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The basics of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) can be found in the educational methods of Paulo Freire, who emphasized that active involvement of empowered local population is necessary for the enhanced development of a rural community. Through PRA, the poor and exploited people should be able to realize their own needs. Prior to PRA, the term RRA was used which is referred to as Rapid Rural Appraisal.
RRA is a social science approach that emerged in the late 1970s. The basic idea of RRA is to quickly collect, analyze and evaluate information on rural conditions and local knowledge. This information is generated in close co-operation with the local population in rural areas. Therefore, the research methods had to be adjusted to local conditions, i.e. they had to meet the communication needs of illiterate people or people who are not used to communicating in scientific terms. Tools like mapping, diagramming and ranking were developed or improved in order to gather information for decision-makers in development agencies. One of the key principles of RRA is the visualization of questions and results by using locally comprehensible symbols.
Main reason for developing RRA was to find shortcuts in the search for relevant information on rural development issues in order to avoid costly and time consuming research procedures. In most of the cases small team of researchers or trained professional carry out RRA in one to three days in a kind of workshop. The role of the local population in RRA is to provide relevant local knowledge for research purposes and development planning. The RRA team decide on how to utilize this information.
In 1983, the term Rapid Rural Appraisal was used by Robert Chambers, for finding out the information about problems, needs and potentials in a rural community. By mid 1980’s, the term ‘participatory’ was associated with RRA. In 1988, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), India, with the support of International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London, carried out participatory RRA in two villages which led to the development of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). By mid 1990’s the term RRA had been replaced by other terms such as “Participatory Rural Appraisal” (PRA) and “Participatory Learning Action (PLA)”.
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