facilitators and villagers together walk in a village along a predefined line.
Land use systems, resources, and problems found along the line are recorded on a profile.
Facilitators raise some questions on crops, soil, forests, etc. and discuss them withvillagers. If this practice is repeated at regular intervals, it would be a good monitoring
method. Combining this tool with the historical profile is often very effective. For
example, asking questions on the spot such as ‘Why trees have disappeared from here
within five years?’ makes things clear and understandable for everyone.

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iFigure 3: Combination of transect and historical profile (MaCracken et al.,1988)(4) Seasonal calendar
Events in a year are visually indicated in a diagram. Events include climatic changes,
farming practices, festivals, etc. Calendars may not start from January. It is possible tostart from a very important cultural event or, according to the farm practices of the mostimportant crop.

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iFigure 4: An example of seasonal calendar(5) Historical profile
All tools mentioned above are to know and analyze the current situation. Historicalprofile, on the other hand, is used to know the events in the history and the change along
the timeline. Village history or the change of land use systems may be analyzed inconnection with the topics outside (such as independence). If the information isvisualized, everyone can have a look and make correction and/or addition.
(6) Group discussion
Once current situation and the history are analyzed and shared, discussion will focus on
current problems and possible solutions. Topics mentioned should again be visualized byusing symbols and pictures. If the differences between genders and/or age classes aresignificant, smaller groups may be formed. In developing countries in general, genderroles are very clearly defined and men tend to have most power. In such cases, effort
should be made to create a chance for women to express themselves.
(7) Ranking
If necessary, topics will be ranked. There are several methods of ranking. Pair-wiseranking is the most common one.
But, before carrying out ranking practices, please think twice the necessity of ranking
something. If there is no good reason to rank things, i.e. to select one activity to be
funded, the results of ranking in not important, or, in some cases, misleading.
Options which are low in ranking tend to be considered less important. However, people
rank things only because they are asked to do so. In realty, many things are equallyimportant and equally necessary for people’s life. It is meaning less to rank, for example,
air, water and food.
(8) Scoring8

As in the ranking, there are many way to score options. For example, each participant
gets 10 stones and makes vote, i.e., five for school construction, three for well digging
and two for health post. The one has got most should be the first priority of thecommunity. With this practice, domination of certain groups could be avoided, though,the facilitators should be very careful to watch the attitude of dominating community
leaders.
The results of scoring are often different from the results of ranking, even if same set ofoptions are compared. Also, scoring indicate relative importance of each options withcertain weight while ranking just indicate the order.

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iFigure 5: Ranking (Debrabandere and Clarke, 1995)(9) Wealth ranking
Wealth ranking is practiced to know the poorest segment of the people in the community.
Those people may be prioritized for aid. If outsiders decide that who should get the aid
first, it may cause troubles in the community. However, if facilitators let people do thejob, it is the people themselves that made decision. Therefore, people understand better
why those people are selected.
Wealth ranking is sometimes very sensitive so it should be used with caution.
(10) Interviews
In PRA, interviews are also used .Semi-structured interview and key informant
9interview are two forms of commonly used interviews in PRA.
In semi-structured interview, list of simple questions are often used. These are more likereminders to ask questions. Questions indicated below are the examples of questions
asked in the semi-structured interview.
Livestock
Crops
Education
Wateretc.
These questions are actually the topics to start free discussions or conversations.

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iDetailed answers, especially numeric data usually gathered in the structured interviews,are not required.
Key informant interviews are to ask questions to or to have conversations with a key
person/ key persons in specific area. Community members may act as the interviewers toshare the information.
(11) Day analysis
Day analysis visualizes how a person or a certain groups of people allocate their daily
activity in a 24-hour clock. For example, men’s time use is compared with the women’s
one by day analysis. Generally, each social group (i.e. gender, age, occupation) tends tohave its own pattern of time use, which is often not well known by other groups.
(12) Other tools
There are many other popular tools like diagramming and role play and, nowadays,
participatory video making is also used, thank you for the development of technology.
Also, there is no fixed set of tools in PRA. So, invent your original tools!
3.2.

Use of tools(1) Asking to the map
Inexperienced practitioners tend to think that the objective of each tool is to get theresult. However, in good PRA practice, completing a tool and getting a result is not anend but just a starting point.
Facilitators may ask many questions to the map for example. People may hesitate toanswer to questions when they are directly asked. So asking to the map or other results
without any eye contact with people makes people more relaxed and encourages people
to answer.
By asking questions, understandings by both people and facilitators can be10

strengthened.
(2) Triangulation and sequence
PRA/PLA tools are often used in combination. There are two main ideas to combine tools;
triangulation and sequence.
Triangulation3.3.

Continuous Process of Learning and Action

People will plan and choose their actions, and monitor and evaluate them by sharing
knowledge and experiences obtained through the learning process. All these are the parts ofthe participatory process.
Tools are not only for the first stage of learning. Tools can be used for monitoring the changes

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iand evaluating the achievements.

Repeating this kind of learning and doing process, people gradually will release theirpotential and obtain the ability. This is actually a process of empowerment. Main objective of
the participatory approaches is not to achieve a goal but to enable people to make theircontinuous development process. Participation into a certain project is only a small part ofthis endless process.
4. References

Chambers, R. (1992). Rural Appraisal: Rapid, Relaxed and Participatory. Discussion Paper
311. Brighton, U.K.: Institute of Development Studies.
Chambers, R. (1997). Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last. London: Intermediate
Technology Publications.
Debrabandere, R. & J. Clarke. (1995). Participatory extension tools for planningvillage-based tree nurseries: A case study from Mutoko District, Zimbabwe. Forests,Trees and People Newsletter No.26/27, 37-44.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

McCracken, J.A., J.N. Pretty and G.R. Conway. (1988). An Introduction to Rapid Rural
Appraisal for Agriculture Development. London: International Institute forEnvironment and Development (IIED).
Slocum, Rachel, Lori Wichhart, Dianne Rocheleau and Barbara Thomas-Slayter (Eds.).
(1995) Power, Process and Participation - Tools for Change. London: Intermediate
Techonology Publications.

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Kumar, S. (2002). Methods for Community Participation – A Complete Guide forCo
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Practitioners. Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.

125. Necessary skills
Levels

Personal attitudeand behavior

Inter-personalcommunication

Facilitation tools

Specific skills
and knowledge(Extension)

PerceptivenessSelf-reflectivenessCommunication
Team building (Cultureof sharing)Mediation (Counseling)
Creating joint learning
environment
Presentation
Problem solving
Analytical
Enhancing creativity

Mapping

Agriculture

Modeling

Forestry

Scoring

Health care

Diagramming

Small industry

Etc.

Etc.

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Skills13