Participatory Rapid Appraisal for Community Development : A Training Manual Based on Experiences in the Middle East and North Africa

Over the past ten years rapid appraisal techniques have gained widespread recognition in development research, where they are increasingly used as a complement to more conventional research methods.

They have been applied in exploratory research project planning, and evaluation in a wide range of subjects including agriculture, natural resource management, enterprise development and health.

In the last five years the use of research techniques variously known as Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), Participatory Rapid Rural Appraisal (PRRA), Rapid Assessment Procedures (RAP), Sondeo, Participatory Learning Method (PALM), or Participatory Rural Appraisal has increased greatly.

The emphasis on rapidity emerged because commonly-used survey methods generally take too long for data to be collected, analyzed, and disseminated to be useful for community members and development workers to make decisions.

The more important emphasis on participation resulted from a disenchantment with information-collection methods which give all key responsibilities to outsiders rather than community members or the community development workers who work with them. With the growing popularity of these methods many articles, pamphlets, and handbooks have appeared on rapid and participatory research techniques.

The purpose of this manual is to provide guidelines on how to train community development workers and community members in participatory appraisal methods.

It is intended to serve as a tool for community development activities.

It is aimed primarily at NGOs (non-governmental organizations) but can be used by anyone who needs a training tool for participatory research methods.

The authors assume that trainers using this handbook have attended a workshop or training course on participatory rapid appraisal techniques. and to use this book to extend these skills to development workers and community members who are responsible for managing development activities at the community level.

This training manual is divided into two main sections.

The first section gives some guidelines on how to organize and prepare a training course in participatory appraisal.

The second section describes in detail individual training sessions, including guidelines on how to help a PRA team put the tools they have learned into use. Each session includes examples and practice exercises.