The Experts below are selected from a list of 4935 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform

Robert Chambers - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • rapid and Participatory Rural Appraisal notes on practical approaches and methods
    2011
    Co-Authors: Robert Chambers
    Abstract:

    Notes for participants in the Programme on Rapid and Participatory Rural Appraisal at the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, 29 October to 3 November 1990

  • Participatory Rural Appraisal pra challenges potentials and paradigm
    World Development, 1994
    Co-Authors: Robert Chambers
    Abstract:

    Abstract Much of the spread of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) as an emerging family of approaches and methods has been lateral, South–South, through experiential learning and changes in behavior, with different local applications. Rapid spread has made quality assurance a concern, with dangers from “instant fashion”, rushing, formalism and ruts. Promising potentials include farmers' own farming systems research, alternatives to questionaire surveys, monitoring, evaluation and lateral spread by local people, empowerment of the poorer and weaker, and policy review. Changes in personal behavior and attitudes, and in organizational cultures, are implied. PRA parallels and resonates with paradigm shifts in the social and natural sciences, business management, and development thinking, supporting decentralization, local diversity, and personal responsibility.

  • Foreword in ‘Participatory Learning Approaches’
    1994
    Co-Authors: Robert Chambers
    Abstract:

    Draft foreword to Schonhuth/Kievelitz sourcebook: ‘Participatory Learning Approaches: Rapid Rural Appraisal and Participatory Rural Appraisal’

  • Participatory Rural Appraisal pra analysis of experience
    World Development, 1994
    Co-Authors: Robert Chambers
    Abstract:

    Abstract The more significant principles of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) concern the behavior and attitudes of outsider facilitators, including not rushing, “handing over the stick,” and being self-critically aware. The power and popularity of PRA are partly explained by the unexpected analytical abilities of local people when catalyzed by relaxed rapport, and expressed through sequences of Participatory and especially visual methods. Evidence to date shows high validity and reliability of information shared by local people through PRA compared with data from more traditional methods. Explanations include reversals and shifts of emphasis: from etic to emic, closed to open, individual to group, verbal to visual, and measuring to comparing; and from extracting information to empowering local analysts.

  • the origins and practice of Participatory Rural Appraisal
    World Development, 1994
    Co-Authors: Robert Chambers
    Abstract:

    Summary. - Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) describes a growing family of approaches and methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan and to act. PRA has sources in activist Participatory research, agroecosystem analysis, applied anthropology, field research on farming systems, and rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA). In RRA information is more elicited and extracted by outsiders; in PRA it is more shared and owned by local people. Participatory methods include mapping and modeling, transect walks, matrix scoring, seasonal calendars, trend and change analysis, well-being and wealth ranking and grouping, and analytical diagramming. PRA applications include natural resources management, agriculture, poverty and social programs, and health and food security. Dominant behavior by outsiders may explain why it has taken until the 1990s for the analytical capabilities of local people to be better recognized and for PRA to emerge, grow and spread.

John T Musumbu - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • the influence of socio economic and marketing factors on banana production in rwanda results from a Participatory Rural Appraisal
    International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, 2005
    Co-Authors: Suleman H O Okech, Svetlana V Gaidashova, C S Gold, Innocent Nyagahungu, John T Musumbu
    Abstract:

    A Participatory Rural Appraisal was conducted in four banana-producing regions of Rwanda to: (1) determine the importance of bananas as food and cash crops, and (2) to clarify the influence of socio-economic and market factors on banana production. Bananas were generally grown on smallholdings (0.2–1.0 ha). Brewing bananas were the most important cash crop in Kivu Lake Border, Cyangugu and Kigali Rural regions. These were processed into beer at the farm level and sold to local consumers or to intermediaries for sale in the urban areas. Cooking bananas were a key cash crop in Kibungo and an important staple in most study sites. Although the Rwandan government has wished to discourage farmers from growing beer bananas, most farmers expressed unwillingness to switch from brewing to cooking bananas or to annual crops. Brewing bananas required fewer inputs, could be processed into products that had a longer shelf life and were easier to market than cooking bananas. They were preferred over annual crops because...

Raphael Abiodun Olawepo - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • using Participatory Rural Appraisal to explore coastal fishing in badagry villages nigeria
    The Environmentalist, 2008
    Co-Authors: Raphael Abiodun Olawepo
    Abstract:

    Fish production and marketing are as old as the Rural communities involved in the lucrative occupation in Badagry area of Lagos State, Nigeria. A random sampling of 200 fishermen using Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques (PRA) in five Badagry villages was used to explore coastal fishing and socio-economic development in the study area with a view to enhancing local productivity and sustainability. The findings show that an average fisherman in Badagry is aware of the resources available in his environment, and can affect productivity levels positively if given adequate incentives. There are two lessons from this study; one has to do with what PRA tells us about the fishing community, the other is the importance of facilitators that have, amongst other things, good listening skills. The experience also revealed that field workers’ ability to listen and learn from local fishermen was a critical factor in collecting in-depth information that could be used for Rural community planning.

Zhu Xiang - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

Elena Bresci - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Participatory Rural Appraisal for diagnostic analysis of spate irrigation systems in raya valley ethiopia
    Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics, 2017
    Co-Authors: Giulio Castelli, Elena Bresci
    Abstract:

    Spate irrigation is a complex and unique form of water management, which represent the main source of irrigation water in semi-arid river catchments. Water is diverted from seasonal rivers by using diversion structures made by stones, earth and brushwood, located within the river bed. The modernisation of spate irrigation realised in Raya Valley (northern Ethiopia) resulted in disappointing performances. One of the main reasons for this failure was the poor consideration of the characteristics of seasonal catchments and local communities’ needs and preferences. Local farmers, who showed a deep knowledge of the river system, were involved only at the level of consultation. The aim of this research was to develop a Participatory Diagnostic Analysis (DA) for a traditional non-modernised spate irrigation system in Raya Valley, in order to involve local farmers within the development process, and to build a solid knowledge basis for effective improvements. A Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) of the Harosha spate irrigation system was undertaken. PRA techniques focusing on spatial, temporal, socio-economical and spatiotemporal aspects of the system were performed with local farmers in order to identify and rank main problems and constraints to development. Farmers recognised the need of more resistant diversion structures and gabion walls for the stabilisation of the river bank. The involvement of farmers also helped to highlight that not only irrigation-related problems, but also flood-related problems threaten agricultural production and Rural livelihoods. Rather than an irrigation system approach, an approach integrating irrigation development and flood risk mitigation is suggested for framing future development strategies.